Pack Json

Every option an emote can have. They all go in the emotes part of a pack.json, under the emote's id, and they're all optional.

{
  "emotes": {
    "my_wave": {
      "look": false,
      "sound": "minecraft:entity.villager.celebrate"
    }
  }
}

An emote you don't write in here still works, with every option on its default. You only need an entry to change something.

All options

Option	Default	What it does
animation	the emote's id	the animation it plays
animations		several animations, one is picked each time
pick	cycle	cycle (in order) or random
look	true	the head follows the camera
sound		a sound when the emote starts
item		an item held while emoting
props		items moved by their own bones
partner		makes it a two-player emote
selector, variants		picks an animation from the world around the player
blend_in, blend_out	0.15, 0.2	seconds to blend from and back to the normal pose
bend_style	smooth	how bent elbows and knees look
preview	the middle	which moment the menus show
name, description		fallback name and description, for packs without lang files
author		shown in the emote list
order	0	sort order in its section, lower first, then by name

animations and pick

By default an emote plays the animation with its own name. Point it to another one, or give it a few to choose from:

"dance": {
  "animations": ["dance", "dance2", "dance3"],
  "pick": "random"
}

cycle plays them in order, one each time, random picks one.

Animations that an emote uses (like dance2 and dance3 above) don't become emotes of their own, so they don't fill up the list.

Animations from other namespaces work too: "mymod:dance".

look

"bow": { "look": false }

With true, the head keeps following where the player looks, on top of the animation. Good for idle stuff like sitting. Turn it off for anything where the head is part of the animation (bows, facepalms, dances), otherwise it fights your keyframes.

sound

Plays when the emote starts, follows the player and stops with the emote.

"cheer": { "sound": "minecraft:entity.villager.celebrate" }

"laugh": {
  "sound": { "id": "minecraft:entity.witch.celebrate", "volume": 0.8, "pitch": 1.0, "range": 8 }
}

range is how far it's heard in blocks (default 8, max 16). For sounds at exact moments of the animation and your own sound files, see Sounds and Particles.

item

An item in the player's hand while the emote plays, in place of what they hold.

"eat_cake": { "item": "minecraft:cake" }

"drums": { "item": { "id": "minecraft:stick", "hand": "both" } }

hand is right (default), left or both. The item only stays in the hand, to move it around use props.

props

Items and blocks moved by their own bones, everything about it is on Animated Props.

"juggle": {
  "props": {
    "item_right": "held",
    "prop": "minecraft:oak_stairs"
  }
}

partner

Makes it a two-player emote, everything about it is on Making Partner Emotes.

"high_five": {
  "look": false,
  "partner": { "intro": "high_five_intro", "action": "high_five", "distance": 0.9 }
}

selector and variants

Lets the emote pick an animation from the world around the player. The built-in selector is lean: it leans on a wall to the left or right if there is one, else it leans back.

"lean": {
  "selector": "lean",
  "variants": {
    "left": "lean_left",
    "right": "lean_right",
    "back": ["lean_back", "lean_back_2"]
  }
}

flowchart LR
    A[Player plays lean] --> B{Wall on the left?}
    B -->|Yes| L[left]
    B -->|No| C{Wall on the right?}
    C -->|Yes| R[right]
    C -->|No| K[back]

Loading

A variant can be one animation or a list (then pick decides). If the selector doesn't exist or picks a group you didn't write, the emote plays its animations instead, so it's a good idea to give it those as a fallback.

For mod developers: you can add your own selectors from code, it returns the name of the variant group:

EmoteSelectors.register("weather", minecraft -> minecraft.level != null && minecraft.level.isRaining() ? "rain" : "sun");

blend_in and blend_out

"sit_rest": { "blend_in": 0.3, "blend_out": 0.4 }

Seconds the player takes to blend from their normal pose into the emote, and back out at the end. Longer feels softer, shorter feels snappier. Set 0 if the animation already starts from the standing pose itself.

bend_style

Only matters if the emote bends elbows or knees, see Elbows and Knees.

"stretch": { "bend_style": "split" }

smooth (default) bends one limb, split turns two halves into each other like the Blockbench preview. Players can still override it in their settings.

preview

"kamehameha": { "preview": 2.5 }

The wheel shows each emote as a still pose until you hover it. This is the second of the animation it shows. By default it's the middle, which is usually fine, but for an emote whose best moment is later (or earlier), set it.

A full example

{
  "name": "Party",
  "description": "Party emotes",
  "author": "You",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "emotes": {
    "party_dance": {
      "animations": ["party_dance", "party_dance_2"],
      "pick": "random",
      "look": false,
      "sound": { "id": "minecraft:entity.villager.celebrate", "volume": 0.7 },
      "blend_in": 0.25,
      "order": 1
    },
    "toast": {
      "look": false,
      "item": "minecraft:honey_bottle",
      "preview": 1.2,
      "order": 2
    }
  }
}