Setting Up the Animation Editor
Open the Animation Editor from the Plugins tab in Roblox Studio. You need a rig to animate — either use your game's character model or insert one from the Rig Builder (also in the Plugins tab). Select the rig, then open the Animation Editor. The interface shows a timeline at the bottom, a track list on the left (one track per joint), and a viewport where you pose the rig. Before animating, decide on your rig type: R15 has 15 joints with full upper and lower limb articulation, while R6 has only 6 joints and is severely limited. Always use R15 for new projects. Make sure your rig's HumanoidRootPart is anchored so it does not fall during editing.
Keyframes, Poses, and the Timeline
Animation in Roblox works on a keyframe system. You set poses at specific time positions and the engine interpolates between them. To create a keyframe, scrub the timeline to your target time, then rotate or move a joint in the viewport. The editor automatically creates a keyframe for that joint at that time. A "pose" is the complete state of all joints at a single keyframe. For smooth results, start with your key poses (the extremes of the motion) and then add breakdowns (intermediate poses that control the arc of movement). For a basic walk cycle, you need four key poses: contact (foot forward), down (body dips), passing (legs cross), and up (body rises). Place these at even intervals across the timeline, set the animation to loop, and refine from there.
Easing Styles and Motion Curves
The default linear interpolation between keyframes makes animations look robotic. Right-click any keyframe and select an easing style to control the interpolation curve. Use Cubic easing for natural body movements — it accelerates and decelerates like real limbs. Use Bounce for cartoony impacts. Use Elastic for exaggerated follow-through on fast actions. The easing direction matters too: EasingIn starts slow and accelerates, EasingOut starts fast and decelerates, and EasingInOut does both. For combat animations, use EasingOut on the attack swing (fast start, smooth deceleration) and EasingIn on the wind-up (gradual acceleration into the strike). Mastering easing transforms stiff animations into fluid ones without adding extra keyframes.
- Linear — constant speed, looks mechanical (avoid for organic movement)
- Cubic — smooth acceleration/deceleration, best general-purpose easing
- Bounce — adds a bouncy overshoot, good for landing impacts
- Elastic — springy overshoot, useful for exaggerated stylized animation
- EasingOut on attacks for fast-start strikes, EasingIn on wind-ups for building momentum
Inverse Kinematics (IK) for Natural Poses
The Animation Editor supports IK mode, which lets you pose limbs by moving the hand or foot and letting the system calculate the elbow or knee position automatically. Toggle IK mode in the editor toolbar. This is invaluable for grounded animations — position the feet on the ground plane and IK ensures the knees bend naturally. Without IK, you would need to manually rotate the upper leg, lower leg, and foot joints individually to achieve the same result. IK is especially useful for two-handed weapon holds where both hands must grip specific points on the weapon model. Set up IK pins on the hands, position them on the weapon grip, and the arms will follow naturally as you pose the torso.
Animation Priority and Layering
Every animation in Roblox has a priority that determines which animation wins when multiple play simultaneously. From lowest to highest: Core, Idle, Movement, Action, Action2, Action3, Action4. The Humanoid automatically plays Core and Idle animations. Your custom walk cycle should use Movement priority. Combat attacks use Action or higher. If two animations at the same priority play together, the most recently played one wins. Set priority in the Animation Editor's settings panel before publishing. Getting this wrong is the most common cause of animation bugs — attacks that do not play because movement overrides them, or idle animations that fight with custom stances. Plan your priority stack before building your animation set.
- Core — internal Roblox animations, do not use this
- Idle — custom idle stances, breathing animations
- Movement — walk, run, sprint, crouch-walk cycles
- Action — general interactions, emotes, non-combat actions
- Action2 through Action4 — combat attacks, hit reactions, special abilities (higher number wins)
Exporting, Publishing, and Using Animations
When your animation is complete, click the three-dot menu in the editor and select "Export" to save a local .rbxm file, or "Publish to Roblox" to upload it and receive an animation asset ID. You need the asset ID to play animations in scripts via Animator:LoadAnimation(). Exported .rbxm files contain the KeyframeSequence and can be shared, sold, or version-controlled in Git. For team workflows, export .rbxm files and track them in your repository alongside your Rojo project. When you need a large library of animations fast, KitsBlox offers professionally-made animation packs with dozens of animations per set, already published with correct priorities and easing — ready to load by asset ID.