7 best Minecraft mods for animations

Minecraft's blocky terrain and pixelated textures are among the most iconic looks in all of gaming. However, one area of Mojang's sandbox sensation that looks quite bland are the different animations for interacting with mobs and items. Many of these animations are incredibly simple, if they even exist at all. Thankfully, there are a plethora of mods out there that aim to overhaul this area.

This article lists seven of the best mods available to revamp and upgrade the title's many different animations.

Note: This list is subjective and solely reflects the opinions of the writer

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7 of the best Minecraft animation mods

1) Better Animations Collection

• Creator: Fuzs
• Latest game version: 1.21
• Modloader(s): Fabric, Forge, NeoForge
• Link: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/better-animations-collection

The Better Animations Collection mod introduces a huge number of subtle animations in Minecraft to create a more immersive and realistic experience.

For example, sheep kneel to eat grass, spiders have visible leg joints to accentuate their spindly legs, and tentacles found on mobs will sway and wiggle, among other things.

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2) Animation Overhaul

There's a ton of character in these new animations (Image via Mojang)

• Creator: ElocinDev
• Latest game version: 1.20.4
• Modloader(s): Fabric, Forge, NeoForge, Quilt
• Link: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/animationoverhaul

Animation Overhaul, as its name suggests, is another animation mod with the aim of overhauling the base game's aesthetics. It replaces the basic, or sometimes nonexistent, animations with flowing, energetic, and cartoonishly stylized ones.

A great example of this can be seen in how players will automatically stick their arms out to balance when walking on a thin surface.

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3) Not Enough Animations

The crawling animation found in this mod (Image via Mojang)

• Creator: tr7zw
• Latest game version: 1.21.1
• Modloader(s): Fabric, Forge, NeoForge
• Link: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/not-enough-animations

Not Enough Animations adds animations to Mojang's sandbox sensation to enhance its third-person camera. There are a plethora of minor changes that make using this camera mode much more immersive, like new arm animations for using ladders and crawling, eating has a new look, and more.

This large-scale animation mod stands out from the others mentioned so far by being much more vanilla-friendly. The contents of this mod look like official additions rather than changing the style of the game.

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4) Falling Leaves

Leaves falling off of a tree (Image via Mojang)

• Creator: Cheaterpaul
• Latest game version: 1.21.1
• Modloader(s): Fabric, Forge, NeoForge
• Link(s): https://modrinth.com/mod/fallingleaves (Fabric), https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/falling-leaves-forge (Forge, NeoForge)

Falling Leaves is quite a basic animation mod, especially when compared to the huge overhauls mentioned previously. It adds falling leaf particle effects to the game's many different trees.

These effects totally change the feel of forests. Instead of being blocky expanses of otherworldly gravity-defying plants, there's the implication of a familiar warm breeze rustling the canopy and shaking weaker leaves free.

These effects are made even more believable through the use of shaders and other atmospheric mods, leading to a truly immersive wilderness.

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5) Eating Animation

A streak visually being eaten by a player (Image via Mojang)

• Creator(s): theone_ss (Fabric), matyrobbrt (Forge, NeoForge)
• Latest game version(s): 1.21.1 (Fabric), 1.21 (Forge, NeoForge)
• Modloader(s): Fabric, Forge, NeoForge
• Link(s): https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/eating-animation-fabric (Fabric), https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/eating-animation-forge (Forge, NeoForge)

The Eating Animation mod is quite simple. It adds a short animation to food that shows it being consumed.

Keeping Minecraft's hunger bar from draining is needed to do things as essential as run and even restore health. This simple animation adds a ton of immersion to the game since eating food is one of the most important and common parts of survival.

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6) Trajectory Estimation

The projected flight path of an arrow (Image via Mojang)

• Creator: Sonnenlicht
• Latest game version: 1.20.1
• Modloader(s): Forge
• Link: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/trajectory-estimation

All of the ranged weapons in Mojang's title, such as bows or tridents, are relatively short-range projectiles. Hitting long-range shots will require players to aim considerably higher than their target to compensate for the effects of gravity. This can make landing these shots surprisingly difficult.

That's where the Trajectory Estimation mod comes in. It adds a UI element near the crosshair that will display the projectile's estimated travel path. The animation for this flight path reacts to bows being drawn back and updates in real time, making this an animation mod with a huge utility benefit.

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7) Old Walking Animation

The old walking animation in a modern version of the game (Image via Mojang)

• Creator: TecnaGamer
• Latest game version: 1.21.1
• Modloader(s): Fabric, Quilt
• Link: https://www.curseforge.com/minecraft/mc-mods/old-walking-animation

This animation-based mod stands out from the rest in that it doesn't take itself too seriously.

Rather than overhauling every animation in the game or revamping the vanilla art style, Old Walking Animation brings back the title's original arm-flailing walking animation. This mod makes running from place to place much more entertaining than it otherwise would be.