To render a mesh we need 2 components.

The Mesh Filter

and the Mesh Renderer.

When importing a mesh model

Unity will automatically create a

prefab asset that includes a mesh filter

component to hold the mesh data for the model

and a mesh renderer component

to render this mesh data in our scene.

The mesh renderer does not

render skinned meshes.

Skinned meshes are used for rendering characters.

Characters are animated using bones

and every bone effects part of the mesh.

If the model is skinned,

Unity will create a skinned mesh renderer

for the imported model instead.

Information on skinned mesh renderers

can be found in another lesson.

Each mesh asset needs it's own mesh filter

and mesh renderer.

If the model is made of several

separate meshes each will have it's own

prefab game object with it's own

mesh filter - mesh renderer pair.

The mesh filter holds the mesh data of the model

and passes it to the mesh renderer

for rendering on screen.

The mesh filter component

has only one property and this is

a reference to the mesh asset itself.

The mesh renderer takes the mesh model

data from the mesh filter and renders

it in our scene at the position,

rotation and scale defined by

the object's transform component.

The mesh renderer has properties that

define how the model will be rendered

or drawn in our scene.

These fall in to 3 broad categories.

Shadows, materials and light probes.

With shadows, if there is a shadow

casting light on the object we can

set whether the mesh renderer will

cast and or receive shadows.

Next there is a list of materials

to render the object with.

Unity needs at least one material assigned

to the mesh renderer to be able to draw

that object in our scene.

For more information on materials themselves

see the appropriate lesson.

Meshes imported in to Unity can

use multiple materials, if the mesh

model has been setup to do so

in the original modelling application.

The mesh renderer maintains a list

simply called Materials for all materials

used by the mesh model.

Often this list only contains one material.

This materials list should have one slot

in the list for each sub mesh

on the mesh model.

If any given slot has no material assigned

the associated mesh will show pink

indicating that the material is missing.

Lastly, there are light probes.

A mesh can be lit by light probes.

Light probes sample the lighting of a scene

at a point and cast that light on

on to the rendered mesh.

This is often used in conjunction

with light mapping.

Light probes light dynamic objects

such as characters that would not receive

baked lighting information from a light map.

To use light probes,

the Use Light Probes option must be enabled.

For more information on light probes,

including the Anchor Override property,

please see the appropriate lesson

and documentation link below.