Live puppeting
Drive your character in real time from a webcam or phone camera.
Point a camera
~40ms live stream
Character performs live
Why use it
For blocking, previs, or streaming, waiting to bake a video isn't worth it — you want to see the character react as you perform. Live puppeting drives your rig straight from the camera at ~40ms latency (under ~60ms reads as instant), with no setup beyond picking your camera.
Steps in Blender
- 1Open the Live panel (panel 9, "Live (phone camera)") in the Face Addon sidebar tab.
- 2Pick your camera from the dropdown — works with a webcam or any phone IP-camera app. Click refresh if it's not listed.
- 3Click Start Live — no terminal, no extra setup.
- 4Hold a neutral, relaxed face and click Set Neutral Pose to calibrate your expression baseline and auto-size the rig to your distance from camera.
- 5Perform — the character's face follows yours live.
- 6Click Record to capture the performance to keyframes, Stop when done.
- 7If the rig pose looks broken or stuck, click Reset Bone Pose and recalibrate.