A 3D scene, moving on a timeline.

Animate a 3D model in your browser, nothing uploaded: models, shapes, solid words, lights and cameras keyed on a timeline, saved as a GLB, an MP4 or a GIF.

By Suraj Kumar5 November 20267 min read

3D animation usually starts with a large program to install and learn. KeepSimp's Animation maker opens a 3D scene in your browser instead: bring in a model, add shapes, words and lights, give them keys on a timeline, and save an animated GLB, a video or a GIF. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and the files carry no watermark.

Choose A 3D model that moves.

The first screen asks what you want to make. A 3D model that moves opens a 3D scene: a stage seen through a camera, measured in metres and standing on Y, as glTF files are. Drop a model on it, or start from a 3D logo, 3D words or a spinning logo.

A starter is made of the editor's own parts, lights, camera and keys, nothing else, so every part of it can be changed or taken away.

What a scene holds.

Models: a GLB opens as it is, and the other files KeepSimp's 3D viewer opens (glTF, FBX, OBJ, STL and more) are turned into a GLB first by the viewer's own readers. A model's parts are listed by name, as the file has them, and each can be moved on its own.

Shapes: boxes, spheres, cylinders, cones, rings, capsules and planes, each with a colour, how metal and how rough it looks, and how see-through it is. Words and SVG outlines can be made solid, pushed out to a depth with rounded edges.

Lights: a sun that shines one way across the whole scene, a lamp that shines all round from a point, a spotlight with a cone, and a soft light that lifts the shadows. Cameras: each has a place, a turn and how wide it sees, and the scene is saved as its camera sees it.

Keys and easing, as in 2D.

In Animate, a change is a key at the frame shown. A part's keys hold where it stands, how it turns about each axis and its size; a light's, its strength and colour; a camera's, its place, its turn and how wide it sees; a shape's, its colour.

Between keys, the same easing moves them as in 2D: Smooth, Slow down, Overshoot, Spring or a curve of your own. A timeline loops, plays once or plays there and back, and every change can be undone, one step at a time.

A model's own animations.

Many models arrive with animations of their own, such as a walk, a wave or a door that opens. They are listed under the model, each to play, and each can be placed on the timeline to start at a moment you choose.

They can be trimmed, joined two into one, renamed, made faster or slower, or taken out, and the GLB keeps them as you left them.

Save it as a GLB, a video or a GIF.

An animated GLB holds the keys as glTF's own animations: where each part stands, how it turns and its size, which every glTF viewer plays. A camera's view, the lights' strength and colour and a material's colour are animated with KHR_animation_pointer, an extension the Khronos Group has ratified. Some viewers do not support it yet: they show those still, and the page says so before you save.

Every GLB is read back by three.js's glTF loader, as the 3D viewer reads it, before it is offered, and the way it is written is held to Khronos' glTF Validator in KeepSimp's own tests. A video (MP4 or WebM) or a GIF of the camera's view is written by the same engine as KeepSimp's Animation converter and checked too, and a PNG saves one frame. None carries a watermark.

Drawn on your device.

The scene is drawn with WebGL, the browser's own way of drawing 3D with your device's graphics chip, and every file is written there too. Nothing is sent anywhere.

A project can be saved as a .ksanim file to open again later. It is kept on the device only while its switch is on, which starts off every time.

A little less theory. A little more doing.

Try it on your own terms, with a free browser tool.

Try the tool