Blender "Animation Layers" made Easy (no addons, just NLA)

[@NB_nobody]

I can't believe this three-year-old video has everything I need to know about the NLA editor. I've watched dozens of different channels, including the latest ones, and simply couldn't find such a deep explanation on this topic. I think Blender should hire you to create official videos for every new release and feature. God bless you!

[@RG-ef8vm]

I've been learning blender over about the last 2-3 months, and almost EVERY "tutorial" is not a tutorial, but a demonstration that identifies keystrokes as the host progresses through a project. YOU, however, are a true tutor. You don't just demonstrate, you introduce, explain, demonstrate, and discuss. You do an excellent job. Thank you.

[@CGDive]

Thank you too. Appreciate the nice comment and I am glad the video was useful!

"Cyclic strip time" is for cyclic animations, like a walk cycle. You create one cycle and make it a strip. Now if you resize the strip, the single walk cycle will play slower or faster. But if you turn on "cyclic strip time", then resizing the strip will not change the speed, but rather how many times the cycle is repeated.

[@judedouch7838]

Have a look on this simple example for a better understanding of what Cyclic Strip Time does in NLA here : kzbin.info/www/bejne/oZnKdpecp8ajsJo

[@ZzZz-dr7uq]

thanks

[@PoMkAc27]

@@judedouch7838 it’s not about cyclic strip time but about animated strip time

[@PoMkAc27]

Bullshit

[@RafaWasHere]

Thank you for making this great tutorial. A lot of courses skip this because they say its too complicated but this explains it so well and simply.

[@CGDive]

Glad it was helpful and thanks for the contribution :)

[@billyreynolds2707]

This is the best presentation on NLA, Action Editor on KZbin. Thank you for this!

[@CGDive]

Wow, thank you!

[@ugoangeletti3556]

Honestly who needs art school when you have online tutorials like these... Amazing tutorial!

[@CGDive]

Thanks man. Schools have some positives. But they are indeed overpriced and not very efficient.

[@TheNerd]

yeah in theory professional advice should be a good thing. i guess art schools is more for learning a lot of the theory stuff like when you want to create a human charakter you need to know a lot about anatomy. the number of drawn faces i saw with wrong proportions (most commonly ears / eyes are too high / low) is insane. reaaaally good art but ears drawn at the height of the temporomandibular joint... nah

[@efsfsesegsgesg8775]

true

[@BrianLife]

Yes!! Props! So good!

[@Soturi_the_paladin]

everyone I know who went to art school does a normal job somewhere else, aside from 2 tattooers and one of them sucks. Everybody else I know who is a professional artists in any random medium didn't go to art school lol.

[@AroundTheHouseShow]

I’ve come back to CGDive whenever I need a refresher on the NLA and the knowledge and information in these videos have saved me many times. Very grateful. Keep up the fantastic work…

[@CGDive]

Thanks for the positive feedback! Really appreciate it!

[@combeechan]

This is probably the most concise and informative NLA editor video I've come across. Thank you very much for taking the time to carefully compose this lesson.

[@CGDive]

Glad it was helpful!

[@martyfouts771]

Nice, concise, and thorough. Only one tiny thing missing: You can reorder tracks by hovering over a track, right clicking, and selecting a reordering action from the menu. (Up, Down, To Top or Top Bottom)

[@RenoSydney]

Thank you for demystifying the NLA and action editors, and continually making high quality Blender tutorials!

[@CGDive]

My pleasure! Thanks for your support!

[@joechristo2]

20:58 it doesn’t override it because it has no keyframes and the layers blend from bottom to top

[@unskillednaive416]

I really appreciate your work...you are only one who talks about Blender Animation tools in detail...... Keep going brother👍👍👍👍

[@CGDive]

Thanks man!

