The main page

Pick an animation, play it on a character, pose it, key it, layer it and export it — all on one page. Here is what each part of the page does, in the order you see it.

0The whole screen

The main page as it opens, the Walk paused on frame 10, the left upper arm picked. Click a number to go to its part.

	Area	What it is for
1	Top bar	The site's links: the Motion Lab, the desktop app, FAQ, What's new, Preferences — and New animation, Import animation.
2	Workspace bar	Download: the animations you ticked, or the one on stage.
3	Left column	The Outliner (the rig as a tree), or Setup: Character, Stage, Import, Projects, Picker, Mask.
4	View switches	The pose tools, and how the character is shown and played.
5	The view	The character in 3D: drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, `Space` to play or pause.
6	Right column	Animate (Transform, Rig, Adjust, Layers), or the Library (Animations, Poses, Characters, Props).
7	Timeline	Playback, undo and keying, and the animation as Strips, Graph or Keys.

1Top bar

Across the top of every page of the site: where you are, the other pages, and the site's own links.

	Name	What it does
1	ActionForge	The site's name. Click it to come back to this page from any other.
2	Motion Lab	A page of its own: one animation reshaped in depth — its curves, its controls, a style — and made into its eight directions. What you save there is here, under Yours. Its own docs page comes later.
3	The line under the name	What the site is for, in one line.
4	Animations CC0 · Code © · Licences · Privacy	Animations CC0: the library's animations are free to use anywhere, commercially, with no credit needed (hover an animation to see who made it). Code ©: the app and its code are not open. Licences: the licences in full. Privacy: what the site keeps about you — nothing you make is uploaded.
5	Desktop app	ActionForge for Windows and Linux: a window of its own that works with no connection.
6	Support	Ways to support ActionForge.
7	FAQ	The questions people ask most, answered.
8	What's new	What has changed on the site. A dot shows until you have read the newest.
9	Preferences	How you like to work. Preferences, below.
10	Discord, YouTube	ActionForge's Discord, and CGstuff's YouTube channel.
11	CGstuff	CGstuff's own site.
12	New animation	Start one of your own animations from nothing. Give it a Name, a Length in frames, and what it Starts as — the rest pose, or the pose on screen — then Create. It is kept under Yours and opens on its first frame, its keys going into the layer Base. What was on the timeline is kept under Projects, in Recover.
13	Import animation	Bring in an animation from a file: FBX or GLB, on ActionForge's own skeleton, Mixamo's, Unreal's (UE4, UE5) or Reallusion's (CC, ActorCore). It is read and kept on your computer — nothing is uploaded — and only the animation is kept, never the character. It opens Setup › Import too.

1.1Preferences

How you like to work. Kept in this browser, for every page of the site.

	Name	What it does
1	Snap switches at once	On: the IK \| FK snap also keys the frame before, so the switch is instant. Off: the switch blends from its last key, as in Auto-Rig Pro.
2	Workflow	How an arm or a leg is worked. Simple: each is FK until you turn its IK on, for the whole animation. Complex: IK and FK always both on, blended with the IK / FK slider and its snaps, as in Auto-Rig Pro. An animation plays the same either way.
3	Show both IK and FK while blending	Complex only. On: a limb's FK and IK controls are both always drawn, the side not driving fainter. Off: the side not driving is hidden.
4	FK shapes	How the FK controls are drawn. Simple: a dot on each joint and lines between them. Complex: rings round the bones.
5	Only the selected limb	On: Animate › Rig shows the IK \| FK switch, the IK / FK slider and the pole for the limb of the control you picked. Off: for every arm and leg.
6	Library folder	Choose a folder…: your work is kept in a folder on your computer too, so clearing the browser does not lose it. If the browser is ever cleared, choose the same folder again and it is all back. Chrome and Edge on a desktop only.
7	Offline	On the published site: Keep it for offline keeps the site on your computer, so it opens with no connection; then Fetch the whole library keeps every animation, pose, character and prop too, and Remove the offline copy takes it off again — what you made stays.
8	Setup's column	Which side of the window the column with Setup sits on. Left: left of the view, as it begins. Right: at the window's right edge, after the tools. That column holds the Outliner too — or the Library, when Window ▾ swaps them.
9	✕	Closes Preferences.

2Workspace bar

Under the top bar: the workspaces on the left — each the page laid out for one kind of work — and, at the right end, what is shown and what goes out.

	Name	What it does
1	Setup · Animate · Browse · Scene	The workspaces. Click one to lay the page out for that kind of work — the same animation, view and scene, only the panels around them change. The one you are in is lit. Each shows some of the page's panels to begin with (below), and remembers its own: what you show or hide in one changes that one only. The page opens in Animate.
2	+	A workspace of your own. Name it, and it starts with what the workspace you are in shows; set what it shows in Window ▾. Its tab sits after the four. Up to four of your own — with four, the + is greyed. Rename or delete one in Window ▾.
3	Window ▾	Which panels the workspace you are in shows. Window, below.
4	Download ▾	Opens the download. Download, below.

Your own workspaces are kept in this browser — and, with a library folder picked, as files in its workspaces folder too: a cleared browser has them back when the folder is picked again, and the desktop app has them when it uses the same folder.

What each workspace shows to begin with:

Workspace	For	Shows
Setup	A character brought in, rigged and skinned.	Setup › Character, Import, Projects; the Library's Characters. No Outliner, no Animate panel, no timeline.
Animate	Posing and keying.	Everything but Setup's Stage, Import, Projects and Animations.
Browse	Picking animations to use or download.	The Library, all four tabs; Setup › Character and Animations; the timeline, to play them. No Outliner, no Animate panel.
Scene	Staging: the camera, props, who is in the shot.	The Outliner; Setup › Stage and Character; Animate › Transform; the Library's Characters and Props. No timeline.

The pictures on this page show every panel (Animate, with nothing hidden in Window ▾), so each part of the page can be explained; a workspace shows some of them.

2.1Window

Which panels the workspace you are in shows: a tick shows one, no tick hides it, and it stays so in this browser until it is ticked again. Every panel keeps its place — what is hidden leaves room to the rest. A panel hidden keeps working behind it; only its place on the page goes.

	Name	What it does
1	The workspace	Which workspace these ticks are for: they are its own.
2	A group	Outliner, Setup, Animate, Library, Timeline. Its tick hides or shows its whole tab — or, the Timeline, the whole timeline with its bar, and its play and key buttons with it. A column whose tabs are all hidden goes, and the view takes its room.
3	Its items	What the group holds: Setup's tools, Animate's (Transform, Rig, Adjust, Layers), the Library's tabs (Animations, Poses, Characters, Props). Each tick hides or shows that one. Every item of a group unticked, the group goes too; ticking the group again brings them all back. Hiding the tool or tab you are in opens the next one.
4	Layers · 2	How many layers the animation has above Base — shown hidden or not, so a layer playing is never out of sight.
5	Swap Outliner and Library	The Library beside Setup in the left column, the Outliner beside Animate in the right. Each column keeps its width. The same in every workspace.
6	Show all	Every panel shown again, in this workspace.
7	Reset ‹workspace›	This workspace as it began. Greyed while it is as it began. In a workspace of your own, Rename and Delete are here instead: Rename gives it another name; Delete asks first, then takes it away with what it shows, and the page goes to Animate.

The column with Setup can sit at the window's right edge instead: Preferences › Setup's column.

2.2Download

What leaves ActionForge as a file: the animations you ticked in the Library, or, with none ticked, the one on stage — as it plays, with everything you did to it. Or a set of yours from Setup › Animations, on its own character, as one file.

