Electus DocumentationElectus Animation Creator Editor guide
Create, edit, import, and export animation projects.
Create an animation
Open the project browser
Run /animationcreator, then select New project. The editor samples the current ped's skeleton and opens at the one-second frame.
Set the project name and timing
Enter the project name, FPS, and duration in frames. Exported names use lowercase letters, numbers, underscores, and hyphens. Other characters become underscores.
Select and pose bones
Select a bone in the hierarchy or the viewport. Hold Ctrl on Windows or Cmd on macOS to select more than one bone.
Press W for local translation or E for local rotation. Drag the transform gizmo to pose the selection.
Add keyframes
Move the playhead to a frame and select Key. Repeating this on the same bone and frame replaces that keyframe.
Select keyframes to change their interpolation or use the motion-polish tools. Use Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy keys to the current frame. Press Delete or Backspace to remove the selection.
Preview and save
Play the timeline to check the animation. Select Save to keep the editable project, or select Export to save the project and create the game-ready files.
The editor saves an unsaved local draft while you work. The project browser offers to resume the draft the next time you open it on the same computer.
Viewport controls
| Input | Action |
|---|---|
| Left drag | Orbit the camera |
| Right drag | Pan the camera |
| Mouse wheel | Zoom |
W | Use local translation |
E | Use local rotation |
Ctrl or Cmd while selecting | Add or remove bones from the selection |
Ctrl+Z | Undo |
Ctrl+Y or Ctrl+Shift+Z | Redo |
Ctrl+C | Copy selected keyframes |
Ctrl+V | Paste keyframes at the current frame |
Delete or Backspace | Delete selected keyframes |
Import a GTA animation
- Select Import GTA animation from the project browser or editor.
- Enter the animation dictionary and clip.
- Choose Low at 12 FPS, Medium at 24 FPS, or High at 60 FPS.
- Enable face or finger sampling only when you need those tracks.
- Select Import animation to open the sampled clip as an editable project.
Low and Medium sampling remove small movements and reduce the number of keyframes. High sampling preserves more of the original curve. The default configuration rejects clips longer than 20 seconds or imports with more than 18,000 keyframes.
Create a paired animation
- Open a project and select Add partner character.
- Switch between Character A and Character B while adding poses to the shared timeline.
- Set Character B's position and rotation relative to Character A.
- Add at least one keyframe to each character.
- Export the project.
The export includes separate clip dictionaries for both characters. Start both clips in the same tick after placing Character B at the exported relative transform.
Attach a prop
Export the GTA drawable from CodeWalker as .ydr.xml, then use Import XML prop in the editor. The drawable name becomes the GTA prop model at runtime.
To keep a prop available in the editor's prop list, place the .ydr.xml file directly in electus_animation_creator/ui/models. The editor scans this directory whenever the prop picker opens.
CodeWalker must export the drawable as XML. Raw or uncompressed binary exports cannot be used by the editor.
Generate a project with an LLM
- Select Generate Prompt from the project browser or editor.
- Enter the requested movement, motion style, duration, FPS, and ending options.
- Copy the generated prompt into the LLM that you want to use.
- Save the returned JSON as
electus_animation_creator/data/projects/<name>.anim.json. - Reopen the project browser and open the new project.
Prompt generation runs locally. The resource does not call an external service and does not require an API key.