Animations the noob nightmare

Unity has two animation systems: Legacy and Mecanim. Mecanim was introduced in Unity 4. The best way to start is to read the documentation and watch some tutorial videos. Unity provides very good documentation and tutorial projects. Try them out first; if you have more specific questions afterward, Unity Answers is a good place to ask them.

For Mecanim:

http://video.unity3d.com/video/7362044/unity-40-mecanim-animation-tutorial

http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/MecanimAnimationSystem.html

In brief, Mecanim (w$$anonymous$$ch requires Unity 4+) is in many ways a much simplified and more flexible animation system. Generally speaking, you can use any predefined bone structure and retarget any animation to it. Unity provides several animations in a free starter pack, and a comprehensive example project. You can download both from the Asset Store. With Mecanim you should be able to apply your golem animations to another model that uses a different bone structure.

For Legacy animation:

http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/class-Animation.html

The legacy animation system doesn't support retargeting. You can only apply your golem animations to another model that uses the exact same bone structure. But if you're still using Unity 3, t$$anonymous$$s is your only option. Also, many t$$anonymous$$rd-party components are designed to work only with the legacy animation system.