Rigging & animation · Intermediate

Nonlinear animation

Arranging whole animations as clips you can reorder, loop and blend

Also called NLA

What is nonlinear animation?

Nonlinear animation, or NLA, is working with whole animations as reusable clips that you arrange, layer and blend on a timeline, like clips in a video editor. A walk, a wave and a jump can be stacked, sped up, looped or mixed without keying them again.

Think of it like this

Like a music app where each recorded part is a block you can drag, repeat or layer, instead of re-recording the whole song for each change.

Where it fits in a 3D project

  1. Create
  2. Surface
  3. Rig
  4. Animate
  5. Render
  6. Export

Animate: Making things move over time.

How nonlinear animation works

  1. 01Animate a single action, such as a wave, and save it as a clip.
  2. 02Place clips on tracks along the timeline, in any order.
  3. 03Overlap clips and set a blend so one fades into the next.
  4. 04Add a track on top to layer changes, like a head turn, over a base.

Where nonlinear animation is used

  • Building libraries of reusable moves for games
  • Joining several motion capture takes into one performance
  • Layering face animation over a body clip

Beginner tip

Animate each action in place, starting and ending in a similar pose. Clips that share their first and last poses blend into each other far more cleanly.

Terms related to nonlinear animation

Nonlinear animation FAQ

What is the NLA editor in Blender?
Blender’s window for nonlinear animation. Actions become strips you can move, repeat, scale and blend across tracks, which is how one character combines several saved animations in a single shot.
What is an animation clip?
A saved, self-contained piece of motion, such as one walk cycle or one jump. Blender calls them actions, and game engines usually call them clips or animation sequences.
How do you combine two animations?
Put each on its own track and overlap them, then set a blend so the first fades into the second. To add one on top of another, use an additive layer that only changes the bones it animates.

Updated October 29, 2026 · Browse all 3D terms