MotionSmith animation studio concept with a character, motion tools and neon panels.

MotionSmith Animate for Blender

Your animation
workspace, explained.

A practical guide to generating motion, working with your character, and building a reusable animation library.

Explore the panels ↓Installation guide ↗

Concept artwork · Actual platform support and controls are documented below.

Blender 5.2 LTS · Windows x64 runtimePanel order: Motion → Rigging → AssetCurrent development build · Release pending

Motion

Open the 3D Viewport sidebar with N, choose the MotionSmith tab, then select Motion. The main categories follow the order shown below.

Runtime & worker

The worker performs local model inference. Use Runtime to check the installation, then press Start and wait for Ready. The model loads once per worker session. Stop shuts the worker down.

Worker stopped status with Start and Runtime buttons. — The shared status row appears above the Motion categories.

Generation needs Ready and Object Mode. Rigging and editing have their own selection requirements. Run only one MotionSmith generation worker across Blender and Unreal Engine at a time.

Motion / 01

Character

Choose your character’s final armature in the Target Rig field, or select the character in the viewport: selecting its armature or its mesh makes that armature the Target Rig. The eyedropper picks armatures only.

With a Target Rig: generation creates a new Action on the character.
Without a Target Rig: the generated SOMA77 skeleton is available as the motion source.
Rigify: generate the final rig from the metarig before choosing it here.
Bone Mapping: use Load for a preset or Guess from Names as a starting point. Review the chain assignments and save a mapping for your rig.

Available rig workflows include Mixamo / Ready Player Me, Rigify, UE Mannequin, Character Creator, Daz Genesis, VRoid, Move AI, Auto-Rig Pro, Human Generator and Cascadeur mappings. Availability of a preset does not guarantee every character variant.

Kimodo generates body motion. Fingers retain the character’s own pose; body generation does not create finger animation. Finger animation in an external FBX clip is transferred to a target rig that has finger bones.

Motion / 02

Motion Generation

Describe the action in plain language. Start with one clear movement, choose its duration, and press Generate once the worker is ready.

Choose a Target Rig in Character.
Enter a prompt, for example “A person walks forward at a relaxed, natural pace.”
Set Seconds and enable Auto Foot Lock if needed.
Generate, then inspect the animation on the character. Press Esc or Cancel to cancel a running job.

Control	Purpose
Seconds	Single segment duration: 2–10 seconds.
Steps	Denoising steps per segment. Default 100; range 50–200.
Seed	The random seed used for generation. Default 42.
Text CFG	How strongly the motion follows the text prompt. Default 2.00.
Constraint CFG	How strongly generation follows route and pose constraints. Default 2.00.

Prompt presets and multi-segment motion

Prompt Presets supplies starting prompts. Prompt List adds rows with individual prompts and durations; reorder or mute rows and optionally set transition frames. The first row starts with the current prompt.

First generation: the list generates a new motion from where the character stands.
Later generations: once the character moves, Continue Motion generates only the rows that are not in the motion yet, from where the motion ends. Add a row and continue to add that row once. When every row is already in the motion, the panel says so; use New Motion to start again.
Several characters: each character keeps its own Prompt List (Prompts of <rig>), and Generate uses the list of the character selected when you press it. The button beside the title shows every character in the Dope Sheet on its own row.

Continue, retry and vary

Continue Motion: append a segment (or the Prompt List’s new rows) to the active MotionSmith take. An external character Action can also supply an end pose for a generated continuation.
Retry Last: regenerate the last segment of a multi-segment take. Use Variation for a single-segment take.
Variation: make a separate variation.
New Motion: start a separate take.
Transition: how many frames of the previous motion Kimodo continues from when Continue Motion or Retry Last adds a part (1–30, default 5). More frames give a smoother change between different motions.
Redo Transition: generate the last part again with the same prompt and seed and the current Transition value, to compare transition lengths. The panel shows the last part’s transition.

Changing direction: rotate the character at the motion’s last frame, then press Continue Motion (or add a clip with Add to Timeline / Add Clip): the new motion moves in the direction the character now faces. On a Quick Rig character, New Motion starts where the character is shown, facing the same way.

