What is Ghoster?

Ghoster is a Blender addon that lets you record animation sequences and replay them as semi-transparent ghost overlays in the viewport.
It’s designed to help you compare animation versions, analyze motion, and iterate faster—without rendering or duplicating scenes.

Installation

1. Download the Ghoster .zip file

2. In Blender, go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons

3. Click Install, select the zip, and enable Ghoster

4. The Ghoster panel will appear in the 3D Viewport → Sidebar (N) → Ghoster

Basic Workflow

1. Create a Ghost Layer

• Open the Ghoster panel

• Add a new ghost layer

• Choose a source Collection containing the objects you want to record

• Set the frame range

2. Record Animation

• Click Record

• Ghoster captures evaluated geometry frame-by-frame

• Progress is shown in the header (ESC cancels)

3. Iterate Your Animation

• Modify timing, spacing, poses, or keyframes

• Your current animation plays normally

4. Play Back the Ghost

• Enable the ghost layer

• Play the timeline

• The recorded animation appears as a semi-transparent overlay for real-time comparison

Ghost Layers

• Up to 3 ghost layers can be active at once

• Each layer has independent:

  • Color

  • Opacity

  • Frame range

  • Display mode

  • Quality level

• Layers can be toggled on/off instantly

Display Modes

• Solid – Filled geometry

• Wireframe – Edge-only rendering

• Silhouette – Boundary and sharp edges only (best for motion clarity)

Quality Modes

• Full – Complete geometry

• Low – 50% decimated geometry (lower memory usage)

• Silhouette – Optimized edge-only capture (60–80% smaller memory footprint)

Performance & Memory

• Ghoster estimates memory usage before recording

• Runtime memory is tracked per layer

• Warnings appear if usage exceeds limits

• Caches are automatically cleared on file load to prevent leaks

Tip: Use Silhouette or increase frame stepping for heavy scenes.

Animation Restore

Before recording, Ghoster backs up animation data.
If needed, you can restore original keyframes and f-curves using Restore Animation.

Limitations

• Geometry only (no materials or textures)

• Mesh-based objects only

• Ghost data is runtime-only (not saved in .blend)

• Max 3 layers, 500 frames per layer

• Memory usage depends on scene complexity