Making Emotes

Every emote is just a resource, so you can make your own with a resource pack. No coding, only Blockbench (it's free).

This page gets you from nothing to your first emote in game. The pages after it go deeper into each part.

flowchart LR
    A[Template] -->|open in| B[Blockbench]
    B -->|animate| C[Animation]
    C -->|Export Animations| D[Resource pack]
    D -->|Reload key| E[In game!]
    E -.->|not happy? tweak and export again| B

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What you need

Blockbench - to animate
The Template - the player model with the right bones, from the Template page
A resource pack - where your emotes live, the Template comes with an empty one

1. Get the template

Download it from the Template page and unzip it. Put the My Emote Pack folder in your .minecraft/resourcepacks folder and turn it on in game.

2. Open it in Blockbench

File > Open Model and pick player_emote_template.geo.json. It opens as a Bedrock entity.

If you want to see your skin on it, drag your skin file (64x64) onto the model.

3. Animate

Go to the Animate tab (top right) and add a new animation with the +.

The animation's name is your emote's id. Call it my_wave and the emote is my_wave. A animation.model. in front gets dropped, so animation.model.my_wave works the same.

Then rotate and move the bones. The ones you'll use most:

body            the whole player
└─ torso        bends at the waist
   ├─ head
   ├─ right_arm
   └─ left_arm
right_leg
left_leg

The full list is on the Template page.

Set the loop mode in the animation's properties (right click it):

Play Once - plays and the emote ends
Loop - keeps going until the player stops it
Hold On Last Frame - plays, then stays in the last pose. Good for sitting, laying and poses

4. Export

Animation > Export Animations, tick the ones you want, and save the file into:

My Emote Pack/assets/myemotes/playeremotes/my_emotes/

Any file name works, one file can have as many animations as you like. The my_emotes folder becomes its own section in All Emotes, rename it to whatever your pack is called.

5. See it in game

Press the Reload Emote Files key. It's unassigned by default, set it in Options > Controls > Key Binds > PlayerEmotes. It's much faster than F3+T.

Open the wheel, All Emotes, and your emote is there :D

Keep Blockbench open while you work: tweak, export over the same file, press the key, look again.

Giving it a name

Without anything else, my_wave shows up as "My Wave". To give it a real name, add a lang file:

My Emote Pack/assets/myemotes/lang/en_us.json

{
  "emote.myemotes.my_wave": "Friendly Wave",
  "emote.myemotes.my_wave.description": "A big wave with both arms",
  "emote_pack.my_emotes": "My Emotes"
}

Where to go next

• Emote Packs - folders, sections in the list, sharing your pack
• pack.json - sounds, held items, random variants and every other option
• Animation Features - what from Blockbench works (easing, Molang, scale...)
• Sounds and Particles - keyframe sounds and particles in the animation
• Animated Props - move items and blocks around
• Elbows and Knees - bending limbs
• Making Partner Emotes - emotes for two players
• Tips - how to make them look good