Lite & Pro
Animation Workbench ships in two editions from the same codebase. This page states exactly where the line runs, so you can find out before you hit it.
The principle
Consuming your library is free. Producing with it is Pro.
Browsing, searching, previewing, scrubbing, comparing, playing back - all of that works without limits in Lite, including on content that was authored in Pro. What Pro unlocks is volume on the authoring side: more layers, more versions, more events, more rules.
Nothing is greyed out. Every button stays clickable, and the upgrade dialog appears only on an explicit click - never as a blocking wall while you work.
What Lite includes
Not a demo. Lite is a working tool:
- The full Animation Browser - thumbnails, search, filters, grid & list, virtualized for large libraries
- The full Keyframe Editor - timeline, curves, retiming, mirroring, onion skinning, clipboard, events
- Pose Edit - FK, IK, pinning, mirroring and motion trails without any limit; props up to the budget below, and a prop's moving part follows the playhead either way
- The full Rig Edit - add bones to a prop, bind a mesh so it moves, attach geometry, commit it into the prefab and take it back again. No limits at all
- Live Edit and scene sync
- Multi-Clip Compare including ghost mode
- Palettes and the built-in rules
- The whole audio pipeline at runtime - cues, channels, gates, voice limiting. Nothing about playback in a build is gated
Where the limits are
| Feature | Lite | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Animation Layers | 2 per clip, base included | Unlimited |
| Version History | Last 2 versions per clip | Every version |
| Audio Events | 1 per clip | Unlimited |
| Spawn Events | 1 per clip | Unlimited |
| Props in Pose Edit | 1 per character | Unlimited |
| Custom Rules | 1 on top of the built-in defaults | Unlimited, with AND/OR groups |
| Scene Props | 1 prop per character in Pose Edit | Unlimited, each with its own fit per rig |
| External folders | 1 scanned folder | Unlimited |
| Asset Inventory import | - | Yes |
| Quick Filter | - | Yes |
| Editor themes | Dark and Light | Six more: Midnight, Dracula, Nord, Gruvbox, Solarized, High Contrast |
| Custom styling | Five keyframe styles, any keyframe shape | Every colour your own: keyframes, muscle groups, timeline tints, font styles |
| Scene & preview styling | Tuned defaults | Bone display, grid, lighting, backgrounds |
| C# source code | - | Included |
The event limit is per type and per clip: one audio event and one spawn event on the same clip is within Lite.
Limits are budgets, not doors
Every numeric limit above behaves the same way, and it is worth understanding once:
- Inside the budget, the feature is completely functional. Two layers in Lite means real layers - weight, blend mode, mask, mute, solo, merge, undo, all of it.
- The wall appears only on the operation that would exceed the budget.
- Reading is never limited. Content authored in Pro opens in Lite, renders, previews and plays back correctly.
That last point matters for teams and for anyone evaluating: a colleague on Pro can hand you a clip with six layers and forty versions, and your Lite install will show it correctly.