Release notes
What just shipped.
Every version of Charios in one place. Currently on v0.26.0. New entries appear at the top.
- v0.26.0
May 15, 2026
Example playground · in-browser recording · unified nav
A new dark-themed playground at /example lets anyone preview characters with the full animation library, record hi-res clips, and drop in a custom background — and every Charios page now shares one nav.
- New /example playground — pick a template character, type to smart-search animations (Tab cycles matches), watch the live rig anywhere on the page
- Type-ahead filters the animation list with a smooth collapse/expand, and the keyboard hint shows how many matches are visible
- Animation library auto-warms in the background on first visit — every clip is fetched once and parked in the Cache API, so switching anims afterwards is instant
- Add a background image with a circle button next to the search bar — drag to pan, scroll/slider to zoom, with the live character on top as a true WYSIWYG crop
- Bones toggle next to it overlays the skeleton wireframe on the rig; both buttons have hover tooltips
- Record button (top-left of the stage) with three modes: animation only (transparent webm), animation with subtitle (anim-name pill + background baked in), or full UI capture
- Recordings are now hi-DPI (native canvas backing-store resolution) at 30 fps and 8 Mbps, so retina exports look as crisp as the live preview
- Subtitle pill fades in on every anim change at the bottom of the character — the same pill is baked into the with-subtitle recording so the clip carries its own label
- Edit this character button (top-right of the stage) clones the template into your account and drops you straight into the editor
- Upload your character pill at the top of the character rail with a four-step progress preview (Reading file → Detecting layers → Segmenting bones → Fitting the rig) before nudging non-Pro users to upgrade
- Video-to-anim teaser pill at the top of the animation rail — same upgrade flow
- Oysianna joined the template library and is now the playground's default character
- Single shared TopNav across every route — dashboard, settings, studio, and the playground no longer drift apart on link sets or hover states
- TopNav supports light/dark theme + container/full-width variants so playground and editor surfaces don't fight the marketing chrome
- v0.25.0
May 10, 2026
Smoother variants · cleaner thumbs · refined credit icon
Variant generation no longer freezes the editor, cards show real progress instead of waiting on a skeleton, and panel thumbnails stop breaking after an hour.
- Variants generation is fully off-thread now — typing, scrolling, and the canvas stay smooth while a batch runs in the background
- First Generate after opening the editor is ~3-5 s faster: the AI cleanup model warms up the moment the panel mounts, so the cold start happens while you're still picking a style
- Each variant card now shows real progress — Generating · Cleaning · ready — with the raw composite appearing under a soft veil while edges are being cut
- Cards stream in as each variant finishes instead of waiting for the whole batch — pick the first one you like the moment it's ready
- Variant edges look cleaner — flames, glows, and wisps no longer get cut off by background-removal because the prompt now demands hard ink-defined silhouettes
- Variant card thumbnails stay live indefinitely — no more broken images after leaving the editor open for over an hour
- Refined credit icon: the sparkle now sits inside a circle for a tighter, more brand-consistent look across every Add / Generate / Top up button
- Account dropdown drops the small ring next to Balance; the avatar's usage ring is now solid black at every level (calmer at a glance, the Top up CTA still surfaces low-balance state)
- Failed variants no longer leave a half-broken card — partial entries are filtered out so the panel only shows variants that actually rendered
- v0.24.0
May 7, 2026
Multi-select anims · in-app community · faster R2
Curate a set of animations per project, post bugs and feature requests straight from the editor, and watch images load faster everywhere.
- Anim-check modal cells now have a round radio in the top-right — click to multi-select; selections survive across sessions
- Right-rail Animation panel turns into your curated list: GIF thumbnail, per-row Speed dropdown (0.2× / 0.5× / 1× / 2× / 3×), hover-to-preview, click to pin
- Layers / Map preview tabs moved into the right-rail Preview section — keeps the center pane focused on the live character
- Map mode now packs the atlas tightly to the panel width with no wasted whitespace
- Right-rail chrome standardised: every section header gets the same pill-style action button (Add / Reset)
- Bug Report / Feature Request / Get Support open an in-app modal that posts straight to the public community board with a screenshot picker built in
- Community page gets category tabs (Questions, Bugs, Feature requests, General, Billing) with deep-linkable querystrings
- Community threads + replies support image attachments — drag, paste, or click; up to 6 per post, 6 MB each
- Test-run modal renders at the editor's 3/4 camera angle and full character scale, matching the live preview
- State pickers in test-run get the LibraryPicker treatment: GIF thumbnails on every row
- Skeleton on/off in anim-check modal now uses the same toggle as 'Select all' in the import modal — consistent vocabulary across modals
- Images on production never break again: thumbnails, mocap library GIFs/FBX, project layer textures, and community attachments all serve from a custom asset domain (assets.charios.com) with no expiring signed URLs
- v0.23.0
May 7, 2026
Editor polish · Layers / Map preview · double-click to edit
Pickier eyedropper, double-click into edit mode, a packed-atlas preview, smarter trims after every edit, and a stack of small visual fixes.