	Name	What it does
1	What goes · All · Clear	What the download holds: Current clip when nothing is ticked in the Library, or how many are ticked. All ticks every animation the Library lists; Clear unticks them. With some of your own ticked, Delete shows here too.
2	Include character mesh	The character's body in the file with the skeleton. Off: the skeleton and the animation alone.
3	In place	The animation without its travel: it walks on the spot. Offered when something in the download travels.
4	Only the range	Only the frames from Start to End (set under the timeline), for the animation on stage alone.
5	One file per clip (.zip)	With two or more ticked: a file for each, in one zip — as Unity and Unreal want them.
6	Format	GLB or FBX.
7	Units	FBX only: the scale, axes and facing of the app it is for — Blender, Unreal or Unity.
8	Skeleton	Which bones the animation arrives on: Default (ActionForge's), Unreal Engine 5 (then Mannequin: Manny or Quinn), Unreal Engine 4, Reallusion (CC, ActorCore) or Mixamo. Unreal's is the animation alone, for the mannequin you already have.
9	↓ Download	Makes the file and downloads it.
10	Download set as one file	The set picked in Setup › Animations, in one file named after it (`hero_set_blender.fbx`): its character, then the takes — rest (the rest pose, one frame), then each animation ticked there, A to Z, named by its export name. Each as it would play if picked: the one on stage with the work on it; one of yours with its own; a library one as it ships. With Format, Units, Skeleton, Include character mesh and In place as set above. Greyed when nothing in the set is ticked.
11	The character it exports on	Said before you click. The set's character in the view: it exports on it. Another in the view: "hero_set exports on Mannequin — the view shows it while it writes, then rig-human again." — the set's character is put in the view, the set written on it, and yours put back; the camera does not move, and nothing of the swap is kept. A set's character no longer on this computer: nothing is written until you pick another.
12	Save to my animations	Keeps what is on screen with your animations, under a name, instead of downloading it. A name already taken becomes "Name.001".
13	↓ Character only (rest pose)	The character on screen standing in its rest pose, with its skeleton, and no animation — what a game engine is given first. Greyed where the skeleton picked has no character of its own (Unreal's, Reallusion's).

3Left column

Two tabs at its top. Outliner is the rig as a tree. Setup has seven tabs of its own, each a panel under them.

	Name	What it does
1	Outliner	The rig as its tree: a bone's row picks the bone, the IK controls under their bones. Outliner.
2	Setup	The seven tabs below.
3	Character	Which body the animations play on — yours too — and rigging yours. Character.
4	Stage	A camera for the scene, and pieces to animate against. Stage.
5	Import	Bring in an FBX or GLB — read on your computer, never uploaded. Import.
6	Projects	Save, open and download scenes. Projects.
7	Picker	Pick joints on a picture of the body, or of a hand. Picker.
8	Mask	Which body parts the track picked in Strips plays. Mask.
9	Animations	Your sets of animations, each with its character, for Download set as one file. Animations.
10	Its edge	Drag it to make the column wider or narrower; double-click it for its usual width.

3.1Outliner

The character's rig as a tree, each bone under the bone it hangs from — and the IK controls and poles under the bones they move. A row picks its bone, as a click on it in the view does.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	IK controls · Poles · Fingers	What the tree lists: the IK controls' rows, the poles' rows, and the finger bones (hidden to begin with). Kept in this browser.
2	A bone	A row for each bone. Click it to pick the bone: it lights in the view, and Transform shows its numbers. Click it again to pick none. A bone picked in the view lights its row, its parents opened to show it. A ◆ before a name: the layer picked in Layers has keys on that bone.	`Shift`+click adds one, or takes it out
3	Its fold	▾ folds the bones under it away; ▸ opens them. Kept in this browser.
4	An IK control	"IK: Left hand", "IK: Right foot"…: a hand's or a foot's IK control, under its bone, picked the same way. Dimmed and marked off while that limb's IK is off.
5	A pole	"Pole: Left elbow", "Pole: Right knee"…: where an elbow or a knee points, under its bone. Dimmed and marked off with its limb's IK.
6	follows	A bone kept on another every frame — the off-hand's socket follows the left hand. In the file it hangs from the root.

3.2Setup › Character

Which body the animations play on — ours, or one of your own. Bring yours in with its own skeleton, or as a model with none and rig it here. Your files are read and kept in this browser: nothing is uploaded.

	Name	What it does
1	Search · Sort	Shows only the characters whose name has these words. Sort: Newest, Name, Needs rigging first, or Tag — a heading for each tag, a character under every tag it has, "No tag" last. The sort is kept, and Library › Characters uses the same.
2	All · Ready · Needs rigging	Every character, only the ready ones, or only the ones still to be rigged. The numbers say how many of each.
3	Tags · Edit tags	A chip for each tag, with how many characters have it: click chips to show only the characters that have every one of them; ✕ clear shows them all again. Edit tags makes tags and gives them out — below.
4	Characters	Mannequin, ours — worn to begin with — and the site's. A tile each, its outline green: ready to wear.
5	Yours	Your characters, a tile each: outlined green when ready, yellow while it needs rigging. Click a tile to pick it — Ctrl+click picks one more (or lets it go), Shift+click every one from the last clicked; double-click it to wear it (one that needs rigging opens its rigger). The worn one's name is lit.
6	+ Rigged character	A .glb or .fbx with a skeleton — ours, Mixamo's, Unreal's, Reallusion's or its own. Its bones are matched to ours, and downloads come out on its own skeleton. Or drop the file on the view.
7	+ Unrigged model	A .glb or .fbx with no skeleton — from an AI tool, a sculpt, a store model. You place a few dots on its joints and it is rigged and skinned here. Or drop the file on the view.
8	The bar	The one picked, by its whole name and its tags, and what can be done to it — to that one only. Wear; ⚙ rigs it, rigs it again or maps its bones; ✎ Rename; Materials, the half-lit ball — its pictures and colours, below; ↓ Save a copy of the file (or a backup with its rig work); ✕ Delete from this browser, once you say yes: scenes that use it open with the mannequin. What does not apply is greyed: on a built-in one, all but Wear; Materials until it is rigged. With several picked, what works on many — below.
9	Kept in this browser	Where your characters are kept. If this browser might clear them when space runs low, it says so: keep a copy with ↓ Save a copy.
10	Make a character on our skeleton	Opens a short guide, with our skeleton to download — a Blender file and a .glb.

A character with a skeleton

Here, the mannequin's own file brought in with + Rigged character: it is on our skeleton, so it is worn at once.

	Name	What it does
1	What was found	"Fits our skeleton exactly", and its height. On our skeleton, or on Unreal's, Mixamo's or Reallusion's, it is worn at once. On a skeleton of its own: Keep its skeleton — map its bones opens Retarget, where you say which of its bones plays which of ours — or Rig it here instead.
2	Its tile	Under Yours, outlined green, its name lit: worn.
3	The bar	It is picked, so the bar acts on it. ⚙ only where there is rig work to do (here none: it is on our skeleton).

A model with no skeleton

Here, a fantasy character brought in with + Unrigged model.

	Name	What it does
1	No skeleton	What was found, and what to do: place a few dots on its joints and it is rigged and skinned here.
2	Rig it here — place the dots	Opens the rigger — below.
3	What to do	The step it needs.
4	✕	Hides this box. The model stays under Yours.
5	Needs rigging	Its tile, outlined yellow until it is rigged. Double-click it, or pick it and press ⚙ Rig it in the bar, to rig it.

Rigging it, 1 — the dots

The view turns to face the model and stays there. The dots are guessed for you; drag one only where it is wrong. Here every dot was right, so no dragging: straight to Rig.

Orange dots — chin (under it, where the jaw meets the neck), shoulders, wrists, groin, ankles — are yours to drag onto those joints. White dots — elbows, hips, knees, fingertips — find themselves on the mesh. Hover a dot for its name.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	↶ ↷ Close	Undo and redo a dot. Close: back to the Character tab — the dots are kept, and ⚙ Rig it in the bar carries on.	`Ctrl`+`Z`, `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Z`
2	Where it stands	"Dots placed · press Rig" — or the first thing wrong with the dots, said plainly (a knee not between the groin and the ankle…).
3	Turn left · Turn right	It should face you, standing. A quarter turn each; the dots are guessed again.
4	Height	How tall it stands, in metres.
5	Fingers	How many it has: Five; Four — no pinky; Three — no pinky, no ring; Mitten — a thumb and one.
6	Detect fingers	Greyed until the skeleton is built.
7	Mirror left and right	A dot moved on one side moves its twin; the chin and the groin stay on the middle line.
8	Reset dots	Every dot guessed again.
9	Rig	Builds the skeleton from the dots. Greyed while a dot is wrong.

Rigging it, 2 — the skeleton

The skeleton, built from the dots: the middle yellow, the left blue, the right red. Each bone should run down the middle of its limb — check from the side too. A dot is a joint, where its bone turns; the fainter lines past the last joints are the end bones.

