Motion paths that stay with the animation.
Cloto prevents a forgotten key selection from turning a local motion-path check into a full-action calculation, then keeps a faithful proxy moving interactively on demanding rigs.
01 — Quick start
From selected control to responsive path
Enter Pose Mode
Select an animated armature and one or more controls, then open the Cloto tab in the 3D Viewport sidebar (N).
Choose the key range
Place the playhead near the interval you want to inspect and set Key Range (± frames). Choose whether to track each bone's head or tail.
Capture
Choose Capture Exact Proxy. Cloto calculates only the guarded interval and replaces the native path with its viewport proxy.
No key preselection required: Cloto finds keys for the selected controls inside the chosen range and restores the original key selection after Blender finishes.
02 — The key guard
Why Cloto asks for a frame margin
Blender can calculate motion paths from selected keys. The expensive mistake happens when the intended keys were never selected and a much larger interval is evaluated instead.
Cloto turns the current frame and margin into an explicit window. Only keys belonging to the selected pose controls inside that window are selected for the calculation. If none exist, Cloto stops before touching native paths and shows a warning.
- The selected pose bones define which F-Curves are eligible.
- The frame margin defines the only eligible time interval.
- Your pre-existing key selection is restored even if calculation fails.
- The resulting visible range runs from the first guarded key to the last.
03 — Exact capture
The proxy begins with Blender's evaluated result
Blender solves the rig
Constraints, IK, parents, and drivers are evaluated by Blender over the guarded key interval.
Cloto keeps the points
The native world-space path is copied into a lightweight in-memory trail for the chosen bone point.
Native recalculation stops
Native paths are cleared from the armature so one leftover path cannot re-enable expensive automatic updates.
Existing paths are not discarded
Any pre-existing native paths on the same armature are first preserved as Cloto proxies.
04 — Interactive path
Fast visual feedback while a control moves
After capture, Cloto watches the tracked control's evaluated matrix. A translation or rotation deforms the displayed path around the current frame with a smooth falloff between neighboring keys.
This update is deliberately lightweight: it changes the viewport proxy, not the animation curves, and avoids asking Blender to solve the full path again after each edit.
Exact versus interactive: the captured points are exact. Once a constrained, driven, parented, or IK control moves, the live result is a faithful approximation until you choose Refresh Exact.
05 — Direct key editing
Pull a location key from the path
Cloto marks complete XYZ location keys with cyan pixel squares and starts listening automatically after capture. Hover a square: it turns white, shows the bone and frame, and changes to a hand cursor when it is ready to grab. Drag it in the current view plane and release. The curve follows every mouse movement; on demanding rigs the control follows at the rate Blender can solve it, and the key always lands at the final cursor position. Cloto then calculates a fresh exact proxy and remains ready for another drag.
With Follow Frame While Dragging enabled, Cloto jumps to the key's frame and the rig follows live. Disable it to reshape the path without leaving the frame where you are working: the control stays put during the drag, the key is written on release, and your original frame and subframe are restored. Moving a key can still change the pose at that current frame when it lies inside the key's influence.
Shift-click squares to build a key selection, shown in magenta. Drag any selected key to move the whole selection by one world-space offset, or press X or Del to remove every channel represented by the selected squares. A click away from the path clears the key selection without changing your bone selection. Press Esc with no keys selected to stop direct editing, or use Enable Direct Key Editing to resume.
The edit is accepted only when the evaluated rig reaches the requested point within a small tolerance. If a constraint or rig relationship prevents that result, Cloto restores the original pose and key values and shows a warning.
Safe scope: locked, driven, partial XYZ, subframe, and stale keys stay visible but cannot be dragged. An approximate path remains editable because each drag anchors itself to the evaluated rig. Direct editing replaces existing keys; inserting a new key through Blender makes its square appear immediately.
06 — Path states
Read confidence directly from the color
| Color | Meaning | Next action |
|---|---|---|
| Blue / green | The displayed path matches the last exact Blender capture. | Keep animating. |
| Orange | The path is following an interactive control change approximately. Its valid key squares remain editable. | Keep editing, or refresh when exact evaluation matters. |
| Cyan square | A complete XYZ location key can be moved from the path. | After capture, wait for the white hover state and pull the square directly. |
| Magenta square | The key belongs to Cloto's current multi-key selection. | Drag one selected square to move all of them, or press X / Del to delete them. |
| Red / pink | The cached path is stale because its bone or Action is no longer available. | Capture or refresh again. |
| White point | The tracked position at the current frame. | Use it as the temporal anchor. |
Use Frame Points, Step, Width, and In Front to tune viewport display without recalculating the captured data.
07 — Refresh and restore
Choose when Blender evaluates again
Replace the approximation
Recalculate the selected controls through Blender using the current guarded key range, then return to proxy mode.
Remove the guide
Delete Cloto proxies for the selected controls without changing animation data.
Return to native behavior
Calculate and keep native paths for the selected controls. Blender may resume automatic recalculation and the original delay.
Nothing is embedded
Proxy trails live only in memory and are not stored in the .blend.
08 — Compatibility and boundaries
What the current build supports
| Blender | Built for Blender 5.2 and later. |
| Operating systems | Tested on Linux and Windows. macOS testing is pending. |
| Animation data | Layered Actions and the active Action slot used by Blender 5.2. |
| Rig types | Simple, constrained, IK, parented, and driven rigs. Interactive fidelity depends on rig behavior. |
| Persistence | In-memory visual cache only; proxies are not saved in the scene. |
| Direct edits | Complete XYZ location keys on integer frames. Locked, driven, partial, subframe, or non-resolvable keys are not editable from the path. |
For a final trajectory on a complex rig, use Refresh Exact. The live proxy is designed to preserve animation flow, not replace Blender's authoritative rig evaluation.
Read the changelog →