Kinetiq Editor Guide
The Kinetiq Editor is a professional browser-based animation environment that requires no installation. Access it at app.thirdrez.com/kinetiq.
This page is a high-level walkthrough of the Kinetiq Editor surface. Deep-dive pages for individual features (Mirror Animation, Loop Fixer, Quality Score, Foot Locking, Vision Capture, Retarget Studio, Rig Studio, etc.) are being added as we expand the documentation. See the sidebar ⚡ Kinetiq Engine section for the full list, or check What's New for recent feature releases.
For questions or specific feature requests, join our Discord or watch our YouTube channel for video walkthroughs.
Feature Overview
Real-time 3D Preview
- 60 FPS viewport rendering via WebGL
- Multiple camera views (3D, Front, Side, Top)
- Configurable grid styles and themes
Avatar Support
Multi-platform avatar loading via File → Add Avatar:
- Second Life Bento (159 bones, full facial + wings + tail)
- Second Life Classic (26 bones, legacy)
- Unity Humanoid (54 bones, Mecanim)
- UE5 Mannequin (67 bones — Manny / Quinn)
- VRM (0.0 + 1.0, VTuber pipeline)
- Ready Player Me (cross-metaverse standard)
- Reallusion CC4 (Character Creator 4 / iClone)
- Roblox R15 (15 bones) / R6 (6 bones)
- Mixamo (auto-detect via
mixamorigprefix) - Move AI (markerless mocap ingest)
- Rokoko (Smartsuit / Smartgloves)
- SMPL (research / ML pipelines)
- Custom rigs via Rig Studio
See Platform Support for the full breakdown.
Timeline & Keyframes
- Frame scrubbing and keyframe visualization
- Loop markers and frame range selection
- Multi-select keyframes (Shift+Click)
- Copy/Paste keyframes (Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V)
Transform Tools
- Select (Q) - Select bones in viewport
- Move (G) - Translate selected bone
- Rotate (R) - Rotate selected bone
- Scale (S) - Scale selected bone
Keyboard Shortcuts
| Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
G | Move (Translate) |
R | Rotate |
S | Scale |
K | Add Keyframe |
Space | Play/Pause |
Ctrl+Z | Undo |
Ctrl+Y | Redo |
Ctrl+I | Import File |
Ctrl+Shift+I | Kinetiq Import (Retarget) |
Ctrl+L | Open Library |
Ctrl+M | Mirror Animation |
Ctrl+Shift+L | Loop Fixer |
Ctrl+G | Toggle Onion Skinning |
F1 | Help |
Escape | Cancel Transform |
Tools & Features
IK (Inverse Kinematics)
Drag limbs and entire chains follow automatically.
To create an IK chain:
- Load an avatar (File → Add Avatar or File → Import File)
- Select a hand/foot bone
- Run Rig → Create IK Chain
- Drag the magenta IK target to pose
Onion Skinning
Visualize motion arcs with ghost frames:
- Cyan ghosts - Past frames
- Magenta ghosts - Future frames
How to use:
- Toggle via Ctrl+G or the 👻 button in the Timeline toolbar.
- Right-click the 👻 button to cycle the ghost count (1–5).
- Automatically hides during playback for performance.
Foot Locking
Prevent sliding artifacts during locomotion:
- Red circles - Locked feet (grounded)
- Green circles - Unlocked feet
Center of Mass + Support Polygon
Center of Mass (CoM) visualization with the Support Polygon ground projection helps diagnose balance issues. The Balance Pill HUD overlay shows green/yellow/red status at a glance — green means CoM is over the support polygon (stable), red means the avatar is falling. Professional-grade balance feedback in the browser.
Quaternion Interpolation Modes
Four interpolation modes available per quaternion track:
- Linear — fastest, default for most motion (uses NLERP under the hood)
- Step — instant snap, no interpolation between keyframes (for stop-motion / mechanical poses)
- Bezier — custom tangent curves for animator-controlled easing
- Squad — Spherical Quadrangle Interpolation, the gold standard for smooth tumbling rotations
Position tracks always interpolate linearly (vector lerp).
Mirror Animation v2 (free for all tiers)
Mirror left ↔ right with clipData mutation that survives playback. Three modes:
- L → R — left side dictates, right copies mirrored
- R → L — right dictates
- SWAP — classic mirror, both sides swap
Features: live scrub on strength slider (drag and watch the avatar transition in real time), projetor direcional viewport viz (YZ plane + L/R floor tints + direction arrows), A/B compare ("Press & Hold for Source"), bone-pair highlight (hover a row in the Detection card → spheres pulse on the bones), 9-token bone-pair detection (Left/Right substring, l/_r, .L/.R, _L/R middle, L/R leading + lowercase variants).
Shortcut: Ctrl+M.
Loop Fixer v2
Eliminate the "pop" at the loop seam. Two modes:
- Snap — frame N becomes identical to frame 0 (hard cut, perfect loop)
- Blend — smoothstep ramp the last N frames toward frame 0 (soft transition)
Sample-on-demand — does NOT require pre-existing keyframes at frame 0 or frame N. Live preview, A/B compare, polished modal UI.
Shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+L.
Import Formats
| Format | Extension | Description |
|---|---|---|
| GLB/GLTF | .glb, .gltf | Standard web 3D format |
| FBX | .fbx | Autodesk interchange format |
| BVH | .bvh | Motion capture data |
Export Formats
| Format | Target Platform | Tier | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| GLB / glTF 2.0 | Unity, Unreal, Roblox, Web, AR/VR | Starter+ | ✅ Live |
| BVH | Second Life Bento, MotionBuilder, Maya | Starter+ | ✅ Live |
.anim (Second Life) | Linden Lab in-world upload | Starter+ | ✅ Live |
| FBX | Maya, Blender, Unity (alt path) | — | 🚧 Coming Q2 2026 |
Free Style users can edit and preview in the browser but cannot export any format. Upgrade to Starter ($4.99/mo) to unlock export.
We chose to defer FBX export to ship a polished v1 with the formats that already work cleanly. FBX export is on the roadmap for Q2 2026, likely via the WebAssembly assimp pipeline. For now, export GLB and convert via Blender or Unity if you need FBX.
Kinetiq Vision (Beta)
AI-powered motion capture from webcam or video files:
- Record or upload video
- AI extracts pose data
- Apply to 3D skeleton
Access via the Capture menu:
- Capture → Vision (Webcam)
- Capture → Video Mocap
Tips for Best Results
- Start with the right avatar - Match your target platform from the beginning
- Use IK for limbs - Faster posing than manual bone rotation
- Check foot contact - Enable foot locking for locomotion
- Preview at target FPS - Match your game engine's frame rate
- Test loops early - Use Loop Fixer before final export
Try the editor: app.thirdrez.com/kinetiq