	Name	What it does
1	Where it stands	"Skeleton built from the dots".
2	Detect fingers	Finds the finger joints for you, five-fingered hands only — the first time, it fetches a hand model. Changes only the fingers.
3	Front · Side · Back · Free · Fingers	The view. In Front, Side and Back, drag a joint that is a little off. In Free and Fingers (Left hand, Right hand), click a joint and move it with its arrows.
4	Cloth and props	A cape, a skirt, a sword? Pick Cloth or Prop, then click that part of the model; Untag takes a tag off. Untagged, everything is weighted as body.
5	Show envelopes	The space each bone moves, and how big it is — measured as Bind will weigh it. A picked joint's can be made bigger or smaller.
6	Mirror · One side · Bone axes	Mirror left and right: a joint moved moves its twin. Show one side: the right follows the left. Show bone axes: each bone's axes drawn on it.
7	◂ Back to the dots	A joint way off? Move its dot, then Rig again.
8	Bind & wear ✓	Weights the mesh to the skeleton — in the background, its progress shown; Close becomes Cancel meanwhile — and wears it: it plays the animations.

Rigging it, 3 — bound

Done: the fantasy character playing the Walk, its rig's controls on it, as the mannequin's are. The note says how it went.

	Name	What it does
1	Its tile	Worn, so its name is lit; outlined green.
2	Rigged here	Rigged in ActionForge.
3	The bar	As for any of yours. ⚙ Rig it again opens the rigger again, at the skeleton — to move its joints or dots, tag cloth and props, and bind again.
4	Hold in T-pose (to check)	Shows it standing in the T-pose, to check the rig. View only — changes nothing.
5	Hold in its own pose	Shows it in the pose it came in. View only.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	New tag · Add	Makes a tag, and lights it. A tag can be made before any character has it. "NPC" and "npc" are one tag.	`Enter`
2	The tags	Each with how many characters have it. Click one to light it: the one lit is the one a click gives.
3	Rename · Delete	The lit tag, renamed on every character that has it (onto a tag already made, the two become one) — or deleted from every one, once you say yes.
4	Give to all shown · Take from all shown	The lit tag on every character the search and the chips show, or off them.
5	Done	Back to picking: the tag chips filter again.	`Esc`
6	What a click does	Click a character to give it the lit tag, click again to take it off. Shift+click: every one shown from the last clicked to this one, as that one went. A click picks nothing and a double-click wears nothing while Edit tags is on.
7	Its tags	On each tile while Edit tags is on, the lit one marked.
8	The bar	Greyed until Done.

Sort, and several at once

Two tags given, sorted by tag, and two picked: the Mannequin clicked, then the mannequin's own file Ctrl+clicked.

	Name	What it does
1	Sort: Tag	A heading for each tag, a character under every tag it has, "No tag" last.
2	Tags	Click a chip to show only the characters with that tag.
3	A tag	Its characters, by name.
4	Picked	Outlined in white — under every tag it has.
5	The bar	How many are picked, and what works on all of them: ↓ Save N copies, in one .zip — the files, or backups with their rig work, asked once; ✕ Delete N, with one question. Wear, ⚙ and Rename wait for one alone. Built-in ones are left as they are, and it says so.

An FBX's textures

An FBX often doesn't carry its pictures: it names them as files kept beside it, and a browser is handed the FBX alone. Then it says which, and asks for them once. Here, a character from Character Creator, worn at once — its pictures are in the folder that came with it.

	Name	What it does
1	Textures	How many of the pictures the file names it doesn't carry.
2	Its pictures	Each picture a material shows: its name, its material, what it is for (colour, normal, opacity…), and where it is — inside it, found, or beside it (missing). A PSD or TIFF says it can't be read here: save it as PNG.
3	Pick the folder · Pick a zip · Later	Hand over the folder its pictures are in, or a zip of them — or drop either on this box. Each is matched by name to the pictures the file names — and only those: a folder's other pictures are left out. The same name with another ending counts (Body_D.tga asked for, Body_D.png given). What is found is kept with the character: next time, nothing to pick. Later: the character shows its plain colours, never black.
4	✕	The same as Later.
5	Materials	The half-lit ball in the bar: its pictures and colours, any time — below.

TGA and DDS pictures are read too. A picture that never comes shows the material's plain colour, never black — on the character, in the rigger, and on its tile.

Materials

Materials — the half-lit ball in the bar — opens a window for one of yours, laid out as Unity's material is: the character's materials on the left, the picked one on the right. It doesn't block the page: the character shows each change as you make it. Move it by its title, size it from its corner; Esc or ✕ closes it. It is for seeing the character here — game engines rebuild their materials anyway. Here, the folder handed over, and the body's skin picked.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Its materials	Click one to pick it. Beside each: ok, how many pictures it is still missing, or colour only — no pictures.
2	Find textures…	Pick the folder its pictures are in — or drop files, a folder or a zip on the window — matched by name to the pictures the file names, as on bringing it in.
3	Surface options	Surface type: Opaque, or Transparent — see-through as its Opacity says. Render face: Front, Back or Both — Both for cloth, hair, leaves. Alpha clipping: the clear parts of its picture cut away, as for hair cards; its Threshold says how clear.
4	Surface inputs	A picture square and its value on each row. Base colour: a colour over its picture — white leaves the picture as it is. Metallic, Roughness: 0 to 1 — with a picture in, no slider: the picture decides. Normal map, Occlusion: how strong their picture is. Emission: tick it for light of its own — its colour and strength. Opacity (Transparent only). Tiling, Offset: how its pictures repeat and move across it.
5	A square	Click it to pick a picture, or drop one on it; its ✕ empties it. Its picture's name is beside it. One the file names but wasn't given is amber: "waiting for Body_N.tga". A packed picture — its name ending _ORM, _ARM or the three letters in another order, _MetallicRoughness, Unity's _MetallicSmoothness or _MaskMap — put on Occlusion, Roughness or Metallic goes into each square it holds.
6	Back to the file's look · Close	This material as the file has it: what you changed here is undone (the pictures found by name stay). Greyed while nothing is changed.	`Esc`

What is set here is kept with the character — in this browser, in its backup and in project files — and its tile is drawn again with it.

3.3Setup › Stage

Two tabs: Camera, a camera for the scene — your work seen from the angle it is meant to be seen from — and Scene, pieces at real sizes to animate against.

Camera

A camera for the scene: look at your work from the angle it is meant to be seen from. It is kept with the scene — its link, autosave, a project.

	Name	What it does
1	Set camera	Puts the camera where you are looking from now. Set again, it is moved there.
2	Stage · Shot	Stage: the free view, to look round. Shot: look through the camera.
3	Lock view to camera	Looking through the camera, moving the view moves the camera with it. Off, the camera stays where it was set.
4	Show the camera in the scene	The camera drawn in the scene — where it stands, and what it takes in — while you are not looking through it.
5	Show the shot window	What the camera sees, small, in a corner of the view while you look round. Drag its corner to make it larger or smaller.
6	Keep this view with this animation	One of your own animations keeps this camera: picked again, this is its camera, and posted to the community it is shown from here. Only your own animations can.
7	Position	Where the camera stands, and the place it looks at — in metres: across, up, and toward you.
8	Lens	Perspective, as a camera sees, nearer things bigger — or Ortho, the same size near and far, as in a plan. Focal length and Field of view are one setting said two ways: change one and the other follows. Sensor: 36 mm is a full-frame camera. Ortho scale: how many metres an Ortho picture spans.
9	Picture	Its shape — 16:9, 2.39:1, 4:5, 1:1 or your own — its resolution in pixels, and how dark the view is outside its frame, in Shot (not part of the picture).
10	Clip, shift, roll	Clip: nearer than the start and further than the end is not drawn. Shift: the picture slides without the camera turning, so upright lines stay upright. Roll: tips the horizon.
11	Guides	Lines over the frame in Shot, to compose by — never in the picture. Thirds; Centre; Diagonals; Safe areas: action inside the outer box, words inside the inner one.