- Double-click any layer in the editor canvas to jump straight into edit mode (eraser/paint)
- Eyedropper at the end of the colour palette — pick from anywhere on screen with the browser EyeDropper API
- Preview pane gets Layers / Map tabs (top-right) — Map packs every visible layer onto a 1024² atlas
- Subtle download icon next to the tabs ships the current view as PNG
- Saving an edit auto-trims transparent borders so the persisted PNG hugs the visible content; layer x/y/width/height adjust to keep the visual position locked
- Editor + preview now render at your saved cam angle (default 74° three-quarter) and sit vertically centred in their pane
- Variants panel moved above the Preview section so swatches are above the fold
- Test-run modal teardown is surgical — no longer corrupts editor state on close
- Floating edit toolbar slide-in is properly animated (was popping into place)
- Animation dropdown popover hugs the trigger width; no more bleeding past the right rail
- Removed the white circle on the head joint in the skeleton overlay
- Removed the horizon line in test run — just a faint ground tint left
- v0.22.0
May 6, 2026
Test-run upgrade · upgrade modal · variant skin cycling
Bigger test-run arena with per-state animation pickers, in-app upgrade prompt instead of an error overlay, and ↑/↓ to flip through saved variants while you're auditioning anims.
- Test run is now a full-screen arena with five state pickers (Idle / Walk / Run / Jump / Attack) — each pulls from your mocap library, your picks save per project, and Shift now toggles run speed
- Anim-check modal: ↑ / ↓ cycles through your saved variant skins on the live character; Cmd+Z reverts the swap
- Hitting the free-plan project cap now opens a clean Upgrade modal everywhere a 'New' or 'Duplicate' button lives — no more raw error overlay
- Confirm-layer-bounds modal restyled to match the editor design language, with a single Select-all toggle in place of the two pills
- Tiny progress ring on each anim-check cell shows real bytes-downloaded while the FBX is fetching
- Save retries once on stale-version conflict — second-tab edits no longer lock the editor
- v0.21.0
May 6, 2026
Curated mocap library + redesigned anim-check
Pick from a searchable library of mocap clips with live thumbnails, hover-to-preview, and a full modal for side-by-side comparison.
- New Animation dropdown in the right rail — searchable, hover any row to preview the clip on your character live, click to pin it
- FBX clips are pre-fetched as rows scroll into view, so the first hover plays back instantly
- Anim check is now a dedicated modal — 10 cells side-by-side at any time, all driven by your character
- Filter the library by quick category pills (Idle / Walk / Run / Jump / Dance / Punch / Sword / Sit), search, or sort by name / category / duration
- Keyboard shortcuts in the modal: ← / → to page, 1–7 to jump categories, Esc to close
- Saves auto-recover from a stale-version conflict instead of permanently locking — second-tab edits no longer brick the editor
- v0.20.0
May 6, 2026
Editor polish + jump between projects
Faster brush controls, lighter chrome, motion presets back online, and one-click hop to your recent files.
- Press + / − while erasing to grow or shrink the brush, on top of the existing [ and ] shortcuts
- Smaller default brush so the cursor reads as a precise circle from the start
- Recent projects live in the logo dropdown — click to jump straight into your last five files, with thumbnails
- Tooltips ease up from below with the same motion used by the floating toolbar
- Slimmer, low-contrast zoom slider in each canvas corner so it stays out of the way
- Cleaner layer-group headers — the bone label leads, no more decorative glyph
- Mocap presets load again from cloud storage (browser-fetch hiccup resolved)
- v0.19.0
May 4, 2026
Brand refresh + cleaner editor
The new Charios mark is everywhere, the editor is quieter, and projects open without flicker.
- New Charios logo across the navbar, footer, dashboard, editor, favicon, and Apple touch icon
- Charios wordmark sits next to the logo on the homepage and dashboard
- Dashboard shortcut pill in the navbar for signed-in visitors browsing public pages
- Templates show on your own dashboard with a Template chip — only you see your originals
- No-thumbnail project cards now show the faded Charios mark instead of a placeholder caption
- Capes removed from the rig — the editor is now a clean stage for your own art
- Projects open without the brief flicker where layers used to flash at the wrong position
- v0.18.0
May 4, 2026
Templates
Start a new project from a template, or stay blank — your choice.
- New project picker: blank canvas or any of 20 starter templates
- Picking a template clones it into your account so you can edit freely
- The procedural body shapes are gone — the editor is now a clean stage for your own art
- v0.17.0
May 4, 2026
Tweak the base body parts
Resize, rotate, and nudge any procedural body part — head, torso, limbs — independently of the rig.
- Click a Base art row to open its transform panel
- Per-part scale (0.4×–2×), rotation (±180°), and offset (±80px in any direction)
- Adjustments persist with the project and ride along with every animation
- Reset button restores the default proportions in one click
- v0.16.0
May 4, 2026
Smoother editor, sharper dashboard
Cleaner imports, locked-in transform cursors, no-flicker project loads, real character thumbnails.
- Layers no longer pop into the wrong spot when a project opens — they appear in their final position straight away
- Thumbnails actually show your character now, framed and compressed for fast dashboard loading
- Rotate / scale / move cursors stay locked for the whole drag — no flicker mid-transform
- Drop a PNG anywhere on the editor pane and it snaps to the right bone, even when the drop point lands on the preview side
- Settings page for managing your plan, profile, and billing
- Pro / Team plan badge in the navbar, no more name clutter
- v0.15.0
May 4, 2026
Billing is live
Upgrade to Pro from the pricing page; manage your card and cancellation from the dashboard.
- Pro checkout from /pricing — secure hosted checkout, taxes handled, cancel anytime
- Plan badge on the dashboard with a one-click Manage link
- Self-service customer portal — update card, change plan, cancel without emailing us
- v0.14.0
May 4, 2026
Community, FAQ, Blog
Three new public surfaces: a Q&A forum, a real FAQ, and a place for longer writing.
- Community forum — ask a question, answer someone else's, mark accepted answers
- Standalone FAQ page grouped by topic
- Blog with the first three posts
- Faster bone-snap when dropping a single PNG — lands on the bone you dropped on, not centroid-offset away from it
- Drag cursor stays locked to rotate / scale / grab for the whole transform