11/10/26

Cascadeur gains non-destructive animation layers

Soft

The Cascadeur developers have released version 2026.2 and added additive animation layers to the program. According to the company, this is one of the features most frequently requested by professional animators and studios. Layers make it possible to break an object's motion down into several parts. Each layer stores its own animation data, and the enabled layers add up into the final motion. Edits can be made on top of a finished animation without deleting the original data. The feature has shipped with alpha status.

Alongside the layers, the release includes Easing settings that allow timing to be changed without altering the shape of the trajectory, as well as improvements to AutoPosing and physics. The Inbetweening and Motion Generation tools have been trained on larger datasets, and the interface has been translated into Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Edits on top of a finished animation

In the official video Animation Layers | Cascadeur 2026.2 Feature Highlights the developers show how this is arranged. A new layer effectively creates a separate timeline with its own keys and its own choice of interpolation type. Layers can be stacked, IK, FK and global interpolation can be switched within them, and each one can be turned on and off individually. When the result is satisfactory, the layers are merged into one.

The main scenario named in the video is mocap cleanup: the animator gains control over the blending and weight of the changes being made. The recorded motion stays on the base layer, the corrections sit separately, and any layer can be disabled without affecting the original data. A description of the tool and the workflow are collected in the help section Additive Layers (Alpha).

The company explicitly calls the layers a first version:

«This is the first iteration of animation layers, more functionality is planned for future releases».

In the video the developers add that the feature is in alpha and may at times work with errors. For production, in such a situation it makes sense to save scenes with important animation before merging layers.

Timing separate from the trajectory

Easing addresses a task familiar to animators: the trajectory has already been built with tangents, but the motion over a segment needs to be sped up or slowed down. As shown in the video, the animator sets the interpolation and the shape of the trajectory, enables Easing and drags the black markers on the timeline. Only the distribution of frames along the curve changes, while the curve itself remains the same. The setting works for each track separately, so, for example, an arm can be given a sharp acceleration without touching the motion of the torso.

Poses in contact with the scene and updated AI tools

AutoPosing now correctly adjusts hands and feet to the surrounding geometry. A character leaning on a table or standing on a step is easier to put into a pose without manually fitting the limbs. The video specifies a limitation: contact points are aligned to the collision meshes of non-dynamic objects only. AutoPosing for quadruped characters has been improved separately.

The remaining changes in animation and physics:

the Root Motion tool has been renamed Motion Generation, and it and Inbetweening have been trained on larger datasets;
Collision Penetration Cleaning now takes contact points into account and is enabled by default in AutoPhysics passes that involve the ground or kinematic colliders;
the rigging tools have been sped up;
animation import in BVH format, support for multiple materials on a single mesh and new camera exposure settings have been added.

For technical artists at studios, the Python API has been expanded. Custom interface elements can now be built with PySide/QML, and the code editor offers autocompletion and module hints when writing scripts for Cascadeur. The interface language is switched in the top right corner of the program, and the company promises further language packs in future releases. The full list of changes has been published in the release notes for version 2026.2.

Who will find this useful and how much it costs

In our assessment, those who work a lot with motion capture stand to gain the most. According to the help, layers in Cascadeur are arranged similarly to animation layers in other packages, Maya in particular, so the scheme of corrections on top of a recording will be familiar to them. BVH import will probably simplify loading mocap recordings directly into Cascadeur. For game studios that embed the program into their pipeline, the Python API improvements are more useful: custom interface elements make it possible to tailor the program to in-house tools.

There are limitations for now. The layers are in alpha, and the company will be expanding their set of capabilities. Fitting poses to the environment, judging by the video, works only with non-dynamic geometry. The license matters too. According to the pricing tiers, the free version includes the full set of animation tools but is only suitable for non-commercial work and saves results exclusively in the .casc format. Export to FBX and DAE is unlocked from the Indie tier: €19 per month or €8 per month with annual payment, on condition of annual revenue under $100k. Pro costs €49 per month or €33 with annual payment, and has a 14-day trial period. Annual Indie and Pro subscriptions grant a perpetual license to the major versions released during the subscription: if 2026.2 came out during an annual plan, it stays with the owner even after the plan ends.

Cascadeur 2026.2 can be downloaded from the release announcement page. The developers are asking users to share feedback first and foremost on the animation layers and the new interface languages.

Which of the new features in Cascadeur 2026.2 will you try first?