To make your animation respond to people, you’ll need two things: inputs (your internal variables), and interactions (the user actions that update them).

These are the building blocks of interactivity — they’re what drive state changes in your State Machine.

🗝️ Inputs — Variables That Drive Behavior

Inputs are the “signals” your state machine listens to. You define them in the Inputs panel, and they store values that change over time — like booleans, numbers, or events.

When an input value changes, your State Machine evaluates its transitions and updates the animation accordingly.

You can create four types:

✅ Boolean

A simple true/false flag.

Example: Hovering — Is the mouse currently over the button?

• Hovering = true → enter “Hover” state
• Hovering = false → return to “Idle”

🔢 Numeric

Any number — used for thresholds or counts.

Example: ClickCount — how many times has the button been pressed?

• ClickCount ≥ 3 → switch to a new state (e.g., "Disabled" or "Celebration")

🔤 String

Stores a text value.

Example: UserName — maybe used to personalize part of the animation.