Scene

Pieces at real sizes to animate against — a wall, a table and chair, houses, trees — and your own Blender files. They are for reference only: never in the animation, a picture or a download. They are kept with the scene: in its link, in autosave, in a project, and in undo.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Staging	Pieces near the character: a waist-high wall (1 m) and a table and chair (the table 75 cm, the seat 45 cm). Click a picture: the piece goes 60 cm in front of the character. Drag it into the view: it goes where you let go.
2	Scenery	A house (6 m ahead), a tree and a city block — then two sets, Village street and Forest clearing, which put several pieces in round the character at once — then your own files, after the made ones.
3	Map	The scene from above, over the view. The map, below.
4	Edit	On: click a piece in the view to put the gizmo on it. Off: the pieces can't be picked, and clicks go to the character's controls as usual.
5	Move, Turn, Size	What the gizmo does, while Edit is on. Turn is about the upright; Size is the same every way.
6	Clear scene	Every piece out, once you say yes.	`Ctrl`+`Z` brings them back
7	In the scene	A row for each piece, in the order put in. Click a row to pick its piece. A set is one row, folded: its ▸ opens it, each of its pieces a row of its own.
8	👁 🔒 ✕	👁 hides it: not drawn, nothing picks it. 🔒 locks it: a click in the view goes through it (its row still picks it). ✕ takes it out.	`Ctrl`+`Z` undoes each
9	The picked piece	Its own settings — a house: floors, width, depth, the roof. ▸ Place opens where it stands as numbers: X, Y, Z in centimetres, Turn in degrees, Size in percent.
10	Delete	The picked piece out of the scene.	`Delete` in the view, Edit on

Your own scenery. Export a .glb from Blender (glTF Binary) into assets/animation-library/scene/ and run the manifest step: it turns up under Scenery, at its own size, in its own materials and textures. A part exported with no material is drawn in the Scene's grey. Leave Draco compression off — the Scene can't read it.

The map

The scene from above, covering the view — for placing pieces however far away, with no haze and no far end. Click Map in the Scene tab to open it.

The map: the character near the top, facing up the map; the table beside it; the house behind it, picked — its box, its turn line and its name.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	− and +	Zoom out and in, about the middle of the map.	The mouse wheel zooms about the pointer
2	Fit all	Everything in the scene in sight, the character too.
3	Back to the view	Closes the map. Everything stays where you put it. Going to the Camera tab closes it too; other tabs leave it open.	`Esc`
4	The map	The character in the middle, facing up the map; a grid in metres and a scale bar. Click anywhere in a piece's box to pick it — a folded set's box is all of it. Drag to move it; drag the ring at the end of its line to turn it. Drag empty ground to pan. A picture dragged from the Scene tab onto the map goes where you let go. Hidden pieces are not drawn; locked ones can't be picked.	`Delete` takes the picked one out

3.4Setup › Import

Bring in animations from files. They are read and kept on your computer — nothing is uploaded — and listed in the Library under Yours.

	Name	What it does
1	+ Add animation	Pick FBX or GLB files: on our own skeleton, Mixamo's, Unreal's (UE4, UE5) or Reallusion's (CC, ActorCore). Only the animation is kept, never the character.
2	Motion	For the next one brought in. Root travels: walks, runs, turns — the ground movement goes to the root bone, so In place and root motion work. Hips carry it: jumps, flips, anything that leaves the floor — all of the movement stays on the hips. The line under it says which.
3	Drop an FBX or GLB here	Drop files on it, or click it to pick them.
4	Backup	Save… writes every one of your animations to a file you keep. Restore… reads one back — merged with what is here, never replacing it.
5	Room, and keeping	How much room this browser has. Where it has not promised to keep them, it says so — a browser can clear them when the disk is full, and Safari after seven days away — so keep a copy with Save.
6	Under Yours	Where they are: the Library, Animations › Yours.

3.5Setup › Projects

A project is a file on your computer — an .actionforge file — holding the scene: the animation, everything you did to it, the animations you brought in that it uses and, if you like, your character. As in Blender, changing the scene does not change its file until you save it.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	The open file	Its name, and whether it is saved — a new scene is "not saved yet".
2	New · Open… · Save · Save As…	New: a new, empty scene — this one stays where it is saved, and in Recover. Open…: an `.actionforge` file (or a presets file from before projects). Save: into its file again. Save As…: as a new file.	`Ctrl`+`O`, `Ctrl`+`S`, `Shift`+`Ctrl`+`S`
3	⧉	Copies a short link to the scene.
4	Save with your character	When the scene wears your own character, the file carries it, and gets bigger. The mannequin never needs to.
5	Open Recent	The files you saved or opened, newest first; ✕ takes one off the list.

Two more lists show under these once they have something in them: Recover, the scenes autosave kept — carry one on, or save it as a file — and In this browser, projects kept in the browser from before files, with Save them as files….

3.6Setup › Picker

Pick joints on a picture of the body — or of a hand — instead of in the view.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Body · Hand	Body: the whole body. Hand: a hand — the palm, and each joint of each finger.
2	Left · Right	Which hand, for Hand.
3	The body	A spot on each joint. Click one to pick that joint. Drag across them to pick all it goes over.	`Shift` adds; a drag with `Ctrl` takes out
4	A joint picked	Lit, as it is in the view and the Outliner. Turn it with its rings in the view.	`R` turns it

3.7Setup › Mask

Which body parts a track in the Strips plays — so one animation's arms can play over another's legs. Here, a talking idle on a track of its own over the Walk on Base, its upper body only.

	Name	What it does
1	+ Add selected · Clear	+ Add selected: the animations ticked in the Library go onto the Strips — the first onto Base, the whole body; each after onto a track of its own, its upper body to begin with. Clear: every strip off.
2	The track	The track picked in the Strips — click its head, or a strip on it. Base is the whole body, under every track: pick a track above it to mask it.
3	Weight	How much of the track plays over the tracks under it.
4	Upper body · Lower body · Head only · Arms only	The usual masks in one click. Upper body: head, arms, hands, chest. Lower body: legs. Head only. Arms only: arms and hands.
5	Each body part	Its tick: whether the track plays it. Its slider: how much. The hips and the root go with Legs.
6	Length	Whether the result loops; each animation's length, and whether it fits — one that is cut part-way says where, and which lengths would fit it. Then the lengths to pick from — Base's, "nothing cut", "every cycle whole" (hover one for its frames) — or type one in seconds.

The Strips: (1) the talking idle's track, picked — its head lit — over (2) Base, the Walk.

3.8Setup › Animations

Your sets of animations — a hero's, the NPCs' — each a list you put together, with the character it is written on. Download › Download set as one file writes the set picked here as one file: its character, then each animation ticked as a take. Here, two sets: hero_set picked, its Walk named "hero_walk" for the file, one animation unticked.

	Name	What it does
1	The sets	A tile each: how many animations it holds, its name under it. The one picked is lit — the list below is its, and it is the one the download writes. Click another to pick it.
2	New set	A new set, empty, named the next free `setN`, and picked. Its character: the one in the view as it is made — kept until you pick another.
3	Name	The set's name — the file's too, so letters, digits and `_`. Kept when you leave the box or press `Enter`; a name another set has gets `_2`.
4	Description	What the set is for, in your words. Kept with it, in this browser.
5	Character	The character the set is written on — always one, never "whoever is in the view", which changes. Click it for the gallery, below.
6	Delete set	The set and its ticks deleted — asked first. The animations themselves stay.
7	Every row, or none	Ticks every animation on the list, or none.
8	An animation on the list	Its tick: written by the download, or left out — press one and drag across others to set them all alike. Its name: the name its take gets, greyed and slanted when it is the animation's own. Click the name to play it (asked first if there is work to let go, as a Library tile asks). ✕: off this list — the animation stays. A to Z.
9	The one shown	The animation on stage, lit.
10	+ Add this animation	Puts the animation on stage on this set's list, ticked. Greyed — its tip says why — when it is on the list already, or a sequence is on. One animation can be in several sets.
11	How many	How many are listed, and how many are ticked — what the download writes.
12	Export name	For the animation on stage: the name its take gets in the file — `hero_walk` — letters, digits and `_`. Empty: its own name. For the file only; one name per animation, in every set, and the Weapon Lab's too.

The set's character

	Name	What it does
1	The set's character	Its picture and name. Click it to open the gallery; again, to shut it.
2	The gallery	Every character there is to write on, each with its picture: the Mannequin, the library's, and yours (here the Mannequin's own file, brought in as one of yours). Click one to give it to the set — the gallery shuts. A click outside it, or `Esc`, shuts it too.
3	The set's, lit	The one the set has now.

A set whose character is no longer on this computer shows Missing with a ?, and its download is greyed until you pick another. The character in the view is never changed by picking one here: only the download puts the set's in the view, for as long as it writes.

