The animation-tool makers at Cosmo Mídias have released a new add-on for Blender called 3D Onion Skinning. According to the official documentation and the product page, it adds a simple but powerful way to visualise animation timing directly in the 3D viewport.
3D Onion Skinning uses Blender’s Python API and Geometry Nodes to create translucent “ghost” frames around the current frame in an animation. This lets animators preview frames before and after the current moment in the viewport, allowing them to analyse timing, spacing and motion arcs without switching between editors.
Key features
The add-on can display relative frames both before and after the current frame, with independent control over how many frames are visible and what colour each ghosted frame should use. It includes an auto-update system that refreshes the ghosted frames whenever the user scrubs the timeline or adjusts keyframes and graph handles, so the preview remains accurate during animation.
It supports multiple object types including meshes, curves, surfaces, fonts, metaballs and instanced collections. The developers also note compatibility with library overrides and linked data. Visualisation works in both solid view and render view. In render view, the ghost frames automatically fade based on their distance from the current frame, improving clarity when previewing dense motion.
The interface is compact and minimal. A shortcut (Ctrl + Shift + Alt + O by default) opens or hides the add-on panel. Each parameter has a tooltip to explain its effect, keeping the design consistent with Blender’s native UI conventions.
Compatibility and implementation
The developers state that 3D Onion Skinning works natively with Blender 4.5 LTS and newer. The add-on does not require any external dependencies beyond Blender itself. It generates baked cache files on disk to store ghosted frame data. The (Quite cool and interactive) documentation recommends saving these caches to a local SSD path rather than a cloud-synchronised folder such as Dropbox or Google Drive, as doing so could cause update issues.
Use-cases
Cosmo Mídias presents the add-on as useful for a wide range of animation tasks. It helps students and educators learn timing and spacing, supports character animators refining pose-to-pose transitions, and aids motion-graphics artists working on complex movement. It can also help game-animation teams fine-tune short gameplay loops directly in the viewport without exporting repeatedly.
Pricing and availability
The 3D Onion Skinning add-on is available for purchase at a price of 9.90 USD from the Superhive marketplace, formerly known as Blender Market.
Why this matters
Checking timing and spacing in 3D animation often requires switching between frame playback, dopesheets or graph editors. Traditional onion-skin tools are typically 2D overlays, which lose depth and spatial accuracy. 3D Onion Skinning moves that preview into the 3D viewport, allowing animators to observe geometry movement directly in space relative to the current frame.
For production, this tool could reduce iteration time when refining animation or motion-graphics sequences. The ability to display motion trails and ghosted frames together can help animators and supervisors communicate adjustments more clearly during reviews.
Final thoughts
3D Onion Skinning focuses on a single function: frame ghosting in three-dimensional space and implements it using Blender’s native tools. This simplicity means low maintenance, no extra dependencies and minimal setup time. However, as with all new tools, artists should test it in their own pipelines, particularly when working with linked assets or large scenes, before integrating it into production.
