by maylog·Workflow
Images © maylog. Used for product review; image policy.
Bone Animation Copy Tool stands out in the Blender extensions library for building animation retargeting on Blender's own bone constraints, which keeps the setup transparent: every constraint it creates carries the BAC prefix, so you can inspect or edit them directly. It began as a fork of kumopult's BoneAnimCopy, is maintained by maylog under GPL-3.0, and holds a 5.0 rating across four reviews.
Bone Animation Copy Tool retargets skeletal motion in Blender by adding bone constraints that link a source armature to a target. Its panel appears in the 3D viewport's side region and stays inactive until an armature is selected. The bone mapping table is the core of the workflow, editing the correspondence between target and source bones. You can add blank mappings or select bones in pose mode and generate them in batch.
Four editing modes cover the mapping process. Rotation mapping copies rotation between paired bones. Rotation correction applies a constant angle offset for armatures whose bones point in different directions. Position mapping copies location so movement transfers rather than staying in place. IK correction adds a two-bone IK constraint to hands and feet for more accurate limb placement.
Several features speed up building relationships: child mapping links children of a matched pair, name mapping compares bone names for similarity using difflib, and mirror mapping uses Blender's mirror-bone naming. Completed setups can be saved as presets and reused, with a folder for sharing preset files. The add-on also wraps Blender's built-in animation baking for one-click output over a suitable frame range.
Bone Animation Copy Tool is best for blender users retargeting bone animation from one armature onto another through bone constraints.
Bone Animation Copy Tool is completely free to download and use.
Bone Animation Copy Tool lists compatibility with Blender 4.2 LTS and newer, so recent Blender releases are covered. Once installed and registered, its panel appears in the 3D viewport's side region, though it stays inactive until you select an armature. Selecting a character's armature brings up the mapping functions, and choosing a source armature as the constraint target expands the full panel. The current release is version 1.1.5, last updated on 2025-10-23. For version-specific details, check the developer's page on GitHub.
Bone Animation Copy Tool addresses differing bone axes through its rotation correction mode. After the basic rotation mapping copies a target bone's rotation to match the source, rotation correction applies a transform constraint used as a constant angle offset, letting you set an angle so two armatures with different initial orientations still line up. Because Blender bones extend along the Y axis, most cases only need Y-rotation correction. The correction is toggled per bone from a button on each row of the mapping table.
Bone Animation Copy Tool lets you save a finished set of bone relationships and angle settings as a preset, so mapping the same kinds of skeletons later can be handled in one step. Presets can be added, removed, and selected from the interface, and a folder button opens the preset directory where you can save copies or package files to share. The add-on also wraps Blender's built-in animation baking, baking over a suitable frame range and setting a fake user in one click.
Bone Animation Copy Tool is released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later, and it's listed here as free. It began as a fork of kumopult's BoneAnimCopy and is maintained by maylog, with source available on GitHub. The retargeting works by adding Blender bone constraints, including copy rotation, transform, copy location, and a two-bone IK, all named with the BAC prefix, so you can inspect or adjust them directly if you understand how they work. Check the developer's page for current licensing terms.
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