4View switches

A row over the view. On its left, the pose tools: how the picked joints are moved, turned and sized, and which are picked. Then how the character is shown, and how its animation plays.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Move · Rotate · Scale	What the gizmo on the picked joints is: arrows to move them, rings to turn them, handles to size them — each along its own axes. Or press a key and move the mouse, as in Blender — below.	`W` or `G`, `E` or `R`, `S`
2	Axes	What X, Y and Z are, for the rings and for R: Global, Local, View or Parent. A joint always turns about its own joint.
3	Snap ▾	On: a turn goes in steps — 5° to begin with; ▾ sets the step.	Hold `Ctrl` while dragging
4	X mirror	A drag turns the other side too, as its mirror image; both are keyed.
5	Box select	Drag a box over the view to pick every joint in it.	`B`; `Shift` adds, `Esc` cancels
6	Children	Picks every joint below the picked ones too — a hand's fingers, a finger's joints.
7	Other side	Picks the mirror side instead.	`Shift`+click: both sides
8	Bones	Shows the bones.
9	Wireframe	Shows the mesh as its wires.
10	Colour · Grey	The character in its own colours — or one plain grey, to see the forms.
11	Rig controls	The rig's controls on the body, what a click picks — The view, below. Off: nothing on the body is picked by a click (the Outliner still picks).
12	Mirror	Swaps left and right.
13	Reverse · Origin	Reverse plays it backwards — the keys flipped, the root with them. Origin, with Reverse: it starts where the animation itself started; off, where it ended (a true reverse).
14	In Place · X · Y · Z · YAW	In Place: the animation without its travel. X holds the sideways travel, Y the height (off keeps a jump's rise), Z the forward travel, YAW the turning — an animation that ends up turned faces one way throughout.
15	Onion skin ▾	Ghosts of the frames before and after this one. ▾: its settings — below.
16	Follow	The camera follows the character as it travels.
17	Reframe	Puts the character back in view.
18	Quad view	The view in four, as Blender's: Top, Front and Right, flat (no perspective), and yours top right. Each view picks and moves what is in it; drag a flat view to slide it, scroll to bring it nearer. Again: one view. While Rig It's straight-on views or Retarget's two figures are on, one view is shown, and four comes back after. Kept in this browser.	`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Q`

Mirror, Reverse and In Place change how the animation is shown and played — and what is downloaded, which follows them. They are kept with the scene.

4.1Onion skin

Ghosts of the frames around this one, to see the motion's path and spacing. Here, the Walk as it starts: five ghosts before (one colour) and five after (another), every other frame, in dots — the settings open on the right.

	Name	What it does
1	Frames	Which: B/A, around the playhead, moving with it; Step, a fixed grid of frames from the first; Keys, the nearest keys and marked key poses. How many before, how many after, and the frames between.
2	Look	Dither: dots, never darker where they overlap. Flat: see-through. Shaded: see-through, lit.
3	Show	Mesh (off: the bones). X-Ray: over everything. Body in front: with X-Ray, the body stays over its ghosts. While playing: two each side. Teleport to ghost: a click on a ghost goes to its frame.
4	Colour	Sides: a colour before and one after. Speed: each ghost by how fast it moves. Per bone: each bone by its speed, against the fastest bone. Per bone own: each bone against its own fastest moment. Then the colours themselves, and Key colour: ghosts on keys in the key colour.
5	Opacity	How solid the nearest ghost is, and the furthest, in percent.
6	Groups	Pin selection: pins the picked bones as a group.
7	Pins	Pin frame: pins a ghost on this frame, for this animation.
8	Key poses	Mark frame: marks this frame as a key pose, kept with the animation — Keys counts it.

5The view

The character in 3D, its rig's controls on it. Drag to turn round it, scroll to come closer, right-drag to slide.

	Name	What it does
1	The line	The frame, and the name of what is picked — "(10) : upperarm_l", as in Blender. Lit when what is picked has a key on this frame.
2	The axes	Click an axis to look from that side, flat (orthographic): the character the same size, as a plan or an elevation is drawn. Click the axis it already looks down: the other side. From above or below, the view keeps its turn — from behind, the back at the bottom. Drag the axes, or the view, to turn round — from a side seen flat, with perspective again. Hold `Alt` while turning to snap to the nearest side.
3	Perspective · Orthographic	The view with perspective, or flat, from where it is — the character the same size. Its picture says which the view is in. Each visit starts with perspective.
4	How to look round	Drag to orbit, scroll to zoom, `Space` to play or pause.
5	Who made them	Who made the character's rig and the animation on it.

On the body — what a click picks

A circle round a bone: that bone (FK). A box on a hand or a foot: its IK control, where that limb's IK is on. A diamond by an elbow or a knee: its pole, where it points. The box round the hips: the hips. The circle on the floor: the root — the whole character.
Click one to pick it; Shift+click adds one. The gizmo goes on what is picked — arrows, rings or handles, as the switches above say — and a drag moves, turns or sizes it. With Auto-key on (the timeline's ●), letting go keys it on this frame.

Keys, as in Blender

Keys	What they do
`G` · `R` · `S`	Move, turn or size what is picked by moving the mouse — no gizmo needed.
then `X` · `Y` · `Z`	Holds it to that axis of the world; the same key again, the joint's own axis; again, free. (Sizing: its own axis, then all three.)
then `R` again	Turns it freely, as a trackball.
then a number	Exactly that much — `-` for the other way, `Backspace` to take a digit back.
`Enter` or a click · `Esc` or right-click	Keeps it · puts it back.
`Alt`+`G` · `Alt`+`R` · `Alt`+`S`	The picked joints' place, turn or size back to the rest pose on this frame — no key deleted.
`Ctrl`+`C` · `Ctrl`+`V` · `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`V`	Copy the pose · paste it · paste it flipped, onto the other side.
Hold `Alt`, turning the view	Snaps to the nearest way to look — a side, an edge or a corner — once within 15°; on a side, flat. Above or below, the turn you came in at is kept.

These keys work with the pointer over the view; over the timeline, its own keys do.

6Right column

Two tabs at its top. Drag its left edge to make it wider; double-click the edge for its usual width.

	Name	What it does
1	Animate	Transform always on top, Rig or Adjust under it, Layers always at the foot. Drag the line between two of them to make one taller.
2	Library	The animations, poses, characters and props to pick from — below.

6.1Animate › Transform

What is picked — a joint, or an IK control — as numbers on this frame, each with a diamond to key it. Pick one in the view or the Outliner; with none, it says so.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	What is picked	Its name, and what it is ("an FK bone"). Its ↺ puts its rotation, location and scale back on this frame — keyed with Auto-key on; off, the animation takes over again when the frame changes.	`Alt`+`R` `Alt`+`G` `Alt`+`S`
2	Rotation	X, Y, Z in degrees: type one, then `Enter`. Each ◇ keys its number on this frame; the one before the row keys all three; ↺ puts the row back.	`Alt`+`R`
3	Location	The same, in centimetres.	`Alt`+`G`
4	Scale	The same, as a multiple (1.00 its own size).	`Alt`+`S`
5	Move · Rotate	The gizmo on it: arrows to move it, or rings to turn it.	`G`, `R`
6	Local · World	Along its own axes, or the world's.

6.2Animate › Rig

Which of the rig's controls are drawn on the body, and for the limb you picked, IK or FK and what its controls follow.

	Name	What it does
1	Rig · Adjust	The two panels under Transform.
2	Show	A tile for each set of controls — the torso (the hips' box, the spine's and head's rings), each hand's fingers, each arm's and leg's IK box, FK rings, pole and shoulder, the root's circle. Pressed: drawn. Drag across tiles to set them all the same.
3	Selected limb	For the limb of the control you picked ("Left arm"): IK — click to turn its IK on for the whole animation, its control picked — and what its IK control follows (Root or Hips), and what its pole follows (Root or Hand). Every limb at once, if Preferences says so.
4	More	What the IK tool had that has no place of its own yet.
5	Debug · Reset all	Debug draws each chain, its bend plane and its target in the view. Reset all: every IK control, pole and shoulder back as the animation has it, every limb's IK off — and the props back where they sit.
6	Props	A held prop in each hand: click its dot to adjust where it sits. This moves the bone the prop hangs from.
7	Reach	How far each control moves toward its target. 0 is the animation as it was made.

6.3Animate › Adjust

Reshape the whole animation with named sliders — arms up or out, the posture, the chest, the head — and its speed.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Reset all	Every slider back to none.
2	A slider	One each: Arms ↕, Arms ↔, Posture, Chest ↔, Chest ↕, Head ↕, Head ↔ — over the whole animation, as it plays.
3	Its amount	In degrees. Double-click the slider to put it back.
4	◆	Keys the slider on this frame: it then follows its keys over the animation.	`K`
5	⌄	Applies it over part of the animation only.
6	Speed	How fast it plays, as a multiple.

