Blender add-on
Mesh Trails
Clean, fully customizable mesh-based trails, generated with the click of a button. We wanted an automated trail generator that fit our style of animation and couldn't find one, so we made one.
2026 update: bug fixes and Blender 5.0 support.
What it does
Bezier or poly curves, including cyclic ones. Parent, animate or rig them with hooks.
Generates a UV-unwrapped mesh, so you can use your own shaders.
See the trail move as you drag, no keyframes needed.
Works with the modifier stack.
Cache the simulation for render, with optional subframes.
Wind vectors for extra movement, and a custom taper curve.
Calculate trails from any object's space, like the camera, for screen-space light trails.
Baked caches are separate, portable files, with Alembic export.
Tutorial
How to add automatic sword trails
A walkthrough from ProfessorGoo on setting up trails with the add-on.
More tools
Goo Engine, Goo Physics, rigs and add-ons are on the Tools page.