A Shape Key Animation Tool for Blender’s Grease Pencil
Client: Personal project
My Role: Tool Developer, UI/UX Designer
The Challenge
In many production pipelines, animating Grease Pencil objects relies on bone-based rigs. This works well for full-body motion, especially when using motion capture systems like Rokoko, but facial animation often uses shape keys instead of bones.
Until now, there was no straightforward way to make Grease Pencil drawings follow these shape key deformations. Artists had to resort to complex workarounds or abandon the idea entirely, limiting creative flexibility.
The Solution
As a Technical Director, I developed GP Follow Shapes, a Blender add-on that allows Grease Pencil strokes to follow the deformation of an underlying mesh driven by shape keys.
This tool:
- Integrates seamlessly with GP Transfer Weights for hybrid setups (bones for body, shape keys for face).
- Works entirely inside Blender, with no external dependencies.
- Maintains a non-destructive workflow, preserving original drawings while adapting them to mesh transformations.
By focusing on open-source development and local processing, the solution respects production constraints: no data leaves the studio, and artists retain full creative control.
The Result
GP Follow Shapes opens new possibilities for:
- Motion capture pipelines: Combine bone-driven body animation with shape key-driven facial animation for Grease Pencil characters.
- Stylized motion graphics: Create fluid, organic transformations without complex rigs.
- Experimental workflows: Push Grease Pencil beyond traditional limits.
The tool is now available on SuperHive (former Blender Market), making it accessible to studios and independent artists looking for efficient solutions.
Related Tool
For bone-based animation workflows, check out GP Transfer Weights, designed to streamline rigging for Grease Pencil objects.