6.4Animate › Layers

Your keys go into a layer, over the animation itself — which no layer edits. Base is always there; add layers above it to keep changes apart, mute or solo them, and blend them in.

	Name	What it does
1	+ Layer · ▲ · ▼	+ Layer: a new layer above the picked one — what is keyed next goes into it. ▲ ▼: the picked layer one place up or down.
2	Base	Under every other layer, always here: keys go into it while it is picked. Its A M S L: Additive (Base always is); Mute — kept, plays nothing; Solo — the other layers go silent; Lock — takes no key, still plays.
3	The animation · locked	The animation itself: under every layer, and no layer edits it.
4	Weight	How much of the picked layer plays (Base: always all). Its ◆ keys the weight here: it then follows its keys over the animation.
5	Merge Down … Delete	Merge Down: into the layer under it. Flatten: every layer folded into Base, every frame as it plays now — asked first. Reset to base: on this frame, the picked joints keyed on Base back to the animation's own pose. Reset layer key: on this frame, what is picked keyed where this layer changes nothing. Duplicate: a copy of the layer and all its keys, just above it. Delete (Base never is).

6.5Library › Animations

The library's animations — or Yours. Click one to play it on the character.

	Name	What it does
1	The animation on stage	Its name; its length, frames and frame rate; whether it loops; how far it travels; its tags — click one to filter by it.
2	Filter by tag	Each tag, with how many have it. Click one to show only the animations with it.
3	Group by category	The grid in groups, by category.
4	Animations · Poses · Characters · Props	The Library's four tabs.
5	Library · Yours	The library's own animations, as they ship — or your own. Each with how many.
6	Search	By name or by tag.
7	How many	"12 of 85" while something narrows the grid.
8	An animation	Click it to play it on the character. Hover it: its length, frames, whether it loops or travels, its tags, and who made it.
9	Its tick	Ticks it for Download, which takes every one ticked.
10	→	It travels; hover for how far.

Yours

Your own animations: brought in with Import, made here with New animation, or kept from the Motion Lab and the Weapon Lab. Here, one made with New animation.

	Name	What it does
1	Library · Yours	Yours picked, with how many.
2	Made here	They are grouped by where they came from.
3	One of yours	Click it to open it — its keys yours to edit.
4	✎ ✕	✎ renames it. ✕ deletes it from this browser — with an Undo on the stage for a moment.

6.6Library › Poses

Poses of the whole body, and of a hand. A pose clicked goes onto the character on the playhead's frame, as joints turned by hand do. The ones you save are listed under these.

	Name	What it does
1	Body · Hand	Poses of the whole character — or of a hand: the fingers take them, and nothing else does.
2	Left · Right · Both	Which hand takes a hand pose.
3	Only the picked parts	A pose goes onto the joints that are picked — in the view, or on the Picker — and no others.
4	Save this pose · Save this hand	Keeps the character as it stands on this frame as a pose of your own — or the right hand as a hand pose, which goes onto either hand after.
5	With this view	Keeps the Stage's camera with the pose — once a camera is set (Camera).

6.7Library › Characters

The same characters as Setup › Character, outlined the same way. A click here wears one at once.

	Name	What it does
1	All · Ready · Needs rigging · Sort	This tab's own chips: every character, the ready ones, or the ones still to be rigged. The sort is the one in Setup › Character. (The search is the library's, at the top.)
2	Tags · Edit tags	This tab's own tag chips. Edit tags opens Setup › Character in Edit tags.
3	Characters	Ours: the Mannequin, outlined green. Click to wear it.
4	Yours	Yours — outlined green when ready, yellow while it needs rigging (a click opens its rigger) — and + Rigged character and + Unrigged model to bring one in, as in Setup › Character.

6.8Library › Props

Something for the character to hold, in either hand.

	Name	What it does
1	Empty hands	Takes every prop out of the hands.
2	A prop	Its picture and its name.
3	Static or rigged	Its mark: a plain mesh, or one with bones of its own.
4	L · R	Holds it in the left hand, or the right. Where it sits in the hand: Animate › Rig › More › Props.
5	Drop a .glb here	Adds a prop of your own — kept in this browser, nothing uploaded.

7Timeline

Under the view, across the page: the animation in time. Its bar plays, keys and undoes; under it, one of three views — Strips, Graph or Keys. Here in Graph: the left upper arm keyed on frames 1, 21 and 41 (R, X, a number, Enter in the view, Auto-key on), every key picked.

	Name	What it does
1	Its edge	Drag it up or down: the timeline taller or shorter.
2	The bar	Left, middle and right — below.
3	The view	Strips, Graph or Keys: the bar's switch says which.

The bar, left

The bar's buttons are icons: each one's name is in its tooltip.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	↶ ↷	Undo · redo.	`Ctrl`+`Z` · `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Z`
2	Clear	Every key and edit on this animation taken off — you are asked first, and `Ctrl`+`Z` brings them back.
3	Make my copy	Your own copy of this animation, with what is on it, kept under Yours and opened to edit. The library's stays as it ships.
4	Share	Copies a short link to exactly this. It keeps the scene's settings on our server; your files are never uploaded. A dot on it: you have changed something since, not in a link yet.
5	Copy · Paste transforms	Copy: where what is picked is, on this frame. Paste: puts it there again — on the frames, and of Location and Rotation, as ▾ says.
6	Global · Relative	How it is copied. Global: where it is in the world. Relative: as seen from the active one — the one the gizmo is on; pasted, it goes back beside that one, where that one is then.
7	Over time	Copied on each frame where a key is picked in Keys or the Graph, and pasted back on those frames.
8	▾	Paste options — below.

Paste options ▾

	Name	What it does
1	Paste to	As copied: on this frame — copied over time, on the frames it was copied on. The picked keys: on each frame where a key is picked in Keys or the Graph. Every frame between them: from the first picked key to the last. The range: every frame of the range — the whole animation where none is set. From – to: every frame between the two typed below. (With no key picked: this frame.)
2	From – to	The two frames for From – to.
3	Location	X Y Z: each pasted, or — off — kept as it is.
4	Rotation	The same, for the turn.

The bar, middle

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Playback ▾	Loop, Follow the current frame, Speed — below.
2	Keying ▾	The pose of the picked joints: key it, reset it, copy and paste it, mirror it — below.
3	\|◀	To the start — the range's, where Start is set.
4	◂◆	To the key before — of the picked lanes, or of every lane.	`↑`
5	◀	Plays it backwards; again: pause.	`Shift`+`Ctrl`+`Space`
6	▶	Play · pause.	`Space`
7	◆▸	To the key after.	`↓`
8	▶\|	To the end — the range's, where End is set.
9	Auto-key	On (lit): what you move — a pose, an IK control, an Adjust slider — is keyed on this frame. Off: a pose waits for `K`; an IK control or a slider moves the whole animation until it is keyed.
10	◆	Keys what is picked, here.	`K`

Playback ▾

	Name	What it does
1	Loop	Round and round; off, it stops at the end.
2	Follow the current frame	While it plays, the Keys view goes along with the playhead.
3	Speed	How fast it plays: 0.25×, 0.5×, 1×, 1.5× or 2×.

Keying ▾

Each greyed while it has nothing to act on. With no joint picked, a key and a mirror take every bone the selected layer holds.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Key	Keys the picked bones on the selected layer, here — or the pose waiting on this frame (Auto-key off).	`K`
2	Remove from layer	Takes the picked bones off the selected layer on every frame — back to the animation itself.
3	Reset location · rotation · scale	The picked joints — and the IK control picked — back to their place, turn or size in the bind pose, on this frame. Keyed with Auto-key on, waiting for `K` with it off. No key is deleted.	`Alt`+`G` · `Alt`+`R` · `Alt`+`S` over the view
4	Copy pose	The pose of the picked joints, or of the IK control picked, as it is on this frame.	`Ctrl`+`C` over the view
5	Paste pose · Paste flipped	The copy back onto the same joints, here — or onto each one's twin on the other side, mirrored (a middle one onto itself). Keyed with Auto-key on.	`Ctrl`+`V` · `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`V` over the view
6	Mirror L→R · R→L	On this frame, the right side becomes the left's mirror image — or the left the right's.

