Trajectory View
The selected bone's motion path, drawn right in the viewport — color-coded by smoothness. New in v1.1.
Tier: Free for all Toggle: right-side viewport toolbar → 🛤️ (the spline icon)
What it does
Animators have always traced arcs — it's one of the twelve classic principles. A hand that moves along a clean arc reads as alive; a hand that zigzags reads as broken. The problem in 3D: you can't see the arc. You scrub back and forth and try to hold the path in your head.
Trajectory View draws it for you. Select a bone, toggle the spline icon in the right-side toolbar, and the bone's world-space motion path appears as a curve floating in the viewport — the exact line that bone travels over the whole clip.
And the color tells you the quality:
- Green — silky. The bone moves along smooth, continuous arcs.
- Yellow/orange — getting rough.
- Red — jagged. Sudden direction changes, jitter, trembling.
One glance and you know where the problems are — and exactly where along the path they happen.
The live loop with Smooth
This is where it gets fun. Open Polish → Smooth with Trajectory View on:
- The path shows its current state — say, mostly red (raw mocap).
- Drag the Smooth slider.
- The path redraws live — you watch red turn yellow turn green in real time.
- Stop dragging exactly when the path looks right. Apply.
No more "apply, scrub, judge, undo, try again." The feedback is instant and visual.
Reading the path
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Smooth green curve | Clean arcs, healthy motion | Nothing — ship it |
| Green with red bursts | Localized jitter (common in mocap hands/head) | Mark a Region around the burst, Smooth just that stretch |
| Uniformly red/noisy | Raw capture noise across the take | Whole-clip Smooth pass, Subtle → judge → stack |
| Sharp corners in the path | Direction snaps — often a keyframe pose change | Check the keyframes at that point; consider Bezier/Squad interpolation |
| Path doubles back on itself in a tight knot | Trembling in place | Smooth with the bone selected (Selected scope) |
Workflow — diagnosing a capture
- Load or capture a clip.
- Select the bone you're suspicious about (wrist and head show problems first).
- Toggle 🛤️ Trajectory View in the right toolbar.
- Play the clip once — watch the bone ride its own path.
- Red sections? Note where they are, open Smooth, and watch them turn green.
- Toggle off when done (it's a view tool — it never changes your animation).
Good to know
- It's read-only. Trajectory View never modifies the clip — it's pure visualization. Toggle freely.
- One bone at a time. The path follows the current selection. Select a different bone and the path switches.
- Works on retargeted clips too — the path samples whatever animation the avatar is playing.
Related
- Smooth — the tool Trajectory View was born to pair with
- Quality Score — the numeric version of what Trajectory View shows visually
- Editor Guide — the full right-side toolbar reference