Jonas Mangelschots
Show your keystrokes and scene changes on screen as you work.
Action Overlay displays your key presses and the settings you change in Blender as an on-screen overlay. It's made for tutorials and streaming, and it's also useful for keeping track of what you've just done.
What's included
- The add-on zip file
No sales. The price only goes up, and only when a big update releases, so there's no reason to wait.
Features
- Key Display: shows keyboard shortcuts and mouse buttons in real time.
- Action Stack: shows changes to modifiers, constraints, materials, render settings, physics, particles and more.
- Works across editors: turn it on per editor, each with its own position.
- Customizable: choose what's tracked and how it looks.
Most core Blender features are tracked. Some may not be yet, so feel free to request additions.
How to use it
After installing, the overlay is on by default in the 3D Viewport and Node Editor. To change it, press N in the 3D Viewport and open the Overlay tab. Reset Overlay clears what's on screen.
Key Display
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Show Mouse Buttons | Includes mouse clicks |
| Show Modifiers Only | Only shows keys while Shift, Ctrl or Alt is held |
| Max Keys | How many keys show at once |
| Lifetime and Fade Time | How long keys stay and how quickly they fade |
| Font Size, Padding, Spacing | The size and layout |
| Colors | Background, held key and text colors |
Action Stack
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tracking categories | Choose what to follow: modifiers, constraints, materials, object properties, object data, physics, particles, render, output, scene, view layer, world, collections, tool settings and workspace |
| Max Items | How many cards show at once |
| Lifetime and Fade Time | How long cards stay and how quickly they fade |
| Min Width, Max Height, Font Sizes | The size and layout |
| Colors | Background, text and accent colors |
Editors and position
Both overlays can show in the 3D Viewport, Node Editor, Image Editor, Video Sequencer, Movie Clip Editor, Dope Sheet, Graph Editor, NLA Editor and Text Editor. Use Anchor to pick a screen corner, and X and Y to set the distance from it.
Compatibility
Blender 4.0 to 5.2.
Installation
- Download the zip. Don't unzip it.
- In Blender, go to Edit > Preferences > Add-ons, click the arrow in the top right and choose Install from Disk. On Blender 4.0 and 4.1, click Install.
- Select the zip and tick Action Overlay in the list.
- Press N in the 3D Viewport and open the Overlay tab.
Support
Questions, bugs and feature requests are all welcome on Discord or Instagram.