BlendMotion turns your iPhone into a real-time 6DoF (6 Degrees of Freedom) camera controller for Blender. Hold your phone, move it around, and the Blender camera follows your motion instantly over Wi-Fi.
- iPhone XS or newer (ARKit-capable, iOS 17+)
- Blender 4.0+ on your computer
- Same Wi-Fi network for both devices
- The BlendMotion Blender addon (free download from GitHub Releases)
1. Download the latest BlendMotion addon zip from GitHub Releases
2. Download the addon zip file
3. In Blender, go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons → Install
4. Select the zip file and enable it
5. Find the panel in View3D → Sidebar → BlendMotion tab
6. The Preflight Checklist will appear, showing your IP, camera status, port, and scene FPS
The easiest way: the Preflight Checklist in the BlendMotion panel shows your IP automatically. Click the 📋 copy button to copy it, then paste it into the iPhone app.
Alternatively, you can find it manually:
Mac: System Settings → Wi-Fi → Details → IP Address
Windows: Open CMD, type ipconfig, look for "IPv4 Address"
Linux: Open terminal, type ip addr or hostname -I
It will look something like 192.168.1.xxx
1. In Blender, open the BlendMotion panel — the Preflight Checklist will verify your IP, camera, port, and FPS
2. Copy your IP from the checklist (click 📋)
3. On your iPhone, paste the IP address and tap Connect
4. Click Start in the Blender panel
5. The panel will show "Connected" with your phone's IP
Hold your iPhone in landscape orientation (sideways, with the home button or notch on the right). This matches the natural camera orientation and gives the best tracking results.
Sensitivity controls how much the Blender camera rotates relative to your phone movement. A value of 1.0 means 1:1 tracking. Higher values amplify rotation — useful for small desk movements. Lower values make it smoother for large movements.
Position Scale multiplies your physical movement distance in Blender. Default is 5.0, meaning moving your phone 1 meter moves the camera 5 meters in Blender. Increase it for large scenes, decrease it for tabletop work.
Smoothing reduces hand shake and creates more cinematic camera motion. 0.0 means no smoothing (direct tracking). 0.3–0.5 is recommended for most use cases. Higher values add more lag but smoother results.
Tap the Rec button on your iPhone. BlendMotion will automatically insert keyframes on every frame in Blender. Tap again to stop recording. Your animation will be saved on the Blender timeline.
Retake deletes all recorded keyframes and rewinds the timeline back to the start. It lets you quickly redo a take without touching Blender — just tap Retake and record again.
The viewport preview streams a live image of your Blender 3D viewport to the iPhone at 24 FPS. This lets you see what the camera sees in Blender directly on your phone. Tap the Preview button to toggle it on or off. The preview uses a separate UDP channel (port 9091) and has minimal performance impact.
Pause freezes the camera in place while keeping the connection alive. When you unpause, tracking resumes with automatic recalibration from your current hand position.
Reset restores the camera to its original position (captured when you clicked Start in Blender), then recalibrates. Useful when you want to return to your starting framing.
Yes. The iPhone app remembers the last IP address you used, so you don't need to re-enter it every time you reconnect.
Clicking Recalibrate in the Blender panel resets the origin point. After recalibration, your current phone position becomes the new "zero" — the camera stays where it is, and all future movements are relative to this new position.
First, check the Preflight Checklist in the BlendMotion panel — it will flag most issues automatically. If everything shows ✓, also verify:
- Both devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network
- Make sure you entered the correct IP address
- Check that your firewall isn't blocking the UDP port
- Verify the Blender panel shows "Connected"
ARKit needs visual features to track your position. Try:
- Make sure the room has good lighting
- Point the camera at areas with texture and contrast (not blank walls)
- Move the phone slowly at first to let ARKit initialize
- Avoid very reflective surfaces
Make sure you're holding your phone in landscape orientation (sideways). The app is designed for landscape-right mode. If the camera drifts over time, try clicking Recalibrate in Blender.
Some lag is normal over Wi-Fi. To minimize it:
- Use a 5GHz Wi-Fi network (not 2.4GHz)
- Reduce Smoothing to 0.0–0.2
- Keep both devices close to the router
- Avoid network congestion (streaming, downloads)
Yes. The port is configurable directly in the BlendMotion panel. Change the port number in both the Blender panel and the iPhone app. Use any port between 1024 and 65535. The Preflight Checklist will verify that your chosen port is available. Make sure your firewall allows UDP traffic on that port.
Currently BlendMotion is iPhone only. We're always looking to improve — stay tuned for updates.
Currently BlendMotion only supports Blender 4.0+. We're focused on making the Blender experience as good as possible first.
The BlendMotion Blender addon is free — download it from GitHub Releases. The iOS companion app is available on the App Store — check there for current pricing.
No. BlendMotion does not collect, store, or transmit any personal data. Camera tracking data stays entirely on your local network. Read our full Privacy Policy for details.
Email us at skettchdev@gmail.com