Inbetweening

Inbetweening is where the magic happens. You define a few key poses, and Puppeteer fills in the gaps with fluid, physically plausible motion.

The DO NOTs!

• Do not delete or rename anchor markers manually from the timeline. Use the X button in the Anchors section instead.
• Do not set anchors on frames outside your desired generation range.
• Do not expect finger animation. Puppeteer handles body mechanics only (torso, arms, legs).

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How It Works

Unlike standard interpolation (Bezier or Linear), Puppeteer doesn’t just draw a curve between your keys. It understands weight, momentum, and body mechanics to generate motion that looks like it came from a real performance.

• Generative. Every generation can produce different results. Explore variations by changing the seed.
• Non-destructive. Controllers not selected in rig setup are left untouched.

Note

Puppeteer is designed for natural human speed. It’s not intended for slow-motion or time-stretched fast motion.

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Step by Step

1. Set Your Frame Range

   Place at least two anchors to define the start and end of your performance. The distance between the first and last anchor determines the generated duration.

2. Define Anchors

   Pose your character at key moments and tag them as Anchors.

   • First and last frames need full poses.
   • Everything in between can be partial. Only keyframe the controllers you care about, and Puppeteer will handle the rest.
     • Want the wrist at a specific spot? Just keyframe the wrist. Puppeteer adjusts the rest of the body to get it there.
     • Need a foot plant? Keyframe the foot controller. Done.

   Caution

   Only frames tagged as Anchors guide the generation. Intermediate keyframes that aren’t marked as Anchors are ignored.

3. Randomization

   • Seed: A number that produces a specific motion variation. Set to -1 for a new random result each time.
   • Random: Shortcut to set seed to -1.
   • Use Last: Recovers the seed from your previous generation.

4. Choose IK or FK Mode

   Next to the Generate button, pick your mode:

   • FK (default): Generates on your FK controllers.
   • IK: Generates on your IK controllers. Only available if you mapped IK bones in Rig Setup.

   Tip

   Use IK mode when your character needs precise end-effector placement: foot plants on stairs, hands gripping objects, etc.

5. Generate

   Click Generate. Your motion is processed and baked directly onto your controllers as a new Action.

   Tip

   If a generation doesn’t feel right, just hit Random and retry. Same poses, different performance. It’s meant to be iterative.

Compact Mode

Click the eye icon next to the mode buttons to collapse the panel into a minimal strip. Credits, user info, and the armature selector are hidden, but all generation tools stay accessible.

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Anchors

Anchors are the frames that tell Puppeteer “the character must satisfy this pose here.”

Type	Icon	What it does	When to use
Soft	HOOK	Guides the motion toward the pose while prioritizing flow.	Gestures, reaching, mid-air poses.
Hard	PINNED	Forces the limb to an exact world-space position (with Enforce Anchors on).	Foot plants, gripping objects.

Shortcuts

These work in Object Mode and Pose Mode across the 3D Viewport, Dopesheet, Graph Editor, Timeline, and NLA Editor:

• D : Toggle Soft Anchor (Blue)
• F : Toggle Hard Anchor (Red)

Note

Shortcuts are disabled in Armature Edit Mode and Mesh Edit Mode to avoid conflicts with native Blender keys.

Tip

Anchors are standard Blender timeline markers. You can drag them, but we recommend re-tagging (toggle off, move to the new frame, toggle on) to keep the marker label in sync with the frame number.

Clear All

Click the X button in the Anchors section to remove all markers at once.

Enforce Anchors

When ON, Hard Anchors are met precisely. Soft Anchors always act as guidance regardless of this setting.

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Post-Processing

After generation, you get interactive controls right in this panel. Toggle them on and off freely. Puppeteer preserves the raw data and reapplies post-processing from scratch each time.

For the full details, see the Post-Processing guide.

Quick Reference

Unbaking simplifies dense per-frame keyframes into clean, editable F-Curves.

Quality	Behavior
Low	Preserves detail. Fewer keys removed.
Mid (Default)	Balanced reduction.
High	Maximum simplification.

Root Motion Extraction (requires a Root Controller in Rig Setup):

Toggle	What it does
Extract Root Motion	Moves pelvis XY trajectory to root controller.
Extract Rotation	Also extracts facing direction (yaw).
Ground Tracking	Uses foot positions to adjust root Z over time.

Note

All post-processing is non-destructive and interactive. Toggle it on or off at any time to compare.

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Iterative Refinement

This is meant to be a loop, not a one-shot:

1. Generate. Review the result.
2. Add more anchors where it drifts from your intent.
3. Recycle good frames. If generation nails some sections but not others, tag the good frames as new anchors.
4. Generate again. Repeat until it matches your vision.

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Action Management

Generated results are standard Blender Actions. Use the action selector to switch between takes, or use Retry to re-run with the same setup.

Tip

Retry reuses your anchors and frame range. If the seed is a fixed number, results will be identical. Click Random first for a different variation.

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Credits

• 1 Credit = 1 second of generated motion (regardless of FPS).
• Duration is determined by the span between your first and last anchor.
• Best results at 24 FPS or 30 FPS.
• Shorter clips (1-3 seconds) tend to produce better quality.