Docs / User guide

Animation

Bring models to life with flip-book frames or parts: skeletons, posing, the Timeline, the animation library and attachments.

Animation happens in the Model tab, in the Timeline strip under the model. Drag the bar on its top edge to make it taller or shorter, or double-click it to make it as tall as it goes.

There are three ways to make a model move:

#Frames

A flip-book, like the village's water and the cave torches.

• N adds a blank frame after the current one and goes to it.
• Ctrl+D duplicates the current frame.
• , and . step through the frames.
• Shift+Space previews the loop.

Once a model has two or more frames, the Timeline shows a FLIP-BOOK row above the part tracks, with a key for each frame:

• Click a key to edit that frame. Drag it to move the frame somewhere else.
• Right-click a key for New blank frame, Duplicate or Delete.
• Click the + after the last key to add a blank frame at the end.
• A blank frame's key is hollow. It fills in once you draw in it.
• Type the speed in the fps box, or pick one from ▾ (2 to 30 fps).

Onion skin shows the frames around this one as see-through ghosts. Click ◐ on the Flip-book row for its settings: how many frames before and after (up to 4 each), how strong, the tints, only where they differ, and wrap around for loops.

Animated models play in the World view and in the game.

A flip-book and a part animation are two different things. The flip-book draws the whole model again for each frame; a part animation moves parts. On a flip-book model the part tracks below are optional.

#Moving the whole model

A model without parts has one track, Whole model. + Animation makes an animation that moves the whole thing as one piece (bob, spin, pulse, sway). Key it with the Pose tool like any part. It plays in the game too.

#Parts and skeletons

Characters are animated by parts: Body, Head, arms, legs and so on. Parts are listed down the Timeline's left side, each with its own color dot.

#The quick way: Skeleton…

Skeleton… fits a ready-made skeleton to your model's shape:

• Simple biped: Body, Head, arms, legs.
• Full humanoid: Hips, Chest, Head, upper and lower arms, hands, upper and lower legs, feet. Elbows and knees bend.
• Four legs: body, head, tail, four legs.
• Bird / winged, Snake / worm and Blob (squash and stretch).

It finds the hips and neck by itself. Sliders move the hips, neck, elbows and knees, or drag a joint's white dot in the preview. Leave Make its game animations on to get idle, walk, run, jump, attack, hurt and die straight away.

To start over, Skeleton… ▸ Remove skeleton… takes the parts and animations away. The voxels stay, and Ctrl+Z brings it all back.

#Making parts yourself

• Select voxels and press + Part.
• + Group makes an empty part that turns everything inside it together (a whole arm).
• Drag a part's name onto another to hang it from that part.
• Right-click a part to rename it, set where it hangs from, move its pivot, mirror it to the other side, merge it or split it.
• Colors tints every part its own color in the view.

#Part tools

The last three tools on the tool rail are for parts:

• Part brush (8) paints voxels into the picked part.
• Pivot (9) sets where the part's joint is. A see-through copy swings around it, so you see how the joint bends.
• Pose (0) shows the model posed at the playhead.

#Posing

With the Pose tool (0), click a part in the view. It glows pink. Then drag its handles:

• Rings turn it (15° steps; hold Shift for 1°).
• Arrows move it.
• Cubes stretch it.

Each drag sets a keyframe by itself. A few things make posing faster:

• Grab a limb and drag. Drag a hand or a foot and the arm or leg bends to reach the mouse.
• Mirror posing (Pose ▾) poses the twin on the other side at the same time.
• Feet stay on the ground (Pose ▾, on by default). Move the hips and the knees bend, so a crouch is one drag.
• Ready-made poses (Pose ▾): standing, T-pose, fighting stance, casting, victory, sitting and more, as a starting point.
• Ghosts show the previous keyframe's pose in white and the next one's in blue. Only the parts that clearly move show. ◐ Onion on the Pose row turns them on or off, and ⚙ next to it opens the same settings as the flip-book's (also in ⋯ ▸ Onion skin…).
• Copy a whole pose and paste it mirrored halfway through: a walk cycle in two clicks.
• Follow-through ▾ makes the picked part trail the part it hangs from by 1 to 3 frames, like a tail, ears or a cape. Pick another amount to replace it, or 0 frames to clear it.

