Template

Everything you need to start making emotes, in one zip.

Download the Template

What's inside

PlayerEmotes Template/
  player_emote_template.geo.json             the player, straight arms and legs
  player_emote_template_bendable.geo.json    the player, elbows and knees you can bend
  My Emote Pack/                             resource pack, ready to drop in resourcepacks
    pack.mcmeta
    assets/myemotes/
      lang/en_us.json                        names and descriptions
      playeremotes/my_emotes/
        pack.json                            pack info and emote options
        example_wave.json                    an example, replace it with yours
  My Server Emotes/                          the same as a data pack, for servers
  README.txt

player_emote_template - use this one for most emotes
player_emote_template_bendable - only if you want bent elbows and knees, see Elbows and Knees
My Emote Pack - goes in .minecraft/resourcepacks
My Server Emotes - goes in <world>/datapacks, only if you run a server and want players to get your emotes

Rename myemotes (the namespace) and my_emotes (the pack) to something of your own, lowercase, no spaces. Don't forget to change the lang file to match.

If Minecraft says the pack is made for another version, turn it on anyway, it works.

The bones

The hierarchy is the same as in the game, a bone moves everything nested in it.

graph TD
    body["body<br><i>the whole player</i>"] --> torso["torso<br><i>bends at the waist</i>"]
    body --> right_leg
    body --> left_leg
    torso --> head
    torso --> right_arm
    torso --> left_arm
    torso --> prop_body
    head --> prop_head
    right_arm --> item_right
    left_arm --> item_left
    prop["prop<br><i>on the ground</i>"]

Loading

Bone	What it is	Pivot (Blockbench)
body	the whole player, move this to lift, lower or turn everything	0, 12, 0
torso	bends at the waist, carries the head and arms	0, 12, 0
head		0, 24, 0
right_arm, left_arm		-5, 22, 0 / 5, 22, 0
right_leg, left_leg		-1.9, 12, 0 / 1.9, 12, 0
item_right, item_left	a prop in the hand, see Animated Props	-6, 12, -2 / 6, 12, -2
prop_body, prop_head	a prop in the torso / head	0, 18, 0 / 0, 28, 0
prop	a prop on the ground	0, 8, 0

The bendable template also has these, see Elbows and Knees:

Bone	Pivot (Blockbench)
right_lower_arm, left_lower_arm	-6, 18, 0 / 6, 18, 0
right_lower_leg, left_lower_leg	-1.9, 6, 0 / 1.9, 6, 0

Don't move the pivots. The game uses its own player model, it only reads your animation. If you move a pivot in Blockbench, it looks right there and wrong in game.

You can add more bones though, any bone that isn't one of these becomes a prop bone, see Animated Props.

Tips for the template

• Drag your own skin (64x64) onto the model to see what it'll look like.
• The prop bones have a placeholder cube so you see them move. Put any model in there for the preview, the game only uses the animation.
• Your .bbmodel (File > Save Project) is only for you, the game never needs it. Keep it next to the pack so you can come back to your animations later.

Next: Making Emotes