Groups

Groups (also called bones) are used to create hierarchies and to apply transformations to multiple nodes at once. They are the primary tool for rigging and animating a model in Animated Java.

Entity Creation

A Group only creates a minecraft:item_display entity when exported if it has Cube children. Otherwise, it is only used for organizational and rigging purposes in the editor.

Display Entity Config

Because Groups that contain Cubes create a minecraft:item_display entity, they expose the full Display Entity Config. Right-click on the group in the outliner and select Display Entity Config to open it.

The config has a global section (applies regardless of variant) and a per-variant section (can be different for each variant).

Global Options

• On-Summon Function

  Commands executed as and at this entity when it is summoned.

  All functions support MC-Build syntax.

Per-Variant Options

These options can be configured independently for each variant using the Variant selector at the top of the config dialog.

• On-Apply Function

  Commands executed as this entity when the selected variant is applied to the rig.

• Billboard

  Controls whether the bone entity pivots to face the player.

  • fixed — No billboarding. The entity faces its rigged direction.
  • horizontal — Pivots around the vertical axis to face the player.
  • vertical — Pivots around the horizontal axis to face the player.
  • center — Always faces the player around both axes.

• Override Brightness

  When enabled, the entity ignores ambient lighting and uses the specified sky and block brightness values instead.

  • Sky Brightness — Sky light level (0–15).
  • Block Brightness — Block light level (0–15).

• Enchanted

  Adds the enchantment glint effect to the bone’s item model. Useful for making a glowing sword, magic item, or highlight effect.

• Glowing

  Makes the entity emit a glow outline (as if it has the glowing status effect).

  • Override Glow Color — When enabled, uses a custom color for the glow outline.
  • Glow Color — The hex color for the glow outline.

• Shadow Radius

  The radius of the entity’s circular shadow, in blocks. Set to 0 to disable the shadow.

• Shadow Strength

  The opacity of the shadow (0.0 – 1.0).