Mirror Animation — Smart L/R Keyframe Mirroring for Blender

Mirror Animation is a lightweight Blender add-on that copies pose animation

from one side of your rig to the other, so you only ever have to animate

half your character.

Select the bones you've animated, hit Mirror L to R (or R to L), select

the bones on the other side, hit PASTE POSE — done. Full keyframe curves,

handles, and interpolation are copied and mirrored, not just a single pose.

Most mirror tools assume every character walks like a human — both legs

moving in a perfect mirror, at the same time. Real quadrupeds don't.

Horses, dogs, and most four-legged creatures move their limbs **out of

phase** with each other (that's what actually makes a walk cycle look alive).

That's why Mirror Animation includes a Phase Offset control: you decide

how many frames "behind" the mirrored side should be, as a % of your cycle

length. Animate one side of your walk cycle, mirror it to the other side

with the correct phase offset, and get a believable gait — not a robotic

side-to-side copy.

• Mirror L to R / Mirror R to L — one-click copy of full animation

curves (location, rotation, scale) from selected bones

• PASTE POSE — apply the mirrored animation to the bones on the

opposite side

• Gait Cycle controls — set cycle start, cycle length, and a phase

offset (0–100%, with 0/25/50/75% quick presets) to simulate realistic

out-of-phase limb movement

• Smart bone-name detection — recognizes .L/.R, _L/_R,

Left/Right, camelCase (LeftArm), and prefixed rigs

(e.g. mixamorig:LeftArm) out of the box

• Keeps your curve quality — bezier handles, interpolation type, and

easing are preserved on mirror and paste, not flattened to linear

• Clean sidebar panel (N-panel) inside Pose Mode — no cluttered menus

1. Animate one side of your character (arms, legs, whatever you need

mirrored).

1. Select the animated bones → click Mirror L to R (or R to L).

2. Select the bones on the opposite side → click PASTE POSE.

3. For walk/trot/pace cycles, set your Phase Offset to 50% before mirroring

for a natural, out-of-phase gait. Use 0% for symmetrical movement

(jumps, claps, etc).

• Blender 3.6 or newer

• Works with any armature that follows a consistent L/R naming convention

• The add-on (.py), ready to install via Edit > Preferences > Add-ons

• Free updates for [X]

Does this work on quadrupeds, birds, insects — anything non-human?

Yes — the phase offset feature exists specifically for that. It works on

any rig with consistent left/right bone naming, regardless of how many

limbs it has.

Will this break my existing animation?

No. Mirror Animation only writes to the bones you select when you click

Paste Pose. Your source animation is never modified.

Does it support NLA strips?

The current version reads from and writes to the object's active Action.

If your animation lives in an NLA strip, make sure it's the active action

before mirroring.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes. Once purchased, you're free to use Mirror Animation in any personal or commercial project — freelance work, studio productions, games, films, whatever you're making. There's no limit on the number of projects or the revenue they generate.

What's not covered by your purchase: reselling, redistributing, or repackaging the add-on itself (or a modified version of it) as your own product, whether for free or for sale.