[@d3x84]

@@CGDive That Tutorial was awesome. i really fell in love with blender animations and that cleared up a lot ofr me

[@CGDive]

@@d3x84 Nice :)

[@doctari1061]

You asked about the “Cyclic Strip Time”. It’s my understanding that this is for things like flashing lights on and off. If you create a single curve that switches the emission on an object from “zero to 10” then you only set this once from say Frame 1 being zero and Frame 3 being 10, the when you select Cyclic Strip Time, then Blender creates a sine-wave that cycles up and down repeating every 3 frames until the end of the strip. It save you needing to create all those inserts across the entire strip. The first “blink” of the light is automatically repeated at equal intervals over the length of the strip. At least that’s how I understand it. It works like that in the door sheet so I think they are just adding the same functionality here in the NLA. I haven’t tried it myself, but it’s what I assume is being provided. Cheers

[@llYuki0okami]

A little tip fo begginers: in situations where we have several ActionStrips stacked on top of each other that affect each other. If we click on, for example, the middle one and want to edit it (TAB), our character is no longer influenced by ActionStrips that are above the one we are currently editing. It is very inconvenient when, for example, one ActionStrip is responsible for placing our RootBone and the other for the movement of the hand, and when editing the movement of the hand, the character teleports to a different place because the ActionStrip with RootBone stops working. There are two solutions; One thing is to move the edited ActionStrip to the top in the NLA, for some reason editing the ActionStrip the ones below still work.. The second is to click on the star next to the name of the Track on which the ActionStrip you want to edit is located, and then edit it, then most of the effects remain, for some reason ... remember to uncheck the star after editing.

[@demiancoorey2394]

First class tutorial. The most thorough I have seen

[@RealityXHD]

I've never seen nla or even any other feature of blender well explained like this! Good job! Keep it up!

[@BasedMando]

3:10 Rotating 360 degrees on Y-axis with XYZ Euler was a chad move bro, LOL! Love your videos. Can't thank you enough for the amazing value you've added to my art!

[@CGDive]

haha, thanks! I am super happy you find it useful.

[@0fficez0mbie]

Thank you for such a detailed and well structured tutorial. I love that you sign-post the areas that caused you confusion at first, to save us from having the same troubles.

[@etta777]

Blender Foundation needs to put your tutorials to some official learning course. Very quality materials, man! Thanks for your work!

[@CGDive]

haha, thanks! :)

[@salamota]

Finally, I understand NLA & action, thank you

[@CGDive]

Very cool! Thanks for watching!

[@3d_toys]

All I'm gonna say is just thank you. You're right, NLA is a pain when you try to figure it out by yourself. As somebody who's also creating video tutorials I should say this is very well explained

[@CGDive]

Thank you!

[@massivetree7937]

This is by far the best information I've found so far on NLA in Blender.

[@mikemurphy8744]

Great explanation! It's a hard concept to understand - now I finally get it. I've literally watched hundreds of tutorials and I appreciate the time that it took to do this one. Well though out and executed.

[@HeinerS]

Even in August '22 still the best video on NLA. Subscribed.

[@feldrosen]

Extremely helpful! Thank you.

[@CGDive]

Glad it was helpful and thank you for the your contribution to the cause! :D

[@resaliputra4910]

I thought I knew quite a lot about NLA but there were still some great nuggets in this video and super well presented that re-learning the stuff I already knew didn't feel boring.

[@ShuyaTheDark]

This feels like an eye-opening experience. Suddenly the mess I had in the NLA and Action Editor makes sense.

[@CGDive]

Awesome!

[@Val5589-5]

Thank you for all the videos you made until now about animations and rigging. I had the sentiment that I was in a course, specially with the mind map of the other video, the content is a level of professional. A big thank to you.

[@CGDive]

Hi and thanks! The rigify videos are a course. The new blender for games series is also a course. Enjoy!

[@bscott2hot]

Superb! I've been confused about this for a very long time. Thanks for the concise video. You're a very good teacher.

[@RealTDragon]

facts

[@kailashshahi-t7u]

I am a beginner with Blender, and your videos are helping me a lot to understand things. Thank you so much!

