Animation
Game-ready animation in Blender including walk/run/idle cycles, combat, mechanical animation, camera animation, constraints, Graph Editor, and NLA workflows via MCP.From its SKILL.md
npx -y skills add arjun988/blender-skills --skill animationAssembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.
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SKILL.md
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Animation
Game-ready motion with clean keyframes. Readable silhouettes in motion. Engine-compatible export.
When to Use
- Character locomotion (walk, run, idle)
- Combat animations
- Mechanical/prop animation
- Camera animation
- Object animation with constraints
Workflow
Reference → Blocking → Breakdown → Splining → Polish
→ Cycle Validation → NLA Strip → Export
Locomotion Cycles
| Cycle | Key Poses | Frames (30fps) |
|---|---|---|
| Walk | Contact, Down, Pass, Up × 2 | 24–32 |
| Run | Contact, Drive, Flight, Recovery | 16–24 |
| Idle | Breathe, weight shift, blink | 60–120 loop |
Naming: AN_[Char]_[Action]_[Variant]
Animation Principles (Applied)
- Timing — Weight through spacing
- Arcs — Natural limb paths
- Overlap — Secondary motion offset
- Anticipation — Wind-up before action
- Exaggeration — Style-dependent (see style skills)
Mechanical Animation
- Use constraints over bone deformation
- Hinge: Limit Rotation constraint
- Pistons: Stretch-to or Copy Location
- Gears: Driver for synchronized rotation
- Doors: Empty pivot + rotation keyframes
Graph Editor Workflow
1. Block stepped keys (Constant interpolation)
2. Splining: Bezier with auto handles
3. Ease: Weighted handles for acceleration
4. Cycle: Copy first/last frame; verify loop seam
5. Clean: Remove redundant keys
NLA for Game Export
1. Action created and named per convention
2. Push down to NLA strip
3. Strip set to Repeat for cycles
4. Single strip active for export
5. Scale: 1.0; no NLA time remapping unless intentional
Camera Animation
- Smooth Bezier interpolation always
- Avoid sudden direction changes
- Match focal length to subject scale
- Camera shake: noise modifier on location (subtle)
MCP Integration
- Insert keyframes via MCP if supported
- Query action names and frame ranges
- Validate bone/object animation data exists pre-export
- Set frame range via MCP
- Export animation with rig via export-pipeline
Game-Ready Requirements
- Root motion decision documented (in-place vs root motion)
- Loop seam invisible (walk/idle/run)
- No bone scale keyframes (engine issues)
- Animation length matches engine state machine
- Facial animation on separate action layer if needed
- Frame rate: 30fps default (confirm project spec)
Constraints
MUST DO
- Reference video for locomotion
- Block in stepped mode before splining
- Name actions
AN_prefix - Test cycle loop before export
- Match animation style to art direction
MUST NOT DO
- Linear interpolation on organic motion
- Scale keyframes on rig bones
- Over-animate idle (subtle is better)
- Export without action assigned to NLA
- Skip root motion documentation
Reference Guide
| Topic | Reference | Load When |
|---|---|---|
| Walk cycle breakdown | references/walk-cycle.md | Locomotion |
| Combat timing | references/combat-animation.md | Action games |
What ships with it: 2 files
1.6 KB alongside SKILL.md
references/
- combat-animation.md1.1 KB
- walk-cycle.md553 B
Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most css styling skills give in 734 tokens
Counted across 512 of the 512 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-09-06
- Animate only transform and opacityin 32 of 512, across 30 files
- Respect prefers-reduced-motionin 21 of 512
- Support reduced motion preferencesin 16 of 512, across 6 files
- Use Tailwind CSS for stylingin 14 of 512, across 13 files
- Specify AnimatePresence mode explicitlyin 12 of 512, across 2 files
- Set initial states explicitlyin 12 of 512, across 2 files
- Use semantic HTML elementsin 11 of 512, across 10 files
- Use oklch for color valuesin 11 of 512, across 10 files
- Honor prefers-reduced-motion in animationsin 10 of 512
- Provide a reduced-motion fallback for animationsin 10 of 512, across 9 files
- Use property names in camelCasein 9 of 512, across 4 files
- Ensure UI animations stay under 300msin 9 of 512, across 6 files
Said here and by no other author read
- Use reference video for locomotion
- Block in stepped mode before splining
- Name actions with the correct prefix
- Test cycle loop before export
- Match animation style to art direction
- Push actions down to NLA strips
Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once. Length counted with cl100k_base; the agent that loads this file may tokenize it differently.