Models

Bones that do something

In Blockbench, a model's parts are grouped into bones (the folders in the outliner). Start a bone's name with one of these prefixes and it does more than get drawn: a head that looks at its target, a wing you can hit, a seat. They are the same prefixes Model Engine uses, so a rig you already have, or bought, works without renaming anything.

Bone name	What it does
`h_head`	Turns to look at whatever its mob is targeting
`hi_head`	The same, and every bone under it turns with it
`b_wing`	A hitbox of its own, so the model is hit where you aimed
`ob_wing`	The same, and the hitbox turns with the bone
`p_seat1`	A passenger seat. Right-click it to sit
`mount`	Where the driver sits. One per model
`tag_name`	Where a name floats

Heads and seats only work on a model worn by a mob or a custom entity: a placed statue has nothing to look with and nobody to carry. Any other bone is an ordinary bone, which is nearly all of them. A model needs none of these.

Heads#

An h_ or hi_ bone turns toward what its mob is fighting, on top of whatever the animation is doing, so a walk cycle still moves the head.

It follows the target, not the gaze

The server cannot read which way a mob's head is turned, only its body. So a head bone looks at the mob's current target, and faces straight ahead when it has none.

Hitboxes#

b_ and ob_ give a bone a hitbox of its own, so a dragon is hit on the wing you aimed at instead of inside one box round the whole animal. The hitbox is sized from the bone and follows the animation. Use ob_ for bones that rotate a long way, so the hitbox turns with them.

A hit on a bone is passed on to the mob. The wing has no health of its own: the mob takes the damage with its own armour, death and loot. You can make some bones count for more or less:

  place:
    hitboxes:
      head: 2.0
      wing: 0.5

Each number multiplies the damage of a hit on that bone. It matches the bone's own name only, not the bones inside it, so a head inside a torso still counts as a head. (An animation mask works the other way and includes everything under the bone.)

Seats#

p_ bones are passenger seats and mount is the driver's. Right-click one to sit; the seat follows the bone, so a seat on a walking mount moves with it.

mount must be the whole bone name. A bone called mountain is scenery.

Nametags#

tag_ marks where a name floats. Vanilla puts a name a fixed distance above the hitbox, which on a large model can be somewhere inside its knee.

The text is the mob's own custom name, and its normal name tag is hidden while the model is on so there are not two. Taking the model off brings it back.

Not supported#

Procedural bones (tails, chains of segments) and bones that hold an item are not supported.