MAURITS VALK
Whippet
A simple and intuitive 3D storyboarding add-on coming November 2025 for Blender.
Features
Camera Management
Quickly add new cameras and adjust their duration in the Dopesheet with a simple camera list. Accessible camera editing tools all in one place.
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Grease Pencil Tools
Custom operators to speed up drawing with Grease Pencil. Insert new drawings and automatically manage keyframe timing. Whippet synchronizes GP operators with cameras allowing you to focus on drawing and not editing the Dopesheet.
Playblast &
Editing
Intuitive playblast rendering and keyframe exports. Playblasts are automatically uploaded into a VSE scene to let you cut your footage together.
Intuitive UI
Whippet is designed to be intuitive to use and easy to learn. An simple UI gives you quick access to what you need.
Menus and custom features are located in the N-panel, Dopesheet Header, Dopesheet N-Panel and Sequencer N-Panel.
Core features include:
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Custom GP Keyframe Operators
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Camera controls
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GP Keyframe Flipping
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Playblast Renders and Image exports
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Shot Layer Collections
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Custom Sequencer Tools
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Pin Materials to Layers
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Cycle between GP objects fast
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Menus accessible in one place
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Custom Call Pop-up Menu
GP Pop-up
A custom GP Draw Mode pop-up menu was created that provides instant access to brushes, material selection, Whippet GP keyframe timing, Onion Skinning, Layer menus and the Outliner.
Playblasts
Easy to use Playblast menu that uses Blender's Viewport Render Animation feature. Burn in metadata to see information while editing. Render stepped for a traditional storyboard feel and render stills of all selected keyframes in the dopesheet. Camera folders are automatically created with the rendered stills.
Gizmos & Dopesheet
Custom Gizmo buttons help with precise camera moves, hiding unwanted camera icons and reveal compositional guides. The Dopesheet includes access to custom Whippet features making it easy to cycle through GP keyframes, manage cameras and see a real time edit of your scene.
Sequencer Menu
Whippet features custom Sequencer Tools to help you cut footage and export EDLs.
Jump between VSE and Storyboard Workspaces easily.
2D Storyboard Mode
The most common storyboarding use with Blender is to export camera images to draw over top of them in Storyboard Pro. Whippet provides that same panel to panel drawing experience with a new 2D Storyboard Mode.
Inserting new/duplicate GP keyframe will ensure enough frames are held between the GP keyframe and the end frame of the active camera. The video shows using the GP keyframe operators with shortcuts, Shift+D, flipping between drawings with A and F, then finally inserting a new camera with Ctrl+Shift+F.
The 2D Storyboard mode ensures a consistent gap between cameras allowing you to insert a shot in-between two cameras. The mode can also reposition GP objects inside the Whippet GPs collection to a default position in front of the camera automatically and insert a blank keyframe setting up your next shot instantly.
Double Click on the video to enlarge
Custom Collections
Whippet Collections help organize Grease Pencil objects, Cameras and individual Shot Layer Collections. Cycle between GP objects without having to open the Outliner with a custom operator bound to a keyboard shortcut. Cameras are collected in a single Collection making it easy to select multiple camera keyframes at once for exporting stills.
Sequencer Tools
Custom Trim Left/Right operators that let you cut video stirps together quickly. Toggle Auto Set Frame Range and Frame on Render Range to stay centered on your edit. Shot renaming features and EDL export are included to let you continue editing in your preferred software.
Jump straight back to your storyboard scene using the 'Go to camera in scene' (mapped to double click in video).
Keyframe Flipping
Flip between GP keyframes using shortcuts 'A' & 'F'. Quickly toggle the preview range to the active camera or manually select a preview range to flip through your drawings.
Additional keyframe flipping options include GP Keyframes Only and Active Layer.
Whippet Release & Roadmap
Whippet 1.0 will release early November 2025 for Blender 4.5.
Whippet 2.0 will release late November to early December 2025 for Blender 5.0. It will include an integration with the new "Story Tools" project native to Blender. Whippet will function the same but if you prefer to use Scene strips instead of Video strips from playblasts, you'll be able to easily convert your Whippet Cameras into Scene strips, see a work-in-progress example below.