Bone Switcher Hub

Bone Switcher Hub: The Ultimate Animation & Rigging Workflow Tool for Blender

Tired of clunky bone parenting, broken animations, or meshes flying off into the void when you switch controls? Bone Switcher Hub is your all-in-one solution for creating smooth, professional, and maintained-position bone switches in Blender. Perfect for animators, riggers, and technical artists.

Stop wrestling with constraints. Start animating.

✨ What Does It Do?

Bone Switcher Hub automates the creation of a robust, animator-friendly switching system directly within your armature. With one click, it generates a set of control bones that let you seamlessly transfer the influence of an "ASSET" bone (e.g., a weapon, a prop, or a character's hand) between your character's root bone and any number of other target bones (like IK hands, FK arms, or custom empties).

The magic? It locks the position, rotation, and scale of your ASSET during the switch, ensuring your animation flows perfectly without any pops or jumps.

🎯 Key Features

One-Click Setup: Generates all necessary control and mechanical bones with custom shapes for easy identification.

Maintain Position Switching: The core feature. When you switch control, your asset (e.g., sword, gun, magic orb) stays exactly where it is in 3D space. No more manual fixes!

Smooth Animated Transitions: Enable animation for buttery-smooth switches over a user-defined number of frames.

Flexible Mesh Parenting: Attach your 3D model to the ASSET bone using 4 different methods: Direct Bone Parent, Armature Modifier, Child-Of Constraint, or Copy Transforms Constraint. Choose what works best for your pipeline.

Auto-Align Mesh: Automatically applies a -90° X-axis rotation after parenting, perfect for fixing common import axis issues with props.

Dynamic UI with Custom Buttons: The panel displays intuitive, labeled buttons for each switch target, making it incredibly easy for animators to use.

Timeline Markers: Automatically adds markers to your timeline when you perform an animated switch, so you can easily find and review your key transitions.

Update Switches: Made a mistake or adjusted your animation? Use the "Update Switch" button to re-lock the asset's position at the switch point without redoing everything.

Collapsible, Organized UI: Keep your workspace clean with sections you can expand or collapse.

🛠️ How It Works (The Technical Magic)

Under the hood, Bone Switcher Hub creates a sophisticated constraint network:

ASSET Bone: This is the bone your mesh is parented to. It's the "star" of the show.

MCH_ASSET Bone: A hidden mechanical bone that drives the ASSET bone. It holds the switching logic.

Slot Bones (Slot_YourBoneName): These are the animator-facing controls. You click these to switch.

MCH Slot Bones (MCH_YourBoneName): Hidden mechanical bones, children of the Slot bones, that copy the transform of your target bone (e.g., hand.R).

The switch is controlled by a custom property (Switcher) on your chosen root bone. When you click a button in the UI, the add-on:

Animates the influence of constraints on the MCH_ASSET bone (fading out the old target, fading in the new one).

Simultaneously, it keyframes the ASSET bone's transform to perfectly counteract any movement, locking it in global space.

Updates the Switcher property to reflect the current state.

This two-pronged approach (constraint influence + transform lock) is what guarantees a flawless, pop-free transition.

🚀 Getting Started: A Simple 3-Step Workflow

Step 1: Create Your Bone System

Select your armature in Object Mode.

In the Bone Switcher Hub panel (found in the 3D Viewport Sidebar), select your armature.

Choose a Root Bone (usually your character's pelvis or root).

Click "Add Slot" and select the bones you want to switch to (e.g., hand_ik.R, hand_fk.R).

Click "Create Bone System".

Pro Tip: You can add or remove slots later and click "Update Bone System" to modify your setup without starting over.

Step 2: Parent Your Mesh

Select your 3D model (e.g., a sword, shield, or staff).

In the panel, select it under "Mesh Object".

Choose your preferred Parenting Method (we recommend "Bone Parent" for simplicity).

Enable "Rotate -90° on X" if your mesh is misaligned.

Click "Parent Mesh to ASSET".

Your mesh is now perfectly attached and ready to switch!

Step 3: Animate Your Switches!

Go to Pose Mode on your armature.

Navigate to the frame where you want the switch to happen.

In the "Current Switcher" section, enable "Animate Transition".

Click the button for the slot you want to switch to (e.g., "hand_ik.R").

Done! The switch is animated, the position is locked, and a timeline marker is created.

Need to fix it? Go to the switch frame and click "🔄 Update Switch".

💡 Use Cases

Weapon Switching: Seamlessly transfer a sword from a character's back scabbard to their hand.

IK/FK Switching: Switch a character's hand or foot from IK to FK (or vice versa) mid-animation without the limb popping.

Prop Handling: Animate a character picking up a cup, a book, or any object from the environment.

Vehicle/Seat Transitions: Switch a character's root from the ground to a car seat or horse saddle.

Complex Rig Setups: Create modular rigs where different body parts can be controlled by different systems.

✅ System Requirements

Blender 3.0 or later.

An armature with bones.

📥 Installation

Download the Bone_SwitcherV17.py file.

In Blender, go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons.

Click Install... and select the downloaded .py file.

Find "Bone Switcher hub" in the list and enable the checkbox.

You're ready to go! Find the panel in the 3D Viewport Sidebar under the "Bone Switcher Hub" tab.

📣 Why Choose Bone Switcher Hub?

Saves Hours of Work: No more manual keyframing and constraint tweaking.

Professional Results: Deliver animations that are smooth and pop-free, every time.

Animator-Friendly: Simple, intuitive UI that anyone on your team can use.

Robust & Reliable: Built with production in mind.

Constantly Evolving: You're getting V17 – a tool refined through real-world use.

🎁 Bonus: The "Update Switch" Lifesaver

Made a change to your animation after you did a switch? Maybe you moved the character or adjusted the timing. Instead of deleting keys and starting over, simply:

Go to the exact frame where the switch occurs.

Click the "🔄 Update Switch" button.

The add-on will re-calculate and re-keyframe the ASSET bone's transform to lock it in its new position, saving you from a nightmare of manual fixes.

💬 Support & Feedback

Have a question, a feature request, or found a bug? I'm here to help! Your feedback helps make Bone Switcher Hub even better.