Add generation segments before timing or placement edits. Timing and turn edits, and adding library clips, can end Continue Motion for that take. Preserve the original worker output when you plan to continue a saved take.

Route

Keep Straight guides unconstrained forward locomotion along a straight ground path. For an authored path, enable Follow Route and choose a Curve or selected Empties ordered by name. Use Preview Route to inspect the path.

Obstacle planning: assign an Obstacles collection, set a Goal and clearance Radius, then plan the route. With no Goal object, the planner uses the 3D cursor.
Record Path (W A S D): drive the marker forward and back with W / S (or the arrow keys), turn with A / D, and hold Shift to double the speed. Enter keeps the recording; Esc cancels it.
Recorded timing includes stops. Turn while moving to avoid sharp stationary corners.

Authored Follow Route generation is available for New Motion and Variation. Appending or retrying along the same authored route is currently unavailable.

Pose Constraint

Enable this subpanel to guide a chosen frame of a new generation with a full-body pose or a hand/foot constraint.

Generated Frame: choose a source SOMA take and its Source Job Frame.
Current SOMA pose: use the capture control after posing the generated SOMA skeleton.
Library pose: choose a pose in Poses and press Use as Start Pose.
New Job Frame: the zero-based frame of the new generation to constrain.
Constrain: Full Body, Left/Right Hand or Left/Right Foot.

With a library start pose, Loop also constrains the ending pose. Loop Travel offsets that end pose for travelling loops. An edited target-rig pose is not a supported capture source for this panel.

Motion / 03

Motion Editing

Select the character playing the MotionSmith motion. Each edit produces a new Action and keeps the previous Action available.

Tool	What it changes
Stay in Place	Remove horizontal travel.
Reverse	Play the motion backwards.
Turn	Rotate the whole motion’s facing around the vertical axis.
Repeat	Repeat the Action for the chosen count.
Speed	Retime From–To. 2.0 is twice as fast; 0.5 is half speed. From = To applies to the whole Action.

Motion / 04

Clean Up

Use these tools on the selected animated character to refine contact, ground alignment and rotation continuity.

Foot Lock: correct contacts using Kimodo’s contact data, or evaluated foot movement when contact data is unavailable.
Ground → Adapt to Terrain: choose a mesh surface and adapt the pelvis and contacting feet to it.
Smooth: reduce rotation jitter using the selected smoothing strength.
Fix Gimbal: repair Euler rotation continuity.

Inspect planted feet and release frames on your own character. Foot Lock reduces sliding; it is not a guarantee of zero sliding on every rig. Manual contact-range editing is not currently available.

Motion / 05

Poses

Browse rig-independent poses using search, categories and favorites. Select a pose thumbnail to apply it or use it for generation.

Apply Pose: apply the pose to the selected Target Rig.
Mirror / Blend: swap left and right; blend 0 keeps the current pose and 1 applies the full pose.
Insert Keys / Selected Bones: key the pose at the current frame, or limit the change to selected bones.
Use as Start Pose: send the selected pose to Motion Generation’s Pose Constraint.
Save Current Frame as Pose: store a generated take’s current pose.
Save Details / Set Image / Reset Image: edit name/category/favorite and manage the thumbnail. Redraw Thumbnails rebuilds the generated previews.

Rigging

Choose Rigging for creating an armature or transferring motion. The page contains Quick Rig first, then Retarget.

Rigging / 01

Quick Rig

Build a humanoid armature for an unrigged mesh. Start with a T/A pose facing Blender’s −Y direction.

Select the character mesh in Mesh.
Press Guess Markers.
Inspect and move the marker spheres in the viewport. Use Reset Markers to restart their placement.
Press Build Rig, then inspect skinning and joint deformation before generating a long take. Build Rig removes the marker spheres; the trash button beside Reset Markers removes markers left in older scenes.

Build Rig changes the mesh’s rigging and weights. Work on a saved copy of your character. Clear Old Rig Data removes leftover vertex groups/modifiers from a deleted rig; use it only when you intend to remove that data.