[@CGDive]

I know how hard it is to learn 3D, so I'm here to help! :)

[@TheresThatMan]

Thank you for this video - this is the best explainer of the action / NLA workflow in blender that I have seen. Solved a half-day-long problem just by watching and understanding this video.

[@CGDive]

Awesome!

[@michaberg8403]

The best video for this complicated topic.Thank you very much

[@MeerkatLaru]

You can tweak multiple Tracks in a single time (select multiple and then press tab), and it works fine. I use it a lot for animations. :)

[@CGDive]

Cool tip. Thanks!!

[@dancingshapes]

what do you mean by tweaking multiple tracks? by default the NLA lets you always tweak only the active strip, and if you tweak the bottom strip it will show only the bottom strip. Or do you refer to the track properties?

[@MeerkatLaru]

@@dancingshapes Select from each character (2 characters in scene) a nla-strip and press tabulator-key. Now you can animate both characters without going again and again into the edit modus of the strips. I hope it was understandable.

[@dancingshapes]

@@MeerkatLaru Aaah ok, I thought you meant multiple strips of the same character

[@habitdaemon]

Very comprehensive and answered some questions I didn't know I had.

[@AndyMGar]

Superb explanation. I came across this after sampling a couple of other similar videos and yours is much, much, much better. Not sure where you come from but your English is as good as your explanations. Many thanks.

[@emmanm5633]

you are way more simple and understandble to catch up with.. i am totally lost with p2live my goodnesss i am stress and after i found your channel I was enlighten and this boost my energy up to dive in animation again THANK YOU!!! REALLY !!!! YOU SUPERB!!!

[@CGDive]

Hey, thanks for the kind words!

[@thtuskey]

OMG this was so useful! I wanted to have a cyclical animation but only repeat after an initial period (wait 200 frames, then repeat a sequence of keyframes). But the cyclical modifier on a timeline/graph editor repeats the whole thing from frame 1 with no way to offset the start. This lets me do exactly what I want. Was very worthwhile taking the time to really watch this video as I had never worked with actions or the NLA panel.

[@CGDive]

Nice! Thanks for taking the time to really watch this video.

[@lodgechant]

Thank you for this incredibly helpful tutorial. The amount of work you must have to do to make these so accessible and comprehensive is mind-boggling.

[@CGDive]

Thanks, Andrew!

[@TheSuperRaspberry]

Honestly, this is the best tutorial on NLA in Blender I've seen so far. I learned a lot which will help me to master my final bachelors thesis! Thank you so much for your effort

[@CGDive]

bachelors thesis... feels good to know I am "teaching" people who are much smarter than me haha Glad the videos are useful!

[@JulianGallese]

I've been looking for the perfect actions/NLA tutorial for years, finally found it! This tutorial series explains everything in such a great way, thank you!

[@pedrobranco669]

The best explanation for this topic. Very detailed an direct. Thanks a lot

[@Gury9478]

melhor tutorial! Valeu

[@CGDive]

Thank you very much :)

[@vladartov2817]

Thank you very much! One of the most helpful and structured tutorials on the matter.

[@applecarapplecar]

Best explanation about NLA editor I've seen so far!

[@CGDive]

Thanks! There is one more vid, by the way :)

[@BrianLife]

So well explained! You are great!

[@CGDive]

You're too kind!

[@mazingstudios]

This is so useful! The amount of work you put into this is amazing. Very clear and easy to follow. Many thanks!

[@NoCodeFilmmaker]

Bro! Brilliantly simple breakdown of a complex topic. You truly made this easy to not fully understand. Amazing job!!!

[@nucleon.]

A very good, comprehensive and easy to folllow tutorial on the NLA Editor! Especially in pointing out on what can get confusing. Thank you for your effort and sharing your knowledge.

[@KriGeta]

this video is just amazing! from all NLA fundamentals and easy to understand, yay!

[@hydrocosmo]

This and your previous video have been SO helpful, thanks a ton man.

[@CGDive]

Glad you liked them!

