Learn

Watch someone do it, then do it.

Short screen recordings of the real app, narrated step by step, with the same steps written out underneath so you can follow at your own pace. Every tutorial uses the free build; nothing here needs a key. New ones land here first, then on YouTube.

Lesson 1 1 min 46 s · no Studio needed

Your first Roblox animation in Cadence

Open the app for the first time, add an R15 rig, pose and key the arm twice, play it back, turn on onion skin, and open the Export menu. The whole loop in under two minutes.

  1. Start. The welcome screen lists the loop: add a rig, pose and key, polish, ship. Click Start animating.
  2. The layout. Scene list on the left, 3D viewport in the middle, inspector on the right, timeline along the bottom.
  3. Add a rig. Click ＋ Add → R15 rig. Orbit with the right mouse button, zoom with the wheel, exactly like Studio.
  4. Pose. Click a part (the right upper arm). Press E for the rotate tool and drag the ring. Auto-key is on, so the pose is recorded as you move.
  5. Key. Press S to key the whole pose at frame 0.
  6. Move on. Drag the playhead to frame 24 (about one second at 30 fps), pose the arm the other way, press S again.
  7. Play. Space. Every frame between the keys is filled in.
  8. Onion skin. N on the selected part, or CtrlK and type onion, to see neighbouring frames as ghosts.
  9. Export. Click Export → Straight into Studio writes the rig's AnimSaves; Animation file (.rbxmx) works anywhere.

Lesson 2 about 1 min 30 s

Same keybinds as Moon Animator

If you learned Moon Animator, your hands already know Cadence. Every keybind was kept on purpose, numpad and top-row digits included.

  1. ? opens the shortcut sheet.
  2. 9 opens the Add menu. W move, E rotate, T IK, R cycles the tools.
  3. Select a part, rotate it, S keys the pose. A toggles auto-key.
  4. → / ← step one frame, Shift→ steps five.
  5. J / K jump between keyframes, Home / End to the start or the end.
  6. N onion skin on the selected part. Tab loop, Space play.
  7. F frames the selection, CtrlZ undoes.
The full list, including Moon's numpad conventions (5 export to Studio, 7 edit keyframes, 8 animation settings), is in the shortcuts reference.

Lesson 3 about 1 min 15 s

Pose hands and feet with IK

Drag the hand and the shoulder and elbow follow; lift the foot and the knee bends. The built-in Animation Editor has no IK, and Moon's is a plugin on top; here it is one key.

  1. Add an R15 rig and click the right hand.
  2. Press T for the IK tool. The gizmo becomes a move handle for the whole arm chain.
  3. Drag the hand up and forward: the elbow and shoulder follow, and auto-key records the pose.
  4. Select the left foot, press T, and lift it. The knee bends naturally.
  5. Drag the playhead to frame 24, bring hand and foot back down, press S.
  6. Space to play. No joint was rotated by hand.
  7. Change how far IK reaches with CtrlK → IK chain length… (three joints by default).

Next lesson recording soon

Send it to Studio

The round trip: install the bridge plugin from the Studio offline chip, turn on Allow HTTP Requests in Game Settings → Security, click Connect on the Cadence toolbar in Studio, then Export → Straight into Studio. The animation appears in the rig's AnimSaves, ready for the Animation Editor's Import. Until the video is up, the written setup covers every step.

Ask for a tutorial

Stuck on something specific, or want a whole workflow shown (a walk cycle, a sword swing, a camera move)? Open a tutorial request. Requests become the next recordings, in the order they arrive.