BreathForge – Add Breathing to Your Animations

BreathForge by Levent Ulas: a breathing animation tool for Maya

BreathForge is a procedural breathing animation tool for Autodesk Maya, designed to help character animators add natural, customisable breathing to their characters. Instead of keyframing repetitive breathing cycles by hand, you generate the breathing from ready-made presets and adjust it to match the performance.

6 styles, ready in seconds.

What BreathForge does

It generates breathing animation for you, on its own Maya Animation Layer. That keeps the workflow non-destructive: you can adjust, blend, mute or remove the breathing without touching your original animation. Six presets cover different styles and emotional states, from subtle natural breathing to heavier or more nervous patterns.

Key features of BreathForge

• 6 breathing presets, Natural, Calm, Deep, Heavy, Nervous and Sleeping
• Procedural breathing animation, generate breathing cycles without keyframing every repeat
• Non-destructive animation layers, breathing sits on a separate Maya Animation Layer and your original animation is preserved
• Adjustable breathing speed, set the breathing rate to suit the character and the performance
• Breathing intensity control, from subtle to exaggerated
• Inhale and exhale timing, customise the timing and rhythm of each breathing cycle
• Translation and rotation controls, fine-tune how the breathing moves the character
• Multiple body controls, apply breathing to the chest, shoulders, neck, head, arms and other supported rig controls
• IK/FK workflow support, adapt the breathing to compatible character rigs
• Looping and blending, continuous breathing cycles with adjustable transitions
• Simple Maya interface, designed for a fast animation workflow

What BreathForge is great for

• Character animation and acting performances
• Cinematic sequences
• Game animation and idle animations
• Any scene where subtle secondary movement helps bring a character to life

How it fits your Maya workflow

Finish your animation, choose a preset, then set the speed, intensity and inhale and exhale timing until the breathing matches the shot. Because it sits on its own layer, you can blend it down, mute it to check the pose underneath, or remove it, while keeping full artistic control over the final result.

Compatibility

Autodesk Maya 2022 to 2027, using the appropriate compatible build (one for Maya 2022 to 2024, one for Maya 2025 to 2027). Works with compatible character rigs that provide suitable upper-body animation controls. Some controller setup or adjustment may be needed depending on the rig.

BreathForge by Levent Ulas. See more animation plugins on Animworks.