Clips, sequences & layers

A Character project holds many clips, and the inspector's lower sections let you organize them, preview transitions between them, blend them additively, and clean up their root motion. This article covers those four panels. It builds on keyframes and the timeline.

Managing clips#

The clip manager sits in the inspector. A dropdown selects the current clip, and four buttons manage the set:

• New — create a new empty clip and make it current
• Duplicate (Mod+D) — copy the current clip as a new editable clip
• Rename — rename the current clip
• Delete — remove the current clip (the editor keeps at least one)

A fresh project starts with a T-Pose clip and a Wave sample clip. The current clip is the one the timeline, dope sheet, and curve editor all edit.

Loading clips from the library#

The editor ships a clip library panel of ready-made animation clips. Loading one adds it to your project as a new clip you can then retime, layer, or sequence — a quick way to start from an idle or a walk rather than keying from scratch. (This is the animation-clip library, distinct from the 3D-asset Asset Library docked at the bottom of the Studio.)

There are 16 clips, grouped into two categories:

Each clip carries its own loop flag. Most are loops, meant to run continuously; Jump, Turn Left 90, and Turn Right 90 are one-shots — they play once and stop, so treat them as transitions rather than states when you build a sequence or drive them from an engine.

Sequences with crossfades#

The Sequence panel chains clips into a longer performance — for example idle → walk → run — with smooth transitions. You build an ordered step list:

• Add step appends the selected clip to the sequence
• Each step has a loop count (how many times that clip repeats) and a crossfade into it in seconds (default 0.25 s; the first step has no fade-in)
• Reorder steps up/down or remove them

A block bar visualizes the whole sequence with a live playhead; click a block or a step row to jump to it. Play sequence runs it through an animation mixer that performs the crossfades. Sequencing is non-destructive — it plays your clips back-to-back without altering them, and the step list is saved with the project.

Additive layers#

The Additive Layers panel stacks clips on top of the current clip. The current clip is the base; you add other clips as additive layers that contribute motion relative to their own first frame. Think of layering a breathing or head-shake clip over a base walk.

• Add layer stacks the selected clip on the current one
• Each layer has a weight slider (0–1) that previews live — while scrubbing and during playback
• Flatten bakes the base plus all its layers down into a new standard clip, which then exports like any other clip

Layers are stored per base clip in the project file, so a base can carry its own layer stack.

Root-motion and loop tools#

The Root Motion & Loop panel offers three one-click, fully undoable transforms on the current clip:

• Make in-place — removes the horizontal Hips travel (keeping the vertical bob) and reports the removed velocity in m/s. Useful for turning a traveling walk into an in-place loop for engines that drive locomotion themselves.
• Extract root motion — makes the clip in-place and preserves the removed travel as a rootMotion block that rides along on export, so an engine can re-apply it to its own root.
• Loop-fix — blends the last N% of the clip (default 15%) back into the first key so the loop seam closes, and reports the residual mismatch. If the clip already loops cleanly it says so and changes nothing.

Each tool applies only to the current clip. Because they're undoable, it's safe to try one and revert.

Where to go next#

• Exporting animations — export clips and rigs as JSON, GLB, or a batch ZIP.
• Keyframes, dope sheet & curves — edit the keys inside each clip.