#The Timeline

Pick an animation in Animation ▾, set its Length and Loop, and press ▶ Play. The playhead moves in frames, 20 per second.

• Keys show as diamonds on each part's row. Drag one to retime it.
• The All parts row at the top marks every pose. Drag it to retime the whole pose.
• Right-click a key to pick its ease: Smooth, Linear, Hold, Ease in, Ease out, Overshoot or Bounce.
• Shift-drag a box to pick several keys at once.
• ● Auto-key is on by default. Turn it off to try poses freely, then press K to key.
• Mouse wheel zooms; drag empty track space to slide along; Fit shows it all.
• The eye and lock at the end of a row hide or lock a part.
• Drag the line between the part names and the keys to make the names column wider or narrower.
• A motion trail shows the path a hand or foot travels, so jerky spots stand out.

Keys with the Pose tool:

#More in the ⋯ menu

• New from template: Wave, Nod, Bow, Cheer, Dance, Hop, Spin and more.
• Copy animations from another model (keys go to parts with the same names).
• Mix in another animation: a walk that waves, a run that holds a sword up.
• Stretch to length, Insert / Remove time, Mirror left ↔ right, Reverse.
• Curves: a graph of the part's turn over time, like an animator's graph editor.
• Save as a picture strip: 8 frames side by side in one PNG.
• Play it in the World: plays it on every copy of the model in your level.

Speed ▾ (¼× to 4×) is saved with the animation, and the game plays it at that speed too.

#Events

The Events row under All parts holds flags: a sound, a puff of particles or a screen shake that happens when the animation gets there. Add one with Event ▾ or by right-clicking the row. Sounds play while you preview.

#The animation library

+ From library… adds ready-made animations fitted to your model's skeleton:

• Moving: idle, walk, run, sneak, crouch, dash, swim, climb, push.
• Jumping: jump, fall, land.
• Fighting: sword slashes, thrust, punch, kick, spin attack, block, bow shot, throw.
• Magic: cast, charge, point.
• Getting hit: hurt, knocked back, two deaths, dodge roll.
• Emotes: wave, celebrate, sit, pick up, look around, talk, dance.

Four legs, birds, snakes and blobs have their own, like gallop, howl, flap, slither and bounce. Pick one to watch it on your model, change Speed and Strength, then Add. After that it's an ordinary animation to change key by key. Add the game set makes the seven game animations at once.

#My animations

Made one you like? ⋯ ▸ Save to my library… keeps it on your computer for every project. On any other model, + From library… lists yours first under ★ My animations.

They fit other models like the built-in ones do:

• The same skeleton gets every part's keys.
• A Full humanoid animation fits a Simple biped, and the other way around.
• Other skeletons match by part name.
• Moves grow or shrink with the model's height.

Export… saves one animation, or all of them, as a .vxanim file to share. Import… loads one. Poses can be saved too: Pose ▾ ▸ Save this pose to the library.

#Animations in the game

Animations named idle, walk, run, jump, attack and hurt play by themselves, on the player and on any placed model with parts:

• Enemies stride as they walk, run while they chase you, swing when they attack and flinch when hit.
• Switching between animations blends smoothly.
• An attack made while walking plays on the upper body only, so the legs keep walking.

Any other animation (a wave, a bow, a dance) plays from Action ▸ Play animation, or from code:

self.play("wave")

#Attachments

Attach… in the Timeline strip adds attachment points where other models are held or worn: a sword in the right hand, a shield on the left, a hat on the head, a backpack on the back.

• Auto: hands, head, back adds the usual four.
• Each point shows as a small diamond in the view. Drag its arrows and rings to place it.
• 📍 Place puts a point right where you click on the model.
• Mirror ⇄ copies a right-hand point to the left hand.

Attached models move with their part as you pose and in the game. A character's Right hand holds the player's weapon or tool. From code:

player.attach("Sword")
self.attach("Party hat", "Head")
self.detach("Head")

For every tool and trick on one page, use Help ▸ Modeling & Animation Guide in the app.

Next: Building levels.