Rigs Selector

This is the first thing to set up before using any tool in the addon.

Main Rig: select your AXIS character rig here. This is the destination rig that will receive the retargeted pose or animation.

Source Rig: select the rig you want to retarget from. This can be a Mixamo character, an ActorCore export, an Unreal mannequin, a DAZ figure, or any other supported rig.

Once a source rig is assigned, the addon will automatically detect its system and display it as a label below the selector. No manual selection is needed.

Supported systems: Mixamo, ActorCore (Reallusion), Unreal Engine (Mannequin), HumanIK, Genesis 3, Genesis 8 / 8.1, Genesis 9.

Retarget Pose

Copies the pose from the source rig to the AXIS rig on the current frame only. No keyframes are created — it is a live pose transfer.

This is useful for testing that the retarget is working correctly before committing to a full bake, or for manually posing the AXIS rig by mirroring the source rig's pose frame by frame.

Bake Animation

Retargets and bakes the full animation from the source rig into a new action on the AXIS rig.

Frame Range

Defines which frames will be baked.

Auto: the addon reads the frame range directly from the source rig's animation. This is the recommended option in most cases.

Manual: lets you set a specific start and end frame. Useful when you only want to bake a portion of the animation.

Step: bakes one frame every N frames. Leave it at 1 for full-resolution animation. Use higher values (2, 3…) to produce a lighter result at the cost of motion detail.

Action Name

Optional name for the baked action. If left empty, a name is generated automatically based on the source rig and animation.

Bake Animation

Starts the bake using the current settings. The progress bar and status message will appear below while baking. 

Press ESC at any time to cancel.

Quick Load & Bake

Opens a file browser to import an animation file (FBX or GLTF) directly. The file is automatically set as the source, and the bake starts immediately. The imported rig is removed after baking. This is the fastest way to retarget a single animation file.

Post-Bake

Tools to clean up the baked animation. These operate on the currently active action on the AXIS rig.

Smooth: reduces jitter and noise in the animation. Adjust the number of iterations before clicking: more iterations produce a smoother result, but deviate further from the original motion. Start with 3–5 for typical mocap data.

Decimate: removes unnecessary keyframes while keeping the curve shape intact. Adjust the ratio before clicking: 0 keeps all keyframes, 1 removes everything. Values between 0.3 and 0.5 are a good starting point for mocap cleanup. Reduces file size and improves playback performance.

Push to NLA: sends the current baked action to the NLA editor as a strip. This frees the active slot so you can bake another animation and layer them together.

Options

Additional settings that affect how the retarget and bake work.

Clean Target: resets the AXIS rig pose to rest before applying each retargeted frame. Recommended in most cases to avoid leftover transforms from previous frames.

Copy Root Translation: transfers the root bone's position from the source rig to the AXIS rig. Disable this if you want the character to stay in place regardless of the source animation.

Import Facial (ARKit): when enabled, ARKit facial data present in the source rig is automatically transferred to the AXIS rig during retarget and bake.

Disable Limit Rotation: toggles bone rotation limits on the AXIS rig. Useful for exaggerated poses or stylised animation that would otherwise be clipped by the rig's built-in limits. Enable again to restore normal rig behaviour.

Reset Pose: resets the AXIS rig assigned in the Rigs Selector to its rest pose.

Reset Pose (Selected): resets whichever rig is currently selected in the viewport. Useful for resetting the Face Widget or any secondary rig without changing the main rig selector.

Reset ARKit: clears all ARKit facial animation keyframes from the AXIS rig on the current frame. The timeline position does not change.

Face Mocap — Live Link

Tools for importing facial animation captured with ARKit via Live Link Face.

Import Head Rotation: when enabled, head rotation data from the CSV is applied to the rig in addition to facial shape data.

Spine Follow: controls how much the spine follows the head rotation. Set to 0 for no spine movement, 1 for full follow.

Import CSV: opens a file browser to select a Live Link Face CSV file. The facial animation is imported and keyframed on the AXIS rig across the frame range defined in the Bake Animation section.

Clear: removes all ARKit keyframes from the rig and deletes the facial action if it becomes empty.

Info

AXIS Panel — the AXIS Panel is an embedded script that provides rig controls (IK/FK, pose tools, rig layers) directly inside your character file. 

Use the Install button to add it to your scene. 

If a new version of the addon is installed, use Update / Reinstall to refresh it.

If a warning about Auto Run Python Scripts appears, follow the link to Blender Preferences and enable it. Without this setting, the panel will not load automatically when opening the file.

Documentation: opens this documentation page.

Tutorials: opens the official YouTube tutorials playlist.

Check Updates: opens the addon product page to check for new versions.