[@jafarsadiq6226]

You are great blender teacher. Thank you for sharing valuable knowledge

[@ShadowMakerSdR]

This is a very thorough video. Well done and with a good voice over. I can't get over the fact that you hardly seem to 'hm' at all. Impressive!

[@CGDive]

Thanks, man! As for the "hms", I write a script for my videos these days. Then I also edit out some of the "hms" while editing the video. If I just hit record and talk there would be more "hms" than actual words :P

[@carlosedubarreto]

More than a month to finaly watch this video . It was sitting on my browser for all this time. Ita amazing.... so much info that I've got confused explained here... amazing!!!!

[@CGDive]

I know how it is. I have a long list of cool videos to watch :) Glad it was useful, mate!

[@gregerolsson1713]

Brilliant! And good tempo as well. Thanks a lot for your hard work!

[@CGDive]

Thanks for the support, Greger!

[@RealGaryGibson]

Awesome tutorial! It really helped me to understand the NLA editor.

[@chicao.do.blender]

just found your channel, second video, and you're amazing, thank you really

[@andrewmartin458]

Your tutorials are always so easy to understand.

[@CGDive]

That’s awesome to hear!

[@dillondeer4371]

THANK YOU AGAIN! I love how you explain probable problems and its cause. I understand Actions and NLA much better now!

[@CGDive]

Nice! '

[@arunbabu3814]

Underappreciated video to be honest. Great content CGDive !

[@tante4dante]

tbh i watched a paid blender animation course and still didn't understood the nla, but you explain it really well! looking forward to the next part! i finally know now what i did wrong when i tried to combine a simulation animation and a normal animation XD

[@CGDive]

Very nice to hear that the video helped you solve an actual problem you were having. The next one should be out soon. This one was probably the most difficult one.

[@JavierSam_Uy]

Fantastic explanation. Clear and concise, even though the NLA Editor is rather complex. Thank you very much.

[@binyaminbass]

27:32 - I don't think it's a bug. Playback scale only effects the end but not the beginning, so adjusting the frame start won't appear in Playback scale. I love this tutorial and your whole channel.

[@RG-ef8vm]

I think it WAS a bug, but in the fact that changing the end changed the scale. I'm using Blender 3.5 and neither changing the Frame Start nor Frame End changes the scale now. Making the strip twice as long just adds dead space at the end of the action, which still ends at the original frame.

[@mickyr171]

This was amazing, been using blender since 1.79b and always saw NLA but was awfully confusing, thanks so much

[@IrocZIV]

This is an excellent overview. Exactly what I needed.

[@ssatguru]

Hands down the best video on NLA. Thank You!

[@MichaelKarius]

Finally this all makes sense to me, you´re a great teacher! Thank you for your work!

[@evilferber2704]

@CGDive That's... You... Ehhh :D You have no idea for how many years I've been waiting for this video. I'll drink to that today. And to You :). Cheers and Thanks!

[@CGDive]

Nice. Watch part 2 as well :)

[@deepak3dart]

Wonderful tutorial and well explained. Thank you. Now this three panels are much easy to work.

[@ceegeevibes1335]

i am not understating when i say - i love you ! huge thanks to this beautiful tutorial ! i love your rigging and UE stuff too ..

[@CGDive]

♡　:)

[@BlenderFun_]

really good nla tutorial...i have seen so much nla tutorials...most of them made me more confuse than before...great job!! +subscribed

[@rken100]

wow freaking amazing so much detail

[@benjamingundlach9233]

Thanks man, you are a real lifesaver. Great video, great explanation, easy to understand 👍

[@ario6819]

ooh I know, I know, because the new action doesn't have any keyframes yet, so nothing is there to replace anything, hooray! you are such a good instructor

[@CGDive]

Excellent haha

[@pinkyi6023]

Thank you so much! You have explained everything so clearly!

[@saitkayhan]

THIS IS A GREAT TUTORIAL. I'M LEARNING SO MUCH

[@kidando]

Thank you so much for this video. Dealing with Blender's NLA editor (and animation in general) was something i have put off for years. Today, with strong coffee in hand and 40 min.. I have learned a ton. Am I part of the NLA elite now? hahaahha. Thanks for the easy to understand break down. I'm definitely going to keep following this channel.