Rigging / 02

Retarget

Transfer a generated SOMA77 motion to another supported rig without generating again.

Select the generated MS_ skeleton as the source.
Choose the character’s Target Rig.
If required, enable Selected Bones Only and select the intended target bones.
Press Retarget Generated Motion, then inspect the new Action.

Rig to Rig

Transfer an existing rig Action using a source-to-target bone list. This is a separate workflow from retargeting a generated SOMA motion.

Choose the Source Rig with an active Action and the Target Rig.
Select a matching MotionSmith Bone List and press Load Bone List.
Review the pairs. The first row carries root motion.
Press Retarget Rig Animation.

For a Quick Rig destination, use a Mixamo destination mapping. Check hand alignment, limb direction, scale and root travel on the transferred result.

Asset

Choose Asset to browse saved motion, bring in your FBX files and export characters.

Asset / 01

Library

Generated takes are saved automatically when Auto-save to Library is enabled in preferences. Search by name or prompt, filter by category/tag/favorite, then choose a take.

Save Details: store the take’s name, category, tags and favorite state.
Apply to Target Rig: apply the selected take to your character.
Selected Rigs / Spacing: apply to several supported rigs and optionally place them side by side. Spacing 0 keeps their own positions.
Add Clip to Target Rig: insert a clip using the placement and blend controls below.
Import BVH: import a compatible SOMA77 BVH take.
Backup / Restore: back up or restore library data.

Sequencing control	Behavior
Append	Place the clip after the current Action; blend frames overlap its end.
At Playhead	Start at the current frame. Later frames of the current motion are replaced.
Blend	Crossfade duration in frames. 0 makes a hard cut. You can change it later in Asset → Transitions.
NLA Strips	Place each clip on its own NLA strip instead of combining into one Action.

Check the playhead before adding a clip. At Playhead replaces later motion in the new sequence. Keep the original Action if you need to return to it.

Asset / 02

External Animations

Set an Animation Folder in the add-on preferences; + adds more folders and × removes one. The panel lists the FBX files of every folder, using subfolders as categories. With several folders, each folder’s name leads its categories.

Free Starter Animations: the preferences’ Download Free Starter Animations button downloads a free pack of ready clips. Unpack it and pick its folder as an Animation Folder.

External Animations folder, folder filter, search, empty list and placement controls. — Choose the animation folder and refresh its file list.

External Animations listing the Free Starter Animations, with the selected clip's preview under the list, Append, At Playhead, Blend, NLA Strips, Add to Timeline and Save to Library. — The Free Starter Animations with the selected clip's preview.

Choose a supported Target Rig in Motion → Character.
Refresh, filter or search the external files, then select a clip. When an image with the clip’s name (.jpg, .jpeg or .png) sits next to the FBX, it is shown under the list as a preview.
Choose Append or At Playhead, set Blend, and optionally enable NLA Strips.
Press Add to Timeline, or Save to Library to keep the converted motion for reuse.

Source files are not modified. Files without animation or a supported source skeleton are refused with a message. A non-MotionSmith character Action can provide its last pose to Continue Motion on the Motion page.

Cascadeur motion uses the FBX export/edit/import workflow and its mapping preset. Check the transferred result after bringing an edited clip back.

Asset / 03

Transitions

Every clip you add to a character (Add to Timeline, Add Clip, or a Continue Motion after an external animation) joins the motion before it with a crossfade. The Transitions panel lists these joins for the Target Rig: start frame, clip name, Blend and curve. The first clip on a character has nothing before it, so the list starts with the second clip.

Edit Transition (the button on a join’s row): change its Start Frame, Blend and Curve afterwards. The motion is re-made from that join on; later clips keep their own settings, and frames before the join are unchanged.
Curve: Smooth, Linear, Ease In or Ease Out shapes the crossfade.
Show on Timeline: shades each join’s blend window in the Timeline and Dope Sheet, labelled with its Blend and curve. A join without Blend shows as a line marked Cut.

