Reuse Motion With Actions
Some motions you make again and again: a wave hello, a walk cycle, a signature little bounce. Animating them from scratch every time is a waste of a good afternoon. The Actions panel lets you record a motion once and Apply it onto the timeline whenever you need it, as many times as you like. This page walks the whole panel, the tabs, the Mainline row, recording, stamping, renaming, deleting, and reading the key counts, so you build a reusable motion library you will lean on forever.
1Why reuse motion
A recurring character does the same things across a whole project: waves, walks, nods, shrugs. If you hand-key each one every time it comes up, you redo the same labour endlessly and, worse, they come out slightly different each time. An Action solves both problems, you animate the motion once, save it, and stamp identical copies wherever you need them. Consistency and speed in one feature. It is the closest thing to copy-and-paste for movement.
2Open the Actions panel
Actions are in the Actions panel inside the rigging surface, the same panel where smart bones are created. Open it and you will see a list of saved motions, a naming field, and a permanent row up top. This panel is where all reusable motion is managed, so it helps to know every part of it. The rest of this tutorial walks the panel piece by piece, top to bottom.
3The three tabs
Across the top of the panel sit three tabs that filter the list. All shows everything you have made. Regular shows only plain motion Actions, the waves and walks you stamp onto the timeline. Smart Bones shows only smart-bone actions, the ones driven live by a control bone's dial. Flip to the tab that matches what you are hunting for, so a long library stays easy to scan.
4The Mainline row
At the top of the list is a permanent row called Mainline, and it never goes away. The Mainline represents your actual scene timeline, the animation the viewer sees, as opposed to the tucked-away recording space of an individual Action. It is the row you return to when you are done recording a move, the way back to your real scene.
5Recording here versus the main timeline
The Mainline row tells you where your keys are landing with two little states: recording here and main timeline. When an Action is selected for recording, your poses go into that Action's private space, not the scene. When the Mainline reads main timeline, your poses land on the real scene the viewer watches. Always glance here before you pose, so you know whether you are building a reusable move or animating the actual shot.
6Name it and Add action
To make a reusable move, first give it a name. Type something clear into the Action name field, wave, walk-cycle, big-shrug, then click Add action to create it. A new row appears in the list carrying an Action badge, and the panel switches into recording that Action, so the Mainline now reads recording here. You are inside a fresh, empty recording space, ready to build the motion.
7Record a wave
With the new Action recording, animate the wave just as you would any motion: pose the arm at the playhead, step forward, pose it again, and let the keys build across a few frames. Make it a clean, self-contained loop of the hand going up, swinging side to side, and coming down. Because you are recording into the Action's own space, none of this touches your scene yet. When the wave looks right on its own, you have a reusable move in the bank.
8Record a walk cycle
A walk cycle is the Action every animator wants in the bank. Add a new Action named walk-cycle and record a single loop: contact, down, passing, up, then back to contact on the other foot. Keep it cycling in place rather than travelling across the stage, so it drops into any scene cleanly. Once the loop reads well, you have a walk you can stamp under a character anywhere they need to move, over and over.
9Apply it to the timeline
Now the payoff. Put the scene playhead where the motion should begin, then on the Action's row click Apply to stamp its keyframes onto the timeline. The hover tip says it plainly, it stamps these keyframes onto the timeline, and that is exactly what happens: the wave or walk lands on your real scene starting at the playhead. Need it again later? Move the playhead and hit Apply again. One recording, unlimited stamps.
10Read the key counts
Each Action row shows a small readout like N keys, telling you how many keyframes that motion contains. It is a quick health check: a wave you expected to be a dozen keys showing zero means you recorded into the wrong space and it is empty. A walk cycle with a sensible key count is one you can trust to stamp cleanly. Glance at the counts to confirm your Actions actually captured what you posed.
11Know your kind badges
Every row wears a badge telling you what kind of thing it is: Action for a regular reusable motion you stamp with Apply, or Smart bone for a pose driven live by a control bone. The badge saves you from stamping a smart bone by accident or trying to dial a plain Action. Paired with the tabs, the badges keep a busy library legible at a glance, so you always know which lever a row is.
12Rename by double-click
Names drift as a project grows, so tidy them. Double-click an Action's name in the list to edit it in place, then type the better name and confirm. Renaming does not touch the recorded motion at all, it just relabels the row, so rename freely to keep the library clear. A quick pass renaming vague rows into wave, walk-cycle, and shrug pays off every time you go looking for a move.
13Delete what you do not need
Half-finished experiments and one-off tests pile up, so prune them. Delete an Action from its row to remove it from the library, clearing the clutter so the moves you actually reuse are easy to find. Deleting an Action removes the saved recording, but motion you already stamped onto the scene with Apply stays put, those keys are on the timeline now and are yours to keep. So it is safe to tidy aggressively.
14Build a reuse library
Put it together and you have a personal motion library for each character: a wave, a walk cycle, a nod, a shrug, a signature flourish, each recorded once, clearly named, and ready to Apply. Good libraries are small, generic, and honestly labelled, so any move drops cleanly into any scene. Once yours is stocked, animating a regular character shifts from keying everything to stamping the routine bits and hand-animating only the moments that are truly new. That is the win.
Actions questions
An Action is a recorded motion you save once and reuse. You animate a move like a wave or a walk in the Actions panel, and then stamp its keyframes onto the timeline with Apply whenever you need it. It is copy-and-paste for movement, keeping every use identical and saving you from re-keying.
All shows every item in the panel. Regular shows only plain motion Actions, the ones you stamp onto the timeline. Smart Bones shows only smart-bone actions, which are driven live by a control bone's dial rather than stamped. The tabs keep a long library easy to scan.
The Mainline is a permanent row representing your actual scene timeline. It shows two states: recording here, meaning your poses go into the selected Action's private space, and main timeline, meaning your poses land on the real scene. Always check it before posing so you know where your keys are going.
Type a name into Action name and click Add action, which creates the row and switches the Mainline to recording here. Then pose the motion across frames just as you normally animate. Because you are recording into the Action's own space, none of it touches your scene until you Apply it.
Move the scene playhead to where the motion should start, then click Apply on that Action's row. It stamps the Action's keyframes onto the timeline beginning at the playhead. Move the playhead and click Apply again to reuse the same motion as many times as you like.
You posed while the main timeline was active instead of the Action, so the Action stayed empty and your keys went to the scene. Check the Mainline state reads recording here with the Action selected, then record the motion again. The N keys readout confirms it captured.
Double-click the name in the list to edit it in place, then type the new name. To delete, remove the Action from its row. Renaming only relabels the row, and deleting removes the saved recording. Neither touches motion you already stamped onto the scene with Apply.
No. Applying an Action lays independent keyframes onto the timeline, so those stay put even after you delete the source Action. That means you can prune your library freely without disturbing any finished shot.
Both are made in the Actions panel, but an Action (Action badge) is stamped onto the timeline with Apply, while a smart bone (Smart bone badge) is driven live by a control bone through a dial range. Use Actions to reuse whole motions, and smart bones to fold a pose onto a single dial.
Your motion library is open
Name it, record it on the Mainline, stamp it with Apply, and tidy it with a double-click rename or a delete. You have turned repetitive keying into a library of moves you reuse in a click. Next, learn how references and live instances let one rigged character appear in many scenes at once.