by nickberckley·Motion Graphics
Images © nickberckley. Used for product review; image policy.
A complete rewrite and revival of Pablo Dobarro's original Keymesh, this version stands out in the Blender Extensions library for extending frame-by-frame animation to almost every object type and adding production-focused tools like render farm baking and 3D printing export.
Keymesh lets you create stop-motion-like animations inside Blender in a traditional way, swapping object data between frames for almost every type of object. You can sculpt, model, groom, or paint frame-by-frame to craft additive or destructive animations, and animate hair curves, volumes, text changing between frames, or mouth-shapes and replacement parts from curves for stop-motion lip-syncs. It's a complete rewrite and revival of the iconic Keymesh add-on by Pablo Dobarro, with updates from Aldrin Mathew and original testing and media by Daniel Martinez Lara.
A Frame Picker UI lists all versions (blocks) of the objects you've made, lets you organize them and insert new keyframes, and shows how many times each block is used. Keymesh also works as an object versioning add-on for modelers and sculptors, saving multiple versions of object data that you can place on the timeline and scrub through in succession.
The add-on is intended for production use in both 3D and actual stop-motion studios. Append, link, and library override support enables a replacement parts workflow, render farm baking converts blocks into separate objects, and a 3D printing operator lines up a separate object for each frame ready for export.
Keymesh is best for animators building stop-motion-style animations in Blender, and modelers or sculptors who want to version object data on the timeline.
Keymesh is completely free to download and use.
Keymesh is listed as compatible with Blender 4.2 LTS and newer, so it runs on that LTS release and later versions. It's a complete rewrite of the original add-on and has been updated to work on all types of objects, including hair curves, volumes, text, and curves. If you're on an earlier Blender release, check the developer's GitHub page for details, since the compatibility listed here starts at 4.2 LTS. This entry reflects version 2.3.2, last updated in May 2024.
Keymesh objects can be appended or linked into your scene files. On linked objects, all operators except previewing are disabled, but you can make a library override, assign a new local action, and create animations by placing existing blocks in the timeline. You can't change or create new blocks in the scene file, but when you refresh it, new blocks made in the original file become available in Frame Picker. When appending or linking, remember to disable the Instance Object Data option in the File Browser.
Keymesh is listed as free in this catalog and released under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later. For current licensing terms, source code, and the latest updates, check the developer's GitHub page. This entry reflects version 2.3.2, last updated on 22 May 2024. As a complete rewrite and revival of Pablo Dobarro's original add-on, it also includes updates from Aldrin Mathew.
Keymesh supports render farm workflows through its Convert to Separate Objects operator set to the Rendering workflow. For every Keymesh block, it creates a new object and animates its visibility, so the final animation looks exactly the same but uses separate objects instead of Keymesh blocks. This lets you send baked animations to a render farm where Keymesh isn't installed. The operator isn't destructive, so you can delete the resulting collection and run it again after making changes to your animation.
Also in Motion Graphics for Blender.
by Jean-Basset
SMEAR is a 3D animation stylization add-on for Blender that creates and customizes smear frames, including elongated in-betweens, multiple in-betweens, and motion lines. It was developed as part of the MoStyle ANR Project.
by Polyfjord
Simple Audio Visualizer is a Blender add-on by Polyfjord that generates animated cubes from a selected audio file, or animates your own objects to that audio's spectrum, controlled from a panel in the Graph Editor sidebar.
by Alt Tab
Pixel - A Cheat Code For Pixel Art is a Blender add-on from Alt Tab that turns any object into pixel art. It also creates animated game sprites, GIFs, stickers, and entire environments.
by Community
BTracer is a Blender add-on with tools for converting and animating objects and particles into curves. It lives in the 3D Viewport sidebar under the Create tab and was previously bundled with Blender 4.1.
by Polyfjord
Simple Bounce Curve is a Blender add-on that creates a bounce curve connecting selected objects based on their origin. The curve height is adjustable, and you can refine the control point handles in Edit Mode.
by Nataworkstudio
Face 3D is an AI-powered 3D portrait and photo animation tool for After Effects and Blender by Nataworkstudio. It turns photos into real 3D models that can be fully animated, with scene relighting and OBJ export.
by Eat the Future
Camera Shakify is an add-on for Blender that lets you easily add realistic camera shake to your cameras. It works from captured real-life camera shakes, applied to the cameras in your scene from a panel in the camera's properties.
by Lewis Martin
Cinepack: Pre-Animated Camera Moves is a Blender add-on offering a library of over 123 professional camera animations—dollies, cranes, zooms, pushes, pulls and speed ramps—added instantly through a custom UI with no setup required.
by AnimAll
AnimAll is a Blender add-on that keyframes mesh, lattice, curve and surface data not usually animated directly. Insert keys for vertices, edges, faces and control points, then edit them in the standard animation editors.
by Monaime
Animax - Procedural Animation System is a Blender add-on for animating multiple instances. It offers 12 effects, dozens of presets and mesh fracturing tools, letting you build complex animations without math or geometry node setup.
by Charley3D
Lip Sync is a Blender add-on that automates lip-sync animation, analyzing an audio clip to generate phoneme-based keyframes for a character's mouth movements without manual keyframing.