Each change makes a new Action and keeps the previous one, so Undo or the Action list brings it back. Joins inside a generated take are made by Kimodo; use Transition and Redo Transition in Motion Generation for those. Clips placed as NLA Strips are not listed.

Asset / 04

Export

Choose Unreal Engine or Unity in FBX Preset, then choose the export scope.

Generated Skeleton: export the MotionSmith source take associated with the active generated skeleton or character.
Target Character: export the target rig, its deformed meshes and current Action.
Selected Characters (Batch): create one FBX per selected supported armature with its meshes and current Action.

Existing FBX files are not overwritten; choose a new name or destination. An Unreal Engine preset sets the export convention, but does not by itself validate an Unreal skeleton or its auxiliary IK bones.

Setup & reference

Before your first generation

The extension, MotionSmith Runtime and local model files are separate parts of the setup. The current development package is not a completed public release.

Installation

The step-by-step installation guide, with a screenshot of every preferences section, has its own page.

Install the MotionSmith Animate ZIP from Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions → Install from Disk and enable it.
In its preferences, install the MotionSmith Runtime (default folder %LOCALAPPDATA%\MSR).
Download Llama 3 8B Instruct from Hugging Face; it is found in the Hugging Face cache automatically.
Open the MotionSmith sidebar, press Start and wait for Ready.

Installation guide ↗

Preferences

Setting	Use
Runtime Folder	MSR installation location.
Llama Model Folder	Local text-encoder model folder; empty uses supported automatic lookup.
Worker Script	Path to the Blender generation worker, when it is not found in the runtime.
Diffusion Device	Default CUDA / NVIDIA GPU. A CPU option exists; no CPU performance guarantee is made.
Text Encoder Device	Default CPU.
Output Folder	Raw generated jobs. Empty uses the extension’s user data folder.
Library Folder	Saved motions and poses outside the installed add-on, shared across Blender versions.
Auto-save to Library	Save generated takes automatically. Enabled by default.
Animation Folder	Your FBX animation folders for External Animations. + adds another folder, × removes it.
Download Free Starter Animations	Downloads the free starter clip pack; unpack it and add its folder above.

Updates → Check for Update performs a user-initiated online version check. Get Update opens the MotionSmith site; it does not automatically install an extension update.

Troubleshooting

Generate is disabled

Read the message under the button. Confirm Object Mode, worker Ready and valid runtime/model paths. The supplied screenshot shows a stopped worker, so its Generate button is intentionally disabled.

My rig is missing from Character

Choose the final armature, not its mesh, a Rigify metarig or the generated SOMA source. Load and review a Bone Mapping for an unsupported humanoid setup.

The worker cannot start

Use Runtime to list missing components. Check Runtime Folder, Llama Model Folder and Worker Script. A runtime without the Blender worker requires an explicit worker path.

Animation plays, but I cannot see the keys

Select the character’s armature. In Pose Mode select the bones, or disable Only Show Selected. For NLA clips, open the strip in tweak mode to inspect its Action keys.

Continue Motion is unavailable or fails

Timing/turn edits and sequencing can invalidate continuation. Imported BVH takes cannot continue through the worker. A library continuation also needs the original source job to remain in the worker’s output folder.

Known limitations

Release date, final hardware requirements and a complete clean-machine installer flow are still pending.
Daz, VRoid and Auto-Rig Pro mappings need confirmation on real character rigs.
Authored route append/retry and edited target-rig pose capture for Pose Constraint are unavailable.
Foot Lock results require inspection on the actual character; residual sliding at contacts or segment releases can remain.
Quick Rig weighting quality depends on the mesh. Inspect joints and hands separately after building.
Library continuation needs the original worker source job. A library backup does not remove that dependency.
The folder names in the screenshots are an example local setup.

For support, include the Blender and add-on versions, rig type, the exact panel message, reproduction steps and screenshots. Use Window → Toggle System Console on Windows for MotionSmith log output.

Contact support ↗

motionsmith-animate-docs

Your animation
workspace, explained.