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Actions

You can use Blender Actions instead of keyframe-based animations to represent MIDI note presses.

With keyframe animation, we basically mimic a "key press" by moving/rotating/scaling the object from one state to another (like up and down).

But with Actions, you can use any animation you'd like instead. For example, you could have a Player for a video game that has many actions like "Idle", "Jump", or actions like "Clap" or "Dance". These actions could be used when a note is pressed, so the Player object animates a certain way to the music.

Using Actions​

The plugin panel inside Blender

  1. Import a MIDI file and pick your track.
  2. Change the mode from Keyframes to Actions. You might notice the plugin UI change and swap things out.
  3. Assign an action you want each object to use when a note is pressed.
    • Want a unique action per object? Click the "Advanced mode" checkbox to reveal a dropdown for each note.
  4. Assign your "piano key" objects.
  5. Click "Action Animation".

You should have an animation! Click play to preview it.

Or select one of your "piano key" objects and check the Non-Linear Animation panel. Every time the note is pressed, a new NLA track will be generated with an action "clip" in the correct timing.