[@CGDive]

watch and understand the next video as well and you can count yourself among the elite lol kzbin.info/www/bejne/i6nHgaeMdt9petE Seriously, I've seen pro animators who just don't understand the NLA. A lot of them love the Animation Layers addon because it makes the NLA simpler to use.

[@FredAubert]

Wow .. .your tutorials are just Fantastic, thank you for all those precise instructions and ideas!

[@vstreet7583]

What a brilliant explanation. Clear and concise. Now I understand. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. THANK YOU! Dg

[@CGDive]

Thanks again! :)

[@Kimb4000]

Thank you for the work you put into this video. I have learned a lot of much needed info from you on the nla.

[@mixchief]

This is extremely informative, @CGDive. Pure golden, thanks.

[@CGDive]

Haha, thanks man 😊

[@makia.7440]

Thank you very much for your time! Really good video I didn't see ather video explaining like this.

[@Sfoyarbide]

Seriously, you are the best, you are making my dream true, Development of game!. keep going like this!.

[@jamessankov3859]

yahh man you make cool animation tutorials! Thank you🤠

[@CGDive]

Glad you like them!🤠

[@BerkEgeCakl]

honestly helped me for my animation exports

[@AlberTesla1024]

I was waiting for this, Thanks.

[@CGDive]

One more coming soon :)

[@AlberTesla1024]

@@CGDive I am waiting for that one too.

[@Chafmere]

This is a serious life saver. Thank you!

[@theothergameygamer]

I'm happy to have checked this out - very informative.

[@rimonmath]

Very well explained. Thank you very much for this beautiful video :)

[@martinmardoek4663]

Very thorough explanation. Thnx!

[@andklv2]

about the cyclic strip time. it seems it works in the following scenario: you need to have an _animated strip time_ animated (time remapping feature) and _action clip_'s _start frame_ set to something, then the _cyclic strip time_ option deducts _start frame_ value from the recalculated strip time. It works very weird to me and does not match the description.

[@CGDive]

Thanks!! I think this makes sense. I'll give it a try and if it works I'll include this in the next video.

[@jco7551]

I found a similar result: It seems to be tied to the 'Animated Strip Time' function. If you manually animate the 'Animated Strip Time' (for example, by typing '#frame' in its field for a quick result), then toggling 'Cyclic Strip Time' will make the animation repeat when the playback head goes past the strip's bounds. Hope this helps!

[@EmmanuelLogah-u1y]

minute 21:01 -The new action is not overrrind the NLA because it has not keyframes. If the new created action has location keyframe, and the blending is set to REPLACE, then it will override all the location keyframes below it. The same applies to rotation and scale. Since the new action has no keyframes, it cannot override any keyframe below. I hope I got it correct ?

[@CGDive]

yep!

[@RosselitoHF]

Awesome set of tutorials!! my sincere gratitude, dude ! 👍👌

[@CGDive]

Much appreciated, dude!

[@frowndere6597]

Great video! you explain things very well, this is a great contribution to the game dev community, thanks for helping us out!

[@CGDive]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@TheRayToaster]

This was very useful, many thanks. Great job explaining it!

[@VeaceslavDubenco-t1e]

Excellent explanation! Thank you.

[@JulesL_82]

I followed this first one, good job!

[@LoriGriffiths]

This was exactly what I was looking for. Wonderful tutorial, thank you for making it.

[@erik352]

Very clear tutorial. Thanks! Learned a lot!

[@CGDive]

Glad to hear that 😁

[@annabelleowl9586]

Following along I got quite confused at 5:25 bc I had my keyframes set up wrong. I had my rotation keyframe make all movements , location, rotation and scale, so that it cancelled out all other movement from the other tracks. seems like Transformation categories in keyframes is more important than i thought

[@PoMkAc27]

Love your videos man, they are such detailed and well explained

[@CGDive]

Thank you~!