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Create Music-driven Animations With This Free Add-On

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This add-on by Ryo Suke converts midi files to keyframes, allowing you to drive animations of instruments, like keyboards or launchpads.

Officially releasing my plugin today “MIDI to Keyframes” ? You can download it on GitHub. Should be up on Blender Extensions soon once they approve #b3d

Ryo (@whoisryosuke.bsky.social) 2024-10-03T22:21:54.209Z

How to use

Open up the side panel labeled "MIDI Importer", it's available in the 3D viewport in the n-panel (the right side panel that's usually collapsed).

  1. Select a MIDI file you'd like to import.
  2. Assign 3D objects to piano keys.
  3. Click the button labeled "Generate Keyframes"

Not happy with the animation? You can undo the keyframes (CTRL/CMD + Z). Can't undo? Try the "Delete All Keyframes" button, it will delete all keyframes on any selected note object.

Tips

Auto Assigning Keys

The plugin can automatically assign piano keys if you create a collection with objects with the note letter appended to the end.

For example, you'd name your objects something like:

  • ObjectName.C maps to the C piano key
  • yourobject.F# maps to the F# piano key
  • Then you can select the collection and press the "Auto-Assign Keys" button.

Visualizing the MIDI Track

I'd recommend downloading Audacity to visualize the MIDI tracks and see what the note charts look like before you import them into Blender.

FPS and Music Timing

When creating the animation keyframes, we use the current scene's frame rate to calculate the music time. If you change the frame rate after generating keyframes, you should re-generate keyframes to ensure the timing is correct.

About the Author

Avatar image for Bart Veldhuizen
Bart Veldhuizen

I have a LONG history with Blender - I wrote some of the earliest Blender tutorials, worked for Not a Number and helped run the crowdfunding campaign that open sourced Blender (the first one on the internet!). I founded BlenderNation in 2006 and have been editing it every single day since then ;-) I also run the Blender Artists forum and I'm Head of Community at Sketchfab.

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