Blueprints

What is a Blueprint?

A Blueprint is Animated Java’s custom Blockbench project format (.ajblueprint). It stores everything needed to generate a working Minecraft rig: your 3D model, textures, animations, variants, and all export configuration.

When you export a Blueprint, Animated Java compiles it into a Resource Pack (containing your custom models and textures) and a Data Pack (containing all the MCfunction logic to summon, animate, and control your rig in-game).

Blueprint Settings

Blueprint Settings can be opened from Animated Java Blueprint Settings in the Blockbench menu bar, or from the Animated Java panel.

General

• Blueprint ID

  A namespaced identifier (e.g. my_pack:my_rig) that uniquely identifies this blueprint. This ID is used as the namespace and path for every generated function, function tag, storage key, and model path.

• Target Minecraft Version

  The Minecraft version to compile for. Animated Java uses this to pick the correct pack format, item component format, NBT structure, and enchantment syntax.

  Minimum supported version: 1.20.4

  Changing this value after you have already exported may require re-exporting to update generated files.

• Enable Plugin Mode

  Switches the export pipeline to produce a single .json file instead of a data pack. This file is consumed by a Minecraft server plugin rather than a vanilla data pack. When plugin mode is active, the Data Pack settings are replaced by Plugin settings.

Resource Pack

• Resource Pack Export Mode

  Controls how the resource pack output is written.

  • folder — Merges generated files directly into a resource pack directory on disk. Ideal for live development.
  • zip — Writes all generated files into a .zip archive.
  • none — Skips resource pack output entirely. Only valid when your blueprint contains no custom models (e.g. you are only using vanilla Block Display or Item Display nodes).

• Resource Pack Path

  The path to the target resource pack folder or zip file. Must point to a valid resource pack (a directory containing pack.mcmeta).

• Display Item

  The Minecraft item whose model is overridden to render rig bones. Animated Java assigns each bone a unique CustomModelData value on this item.

  The item must be a generated-type item (e.g. minecraft:white_dye, minecraft:stick). Avoid items with special rendering such as tools, armor, or blocks.

• Custom Model Data Offset

  An integer offset added to all assigned CustomModelData values. Useful for avoiding conflicts with other resource packs that also use CustomModelData on the same display item.

Data Pack

• Data Pack Export Mode

  Controls how the data pack output is written. Same options as Resource Pack Export Mode: folder, zip, or none.

• Data Pack Path

  The path to the target data pack folder or zip file.

• Auto Update Rig Orientation

  When enabled, Animated Java automatically updates the rig root entity’s facing direction each tick to match its movement direction. Disable this if you want to control orientation manually.

• Use Storage for Animation

  When enabled, animation frame data is written to command storage. This significantly reduces the number of generated function files, at the cost of 40% slower animation performance.

  When disabled (the default), each animation frame is a separate MCfunction file. This produces more files but is much faster to run in-game.

Rig

• Interpolation Duration

  The number of ticks all bone display entities use for client-side transform interpolation (MC’s interpolation_duration NBT field). Higher values produce smoother but more delayed-looking motion. The default is 1.

• Teleportation Duration

  Interpolation duration in ticks for teleportation. Values are clamped between 0 and 59 (inclusive). The default is 1.

• Custom Rig Entity Tags

  A comma-separated list of extra scoreboard tags added to all entities in the rig when it is summoned. Useful for identifying your rig entities in custom commands.

• Use Entity Stacking

  When enabled (the default), all bone display entities ride the root entity as passengers. This is the standard and most performant approach.

  When disabled, bone entities are repositioned via teleportation every tick instead. This is slightly less performant, however, it provides much smoother rotations.

Event Functions

Event functions are snippets of MCfunction commands injected into specific points in the rig’s lifecycle. All functions support MC-Build syntax and are executed as and at the root entity unless noted.

• On-Summon Function

  Commands injected into the summon function, executed once when the rig is first spawned.

• On-Remove Function

  Commands injected into the remove/this function, executed once when the rig is removed.

• On-Pre-Tick Function

  Commands injected at the beginning of the tick function, executed every game tick before bone transforms are applied.

• On-Post-Tick Function

  Commands injected at the end of the tick function, executed every game tick after bone transforms are applied.

Render Box

The render box controls the culling volume that Minecraft uses to decide whether to render the rig. If the root entity’s bounding box leaves the player’s view frustum, the entire rig (including all passengers) is hidden.

• Show Render Box

  Toggles a wireframe preview of the render box in the Blockbench viewport.

• Auto Render Box

  When enabled, Animated Java automatically calculates a render box large enough to contain all bones across all animation frames, with an 8-unit overflow margin. Recommended to leave this on.

• Render Box Size

  Manual render box dimensions in blocks (half-width and height). Only active when Auto Render Box is disabled.

Plugin Settings

Only visible when Enable Plugin Mode is turned on.

• JSON File Path

  The path to write the exported plugin blueprint JSON file.

• Baked Animations

  When enabled, animations are fully pre-computed (baked) and embedded in the JSON output. When disabled, raw keyframe data is embedded instead and the server plugin performs interpolation itself.

Exporting Your Blueprint

Once your blueprint is configured, click Animated Java > Export (Debug) to generate the resource pack and data pack files.

Animated Java tracks every file it writes using an .ajmeta file stored next to the pack. On the next export, stale files from the previous export are automatically cleaned up.