unity how do I get a component from another script?

Question

I have an animator component on one object and I have to access it in one of my scripts. But I do not know how to do it. Of course, it could be done via SerializeField, but I can't do that, since I can't select the animator of another prefab for my current prefab (since it's not visible to it). So it remains to do this only through code, if possible. The access modifier for the animator has already been configured (public).

Answer 1

I assume you have a GameObject A with an animator component, and a GameObject B with a custom script that needs a reference to an animator component.

If both are in the scene, or if A is a prefab: Select GameObject B, then drag GameObject A into the reference slot of your custom script. If A is a prefab you can call Instantiate(animatorOnA) and it will return a reference to the animator on the newly instantiated object.

If both are instantiated in the same script, you can use GetComponent() on the instantiated copy of A's prefab to get a reference to the animator. Then you can assign the animatorOnA field on B using this reference.

If A is a child of B then you can assign it directly in the inspector, and it will automatically update the reference.

Answer 2

So I assume at one point you instantiate the prefabs in the scene, I don't know which one you instantiate first but you could do this in the script that instantiates those prefabs like this:

// The instantiate function will return the object you instantiated so you can store that in a variable
var prefabWithTheAnimator = Instantiate(yourPrefabWithAnimator);
var prefabThatNeedsTheAnimator = Instantiate(yourOtherPrefab);

// Now you can get the animator of the prefab that has it and set it to the variable in the script you need
prefabThatNeedsTheAnimator.GetComponent<TheScriptWhereYouNeedTheAnimator>().animatorRequired = prefabWithTheAnimator.GetComponent<Animator>();