Animation / Blender

This page contains the information about Blender's animation types which can be used with Verge3D, as well as supported playback options and means to control the animation interactively.

• Setting Up in Blender
  • Whole-Object Animation
  • Skeletal Animation
  • Shape Key Animation
  • Material Animation
  • Light Animation
  • Path Animation
  • Procedural Animation
• Playback Options
  • Verge3D Per-Object Settings
  • Interpolation
  • Frame Rate
• Animation Control with Puzzles

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Setting Up in Blender

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Whole-Object Animation

Animation keyframes can be added in standard ways in Blender, by using Object → Animation → Insert Keyframe... menu (or with the shortcut I), selecting another frame on the timeline, moving/rotating/scaling an object to a new position and adding a new animation keyframe for this position.

See also the following tutorial:

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Skeletal Animation

An object can be skinned in Blender with an Armature object. Verge3D support maximum 4 weights per bone (4 most influential weights are selected, others are ignored). The armature's bones can be animated in Pose Mode (Ctrl-Tab), by using Pose → Animation → Insert Keyframe... menu (or with the shortcut I), selecting another frame on the timeline, moving/rotating/scaling a bone to a new position and adding a new animation keyframe for this position.

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Shape Key Animation

You can add shape keys to an object in standard ways in Blender (click on the link for more details).

The values for shape keys can be animated in Blender, by right-clicking on a value field and selecting Insert Keyframe (or by hovering the cursor over it and using the shortcut I), selecting another frame on the timeline, setting a new value in the field and adding a new animation keyframe for this value.

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Material Animation

Unlike with Blender, you can only animate a material parameter by first connecting it to a Value or RGB node.

The values or colors specified by these nodes can be animated in Blender, by right-clicking on a node and selecting Insert Keyframe (or by hovering the cursor over it and using the shortcut I), selecting another frame on the timeline, setting a new value or color and adding a new animation keyframe for it.

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Light Animation

You can animate intensity of Blender lights (called Power for Point, Spot, and Area lights and Strength for Sun lights) to be reproduced in Verge3D.

There is also set light param puzzle which you can use to control various parameters of lights in procedural way.

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Path Animation

To achieve the animation of the movement of an object along a curve, you should assign Follow Path constraint to the object. After this, select the path object (the curve) and open the "Object Data Properties" options panel, where you can use the Path Animation panel. You have to set animation keyframes on Evaluation Time parameter.

Currently only the Z-Up twist method is supported.

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Procedural Animation

Instead of playing back some animation which was pre-made in Blender, you can use Puzzles or JavaScript to modify coordinates or some other parameters with time. Particulurly, the animate param puzzle (based on the Tween.js library) is a convenient way to create your own animation on the fly.

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Playback Options

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Verge3D Per-Object Settings

Each object in Blender is assigned with Verge3D settings, including the settings for animation playback.

Animation settings:

Auto Start

Whether this object's animation will start after the scene is loaded.

Loop Mode

Playback mode: Repeat - plays from the start to the end and repeats, Once - plays one time and stops, Ping Pong - plays from the start to the end and then in reverse.

Repeat Infinitely

Whether this object's animation will be played all over again. Valid only for Repeat and Ping Pong modes.

Repeat Count

How many times the animation will be played. Valid only for Repeat and Ping Pong modes if Repeat Infinitely is disabled.

Offset

How many frames will be skipped before the animation starts.

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Interpolation

The menu for switching keyframe interpolation is invoked with right click on the timeline window in Blender (shortcut T).

All interpolation modes available in Blender for animation keyframes are supported by Verge3D.

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Frame Rate

The frame rate value (default - 24 fps) which affect the playback speed can be changed in the Output Properties tab.

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Animation Control with Puzzles

You can use animation puzzles for playing back a pre-made animation (click on the link for more details).

Animation can also be implemented with other visual scripting blocks - see Camera and Time puzzles.

Got Questions?

Feel free to ask on the forums!