Cascadeur for Blender Users

This page provides an introduction to Cascadeur from the viewpoint of a Blender user. Its purpose is to help you to translate your existing Blender experience into Cascadeur.

The Basics

Cascadeur is not a general-purpose 3D solution. You cannot create 3D models, nor can you skin it to joints/bones. Characters should be prepared for animation beforehand, in other programs.

Animation in Cascadeur is created in the same manner as it is in Blender: by defining keyframes and setting character poses.
However, there are some differences:

 Blender

 Cascadeur

 
 You need to set the pose first, then you can add a keyframe
 
 
 You need to add a keyframe and then set a pose for it
 
 
 Each time you alter a pose, you need to reset the keyframe for it
 
 Poses in keyframes can be altered at any time
 
 Keyframes can be set separately for translation, rotation etc.
 
 
 A keyframe always contains every motion parameter.
 

 

Character poses and positions in Cascadeur are defined by keyframes.
Because of this, at least one keyframe is always present in the scene

Every frame in Cascadeur, including non-key ones, stores animation data. This means that regular frames can be moved, copied etc., much like keyframes.

By default, all keyframes in Cascadeur are placed on the same Animation Track and thus contain animation data for every scene object. If you need to animate only some of the scene objects, - or a specific part of your character - create a separate track for this part and place keyframes on that track.

The timeline in Cascadeur is discreet. It always includes an integer number of frames, and there’s no way to place keyframes in the subframe space.
However, you still have full control over animation and can stretch, retime and alter it in other ways.

At the moment, there isn’t any sort of Graph Editor in Cascadeur. It will be added in the future.

However, Cascadeur includes a variety of tools for adjusting animation directly in the Viewport window. These include:

...and more.

Another feature of Cascadeur is its Physics Tools. This set of instruments can be used for easily creating physically accurate motions, as well as for improving the quality of the existing animations.

Interface


User interface in Blender


User interface in Cascadeur

1 - Viewport
2 - Timeline
3 - Toolbar
4 - Outliner
5 - Object settings

Quick Glossary

 Blender

 Cascadeur

 Bone  Joint
 3D Viewport  Viewport
 Toolbar  Toolbar
 Timeline  Timeline
 (not present)  Animation Tracks
 Interpolation  Interpolation
 Topbar  Main Menu
 Status bar  (not present)

Controls

 Action

 Blender

 Cascadeur

 Camera Actions
 Rotate Camera  Hold Mouse Wheel  Alt + LMB
 Zoom Camera  Mouse Wheel  Alt + RMB
 Pan Camera  Shift + Mouse Wheel  Alt + Mouse Wheel
 Selecting Objects
 Select an object  LMB  LMB
 Border Select  Hold LMB and drag  Hold LMB and drag
 Manipulators
 Translate an object  G  W
 Rotate an object  R  E
 Hide an object  H  V
 Make all objects visible  Alt + H  Alt + V
 Frames and Animation
 Add Keyframe  I  F

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