Spinning a mesh independent of its forward movement?

This question is really about how do I create a prefab that allows for this.

What I want is a billboard that will always face the camera while it is moving in space.

I believe I do this with a gameobject that contains no mesh that has a child gameobject with the billboard mesh.

A script I would add to child billboard gameobject would control its orientation to the camera. The parent gameobject would have a script attached that controls its movement.

I am having trouble creating the basic prefab with the empty parent and the child with only the billboard in the Unity UI. When I try to drop in the child gameobject it merges rather creating the child.

Can someone help me out with the steps to create this kind of a prefab?

What do you mean by merge?

You should see and arrow next to the Empty gameObject where you drop the BillboardObject into. Then you should be able to click the arrow and should see the child ‘nested’ below it… if you have that, then you have a ‘child’.

Then you drag-n-drop the Empty gameObject form the Hierarchy tab to your Project tab and Unity will convert it into a Prefab for you.

Hope it helps