A ComfyUI custom node that embeds a heavily-modified fork of
Mesh2Motion as an interactive 3D editor
directly inside a node. Pick a rig, pick a camera move, tune the shot,
and the node emits an IMAGE (single frame) + VIDEO (rendered
camera move) that flow into the rest of your ComfyUI graph.
hero.mp4
This is a deep rework of the original plugin. If you used an earlier version, expect the following:
- One node, not many. Everything routes through a single
Mesh2Motion Explorenode. PreviousCreate,Preview,Savevariants are gone. - No right-click "Open in Mesh2Motion". No top-menu button. No Vue-based dialog. The editor lives inside the node itself.
- All UI moved into the iframe. Skeleton picker, camera preset browser, tuning controls, timeline — every control the user needs is inside the embedded editor.
- Full state persistence. Everything the user picks or tunes is
saved inside
node.properties, so reloading the workflow restores the exact shot. - Video output is first-class. The node outputs a
VIDEOdirectly (webm decoded server-side via PyAV), no separate frame-list node needed.
cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/jtydhr88/ComfyUI-mesh2motion.gitRestart ComfyUI. No extra Python dependencies — everything else is either bundled or already in ComfyUI.
| Widget | Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
show_skeleton |
bool | Draws the bone helper on top of the mesh |
mirror_animations |
bool | Mirrors the animation around the rig's symmetry plane |
preview_output |
bool | Overlays a crop rectangle matching width/height so you can see what'll actually be captured |
checker_room |
bool | Wraps the scene in a checkered room for more "AI-friendly" rendering |
width / height |
int | Output resolution for both IMAGE and VIDEO |
fps |
int | Frame rate written into the VIDEO (the timeline plays at the preset's native cadence; this only sets the encoded rate) |
| Output | When it's filled |
|---|---|
IMAGE |
Always — one screenshot of the viewport at the current playhead position |
VIDEO |
When a camera preset is active — a rendered webm of the whole camera move |
Add Mesh2Motion Explore from the node menu (category 3d/mesh2motion).
The node renders an interactive 3D editor in place — no separate window
or modal.
The left activity bar has a button that opens the Skeleton panel. Two sections:
- Primitives — cube, sphere, capsule, cylinder, torus, cone. Useful for testing a camera path without loading a character, or for background elements.
- Character rigs — Human, Fox, Bird, Dragon etc. Each rig ships with a set of compatible animations.
Selecting a character loads its rig, its default mesh, and its animation library (right panel → Animations).
Opens via the right activity bar's first button. Animations are filtered to the active skeleton type. Clicking one loads it into the mesh and adds an animation track on the timeline.
Second button on the right activity bar. 116 presets across 8 intent-based categories:
- Basic Moves — pans, slides, straight pushes/pulls, zooms
- Cinematic — dolly, crane, 360 track, J/L moves, Bird's Eye
- Handheld — handheld static/transitions, handheld zooms, subtle look-around
- Speed Ramps — dramatic accelerating moves (push/pull/twist)
- Locomotion — walking, running (forwards / backwards / sideways)
- Vehicle — car flybys, jet overpass, helicopter flyover, drone
- Action — missile strike, explosion, gunfire, flinch, fall
- Abstract — space cam floating, spinning, drunk
Clicking a preset immediately starts the camera move. Click Free at the top to go back to free orbit controls (no preset active).
Third button on the right activity bar. When a preset is active, the panel shows the preset's metadata and a set of tuning controls.
Metadata (read-only)
- Preset name
- Duration (frames / seconds @ fps)
- Lens range — a ⚡ marker means the preset animates its lens mid-shot (Contra-Zoom / Dolly-Zoom class)
Tuning controls
| Control | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Speed | Playback speed multiplier (0.25× – 4×) | 1× |
| FOV Scale | Multiplies every frame's focal length; > 1 narrows FOV (zoom in) | 1× |
| Path Scale | Scales the whole camera path around the subject. < 1 = closer to subject, > 1 = further out. Baked rotations stay valid because the camera→subject direction is preserved | 1× |
| Yaw | Rotates the path around the vertical axis through the subject. Turns "dolly from the front" into "dolly from the side" | 0° |
| Roll | Dutch angle — rotates the camera around its own forward axis | 0° |
| Offset (XYZ) | Rigid world-space translation added to every frame's position (Three.js Y-up). Rotations are left untouched | (0, 0, 0) |
| Reverse | Play the preset backwards | off |
| Loop | Mirror of the timeline's loop toggle — kept in sync automatically | on |
Each control has an inline ↻ button that resets just that control. The Reset button at the bottom clears everything.
Tuning is persisted per preset — picking the same preset later in the same workflow restores the tuning you had.
- Camera track (blue) — the active preset's range. Right endpoint (solid blue) is draggable; drag it to change playback speed. Left endpoint (washed-out blue) is fixed at frame 0.
- Animation track (orange) — the active model animation. Drag the whole bar to shift the animation offset within the timeline. Drag the left or right endpoint to change speed.
- Playhead — drag across the timeline to scrub, or click anywhere to jump.
Playback bar below the timeline:
| Control | Purpose |
|---|---|
| ▶ / ❚❚ | Play / pause |
| 🔁 Timeline Loop | When the playhead hits the end of the camera range, restart from start. When off, playback pauses at the end |
| ♾ Model Anim Loop | When on, the animation keeps looping inside its range. The timeline visualization tiles the animation bar across the full camera length — solid orange for the authored cycle, washed-out orange for loop copies |
| Zoom slider | Zooms the timeline horizontally (also supported via Ctrl + wheel on the timeline) |
Set width, height, fps on the node. Click Queue Prompt. The node
produces:
IMAGE— a single frame at the current playheadVIDEO— the whole camera move, rendered off-screen at the target resolution using WebCodecs (deterministic, not bound by compositor frame pacing)
The video capture is cached: re-queuing without changing any input that affects the captured frames short-circuits the render, so repeat runs are instant.
MIT
- Mesh2Motion by Scott Petrovic — the original 3D rigging and animation tool this plugin builds on
- ComfyUI — the workflow platform
- animation-timeline-js — the canvas-based timeline widget