The bar, right

	Name	What it does
1	The editor under the bar	Lit: Strips, Graph or Keys under the bar. Click: the bar alone, the view taller — below.
2	Selected layer	On: the timeline shows the selected layer's controls only (Layers). Off: every layer's.
3	Keys picked	How many keys are picked, in Keys or the Graph.
4	Only Show Selected	In Keys and the Graph, only the curves of the controls picked in the view.
5	Filters ▾	Below. Greyed in Strips: it is Keys' and the Graph's.
6	Strips · Graph · Keys	Which view is under the bar: 7.1, 7.2, 7.3.
7	− · Fit · +	Zoom out · the whole timeline in view · zoom in.
8	Frame	The current frame. Click to type one; drag across it to scrub. Its tooltip says where the playhead is, and how long the animation is, in seconds.
9	Start · End	The range it plays in — click to type, drag to change. Keys and the Graph shade what is outside it; Download can write the range only. On one of your own animations, an End past its last frame makes it that much longer.

On a window under 1600 wide the bar stays one row: Strips, Graph and Keys, with zoom − and +, are in one drop-down named for the view that is up; Start and End are in Range ▾; Global, Relative and Over time are in the copy's ▾, above Paste to.

The bar alone

With the editor put away, the timeline is its bar and the view takes the rest of the page. Kept in this browser.

	Name	What it does
1	The editor under the bar	Not lit: the bar alone. Click it — or Strips, Graph or Keys — and the editor is back, as tall as you left it.
2	The simple timeline	The whole animation, from end to end, the playhead going along it. Drag it to scrub: the animation holds still while you do.

Filters ▾

	Name	What it does
1	Only Show Selected	As the button beside it.
2	Show Hidden	The curves of controls hidden in the view too (Rig › Show).
3	The Properties row	Keys only: every switch in one row on top, always listed — and under it each switch, to leave it out of that row.
4	Show all	Everything listed again.

Here open on Keys; on the Graph it has 1, 2 and 4.

7.1Strips

Clips as strips on tracks, one over another: what plays, when, and on which parts of the body. Drag a clip from the Library onto it to start. Here, the Walk on Base and the talking idle on a track of its own — its upper body over the walk, as Mask set it.

The start of it, close up:

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	The ruler · the range's ends	Frames along the top. Drag either end of the range: Range goes to Manual.
2	+ New layer	Drop a clip here, or drag a strip up, for a track of its own.
3	A track	Its name — double-click to rename it. Click it to pick it: Mask then shows its parts.
4	M · S · Weight · ▾ · ✕	Mute: the track stays, plays nothing, and is left out of the download. Solo: every other track but Base goes silent. The weight: how strongly it plays. ▾: which body parts it plays — opens Mask. ✕: the track and its clips deleted (`Ctrl`+`Z` brings them back).	`M`, a strip of it picked
5	A strip	A clip: its name; hover for its length. Drag it to move it; drag an end to trim it. Right-click it — or its ⋯ once picked — for its own settings, below.
6	Its fades	A grip at each top corner: drag one to fade it in or out.
7	Base	The bottom track, the whole body. It cannot be muted.
8	Past the end	Drop a strip here: the sequence made longer.

The range, in Strips

	Name	What it does
1	Start · End	Greyed: a sequence's range is its own — Range, beside them.
2	Auto	The strips decide how long it is.
3	Manual	You set the start and end, as in Blender: the timeline stops resizing, and the download is exactly this range.
4	Clear	Every strip removed, to start again — `Ctrl`+`Z` brings them back.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Frames	Where it starts and ends, and its length — typed.
2	Clip in	Which frame of its own clip it starts on: the strip stays put, the motion slips.
3	Feet	After another strip on its track: Match feet starts it on the step that puts the same leg forward as the one before — a walk into a run lands left on left. Then: "In step".
4	Fades	Its fade in and fade out, in frames.
5	Modifiers	⇋ Mirrored: left and right swapped, on this strip only. ◂ Reversed: played backwards. Origin, with Reversed, on the first strip: it starts where the clip itself started.
6	Strip	Split at playhead · Duplicate (a copy straight after it) · Delete strip. Deleting Base's only strip makes the next track up Base.	`S` · `Ctrl`+`D` · `Delete`
7	Speed	0.5× to 2×, or typed.
8	After it ends	Auto: as its clip was measured — this one repeats. Loop: again from the top. Hold: frozen on its last pose. (A strip that ends before its clip does: none of these yet.)

Keys, over the Strips

Keys	What they do
`Delete` or `Backspace`	The picked strips deleted.
`S` · `Ctrl`+`D`	The picked strip split at the playhead · duplicated.
`Ctrl`+`C` · `Ctrl`+`V`	Copy the picked strips — or keys, with only keys picked · paste them.
`Ctrl`+`A` · `Esc`	Every strip picked · none.
`M`	The picked strip's track muted, or heard again.
`F`	The picked strip zoomed to.
`T`	How the picked keys go to the next one: a menu.
Wheel · `Ctrl`+wheel · `Shift`+wheel	Zoom about the pointer · along time · up and down the tracks. Middle-drag moves the view.

And the timeline's own — ← → and the rest — in Shortcuts.

7.2Graph

The keys as curves, as in Blender's Graph Editor: drag a key, or its handles, to shape how a control moves. Here the left upper arm's turn — its four curves, W, X, Y and Z — every key picked.

	Name	What it does	Keys
1	Channel	A menu — below.
2	Key	A menu — below.
3	Frame · Value	The picked key's frame and value: type to change them.
4	Handles	The picked keys' handles. Free: set by hand, each side its own (`Alt`-drag a handle does this). Vector: each side pointed at its neighbour — a corner. Aligned: set by hand, both sides in one line. Auto: a smooth slope, which may swing past a key. Clamped: a smooth slope, never past either key — a new key's.	`V`: a menu
5	To the next	How the curve goes to the next key. Bezier: a curve, shaped by the handles. Linear: a straight line. Step: holds, then jumps.	`T`: a menu
6	Pivot	What `R` and `S` turn and scale about: Bounding Box Center, the picked keys' middle; the 2D Cursor; Individual Centers, each key about itself — its handles.
7	Proportional editing	On: a move, turn or scale of picked keys takes the other keys of their curves along — less the further away, none past the radius. Its ▾: the falloff (Smooth, Sphere, Root, Inverse Square, Sharp, Linear, Constant, Random) and the radius, in frames. While one runs, the wheel or `Page Up` / `Page Down` change the radius (`Shift`: finer).	`O`
8	Cursor	The 2D cursor's value. `Shift`+right-click in the graph sets it, with the frame.
9	The keys, said	A line of the mouse's and the keys' ways — all in the table below.
10	Normalize	Every curve shown between −1 and 1, each by its own range — curves of very different sizes read together. The keys keep their values.
11	Fit · Fit keys	Every key in view, with its handles · the picked keys in view.	`Home` · `F`

The curves, and their list

	Name	What it does
1	Search · All	Only the curves whose names hold this. All: every curve shown again.
2	The layer	Every bone it keys, and how many are shown. Its M mutes the layer.
3	A bone	"picked" while it is picked in the view. Its tick shows its curves — drag across the others to set them too.
4	Its curves	Click a name to pick that curve (`Ctrl` adds, `Shift` the ones between); double-click: its keys. Its tick shows or hides it.
5	M · L	Mute: not played, its keys kept. Lock: its keys cannot be picked or changed. Drag down the rows to set others.
6	The curves	Frames along the top — drag there to move the playhead — and values up the side; outside the range, shaded.

The mouse, on the curves

A key: click it to pick it; Shift+click adds it or takes it out. Drag it to move it.
Empty space: drag a box to pick keys (Shift adds); Ctrl+drag takes them out; Ctrl+click picks every key on that side of the playhead.
Alt+click: every key on that frame. Ctrl+Alt+click: every key of that curve. Shift adds them.
A handle's end: click to pick it, drag to shape the curve.
Right-click: a menu. Ctrl+right-click: a key on the curve last touched, there. Shift+right-click: the 2D cursor and the playhead there.
Middle-drag moves the view; Ctrl+middle-drag zooms it. The wheel zooms.

Keys, over the Graph

Keys	What they do
`G` · `R` · `S`	Move, turn or scale the picked keys by moving the mouse.
`Shift`+`D`	Copies of the picked keys, moved — the originals stay.
`Delete` or `Backspace` · `X`	The picked keys deleted · a menu: delete them, or clean.
`A` · `Alt`+`A` · `Ctrl`+`I`	Every key picked · none · the others.
`[` · `]`	Every key before · after the playhead.
`L` · `Ctrl`+`K`	Every key of the curves with one picked · every key on the playhead's frame.
`Ctrl`+numpad `+` · `−`	A key more about each picked one · one fewer at each end.
`H` · `Shift`+`H` · `Alt`+`H`	The picked keys' curves hidden · the others hidden · all shown again.
`Ctrl`+`G`	The playhead and the cursor value to the picked keys.
`T` · `Ctrl`+`E` · `Shift`+`E` · `V`	Menus at the pointer: interpolation · easing · extrapolation · handle type.
`I` · `Shift`+`S` · `Ctrl`+`M`	Menus: insert keys · snap · mirror.
`Alt`+`S` · `Alt`+`D`	Menus: the smooth tools · the blend tools.
`Alt`+`O` · `Shift`+`Alt`+`O`	Smooth (Legacy) · Bake Keyframes, on the picked keys.
`Ctrl`+`C` · `Ctrl`+`V` · `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`V`	Copy the picked keys · paste them · paste them flipped.
`Home` · `F` or numpad `.`	Every key in view · the picked keys in view.
`O`	Proportional editing on or off.
`Ctrl`+`F`	To the curves' search.
`K`	Keys the picked curves here.
`Esc`	No key picked — or, during a handle's drag, the drag given up.

Channel

	Name	What it does
1	Settings	Lock: the picked curves' keys cannot be picked or changed — or are unlocked again. Mute: their controls play nothing.
2	Show	Hide Selected Curves (`H`) · Hide Unselected Curves (`Shift`+`H`) · Reveal Curves (`Alt`+`H`).
3	Filter	Discontinuity (Euler) Filter: flips of 360°, and to the other way of writing the same turn, taken out of a rotation's angles.
4	Extrapolation mode	Before the first key and after the last. Constant: the end keys' values held. Linear: the end slopes carried on. Make Cyclic · Clear Cyclic: the curve repeats, or not (a Cycles modifier). `Shift`+`E`.

Key

The blend and smooth tools work by moving the mouse: left and right set how much, or type a number; a click or Enter keeps it, Esc or right-click puts it back.

	Name	What it does
1	Selection to	The picked keys snapped to the current frame, the cursor value, or the nearest second (`Shift`+`S`).
2	Handles	Flatten Handles: level handles on the picked keys.
3	Cursor	Cursor to Selection: the playhead and the cursor value to the picked keys' middle. Cursor Value to Selection: the value only.
4	Mirror	The picked keys flipped: in time over the current frame, or in value over the cursor value or over zero (`Ctrl`+`M`).
5	Jump	Jump to Selected: the playhead and the cursor to the picked keys (`Ctrl`+`G`).
6	Insert	A key on the playhead's frame on every curve shown · on the curves with a key picked · on the curve last touched, at the 2D cursor · on the picked curves, at the 2D cursor (`I`).
7	Clipboard	Copy · Paste · Paste Flipped · Duplicate · Delete.
8	Handle type	As Handles in the bar (`V`).
9	Interpolation	As To the next in the bar (`T`).
10	Easing	An easing to the next key: Sinusoidal, Quadratic, Cubic, Quartic, Quintic, Exponential, Circular.
11	Dynamic	Back, Bounce, Elastic.
12	Ease	Which end the easing is at: Auto (in for an easing, out for Back, Bounce and Elastic, as in Blender), In (starts slowly), Out (arrives slowly), In and out.
13	Density	Decimate (Ratio): keys taken out where they shape the curve least — a share of the picked ones. Decimate (Allowed Change): while the curve stays within this much. Bake Keyframes: a key on every frame between the picked ones. Clean Keyframes · Clean Channels: keys that add nothing taken out — of the picked, or of the picked curves.
14	Blend	On the picked keys: Breakdown (towards the key before or after), Blend to Neighbor, Blend to Default Value, Ease (`Tab`: its sharpness), Blend Offset, Blend to Ease, Match Slope, Push Pull, Shear Keys, Scale Average, Scale from Neighbor, Time Offset (`Alt`+`D`).
15	Smooth	Smooth (Gaussian), Smooth (Legacy), Butterworth Smooth — the picked keys smoothed (`Alt`+`S`).

7.3Keys

Every key of the animation in one list — Blender's Dope Sheet: a row per curve, its keys as diamonds on their frames, the rows grouped. Here the left upper arm's three keys on its four curves.

	Name	What it does
1	Search · ⇄	Only the curves whose name — or their bone's — holds this. ⇄: the ones that do not.
2	Summary	Every key in one row, with how many. Its ▾ folds the list.
3	Properties	The switches — keys that change a setting from their frame on, as which hand leads a prop — in one row, always listed.
4	A curve	Its name and how many keys it has.
5	Pin · M · L	Pin (or `Ctrl`+click the name): stays listed whatever is picked. Mute: not played, its keys kept. Lock: no tool moves its keys — here, in the Graph or on Strips. On a row above curves, each sets every curve under it; drag down the rows to set others.
6	Its keys	Click one to pick it (`Shift` adds or takes out); drag a picked one to move the picked keys by whole frames. Drag on empty space: a box (`Shift` adds, `Ctrl` takes out). Right-click: copy, paste, paste flipped, duplicate, delete. Middle-drag moves the view.
7	Minimal Grouping	A level that would make only one row is skipped.
8	A level · ▲ ▼ −	The levels the list is grouped by, top to bottom — Action, Object, F-Curve Group, Bone. ▲ ▼ change the order; − takes a level out.
9	One taken out · +	+ puts it back, last.

Keys, over Keys

Keys	What they do
`G` · `S` · `Shift`+`D`	Move · scale the picked keys in time · copies of them, moved. Then `Enter` or a click keeps it, `Esc` puts it back.
`X` or `Delete`	The picked keys deleted.
`A` · `Alt`+`A` · `Ctrl`+`I`	Every key picked · none · the others.
`[` · `]`	Every key before · after the playhead.
`L` · `Ctrl`+`K`	Every key of the rows with one picked · every key on the picked keys' frames.
`T` · `Ctrl`+`E` · `V`	Menus: interpolation · easing · handle type.
`Shift`+`S` · `Ctrl`+`M`	Menus: snap · mirror.
`Ctrl`+`C` · `Ctrl`+`V` · `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`V`	Copy the picked keys · paste them · paste them flipped.
`Shift`+`←` · `Shift`+`→`	To the range's start · end.
`Home` · `Ctrl`+`F` · `Esc`	Every key in view · to the search · no key picked.

8Shortcuts

Every key on the page. A key acts where the pointer is: over the view, the view's; over the timeline, the timeline's. Not while typing in a box.

Anywhere

Keys	What they do
`Space` · `Shift`+`Ctrl`+`Space`	Play or pause · play backwards.
`Ctrl`+`Z` · `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Z`	Undo — a scene piece put in, moved or taken out included · redo.
`K`	Key what is picked, here.
`/`	To the Library's search.
`Esc`	Closes Preferences, the map, a set's character gallery, the Materials window.

The playhead

With Strips or the Graph under the bar, wherever the pointer is; with Keys, the pointer over it.

Keys	What they do
`←` · `→`	A frame back · on. `Shift`: ten — in Keys, the range's start · end.
`↑` · `↓`	To the key before · after.
`Home` · `End`	In Strips: to the start · the end. In the Graph: `End` to the end; `Home`, the pointer over it, fits the view — as in Keys.

Over the view

Keys	What they do
`W` · `E`	The gizmo's arrows · rings (View switches).
`G` · `R` · `S`	Move, turn or size what is picked by moving the mouse; then `X` `Y` `Z`, `R` again, a number, `Enter` or `Esc` — The view.
`Alt`+`G` · `Alt`+`R` · `Alt`+`S`	Place, turn or size back to the rest pose, on this frame.
`Ctrl`+`C` · `Ctrl`+`V` · `Ctrl`+`Shift`+`V`	Copy the pose · paste it · paste it flipped.
`B`	Box select: drag a box over the joints (`Shift` adds, `Esc` cancels).
`Shift`+click	Adds to what is picked.
Hold `Ctrl`, dragging	Snap flipped, for that drag.
Hold `Alt`, turning the view	Snaps to the nearest side, flat (The view).
`Ctrl`+`Alt`+`Q`	One view, or four (View switches).
`Delete`	Setup › Stage › Scene with Edit on, the view clicked last: the picked piece out of the scene.

Over the timeline

Strips: 7.1. Graph: 7.2. Keys: 7.3. In each, the keys above too.

The Scene's map

Keys	What they do
`Delete` or `Backspace`	The picked piece out of the scene.
Wheel	Zoom about the pointer.
`Esc`	Closes it.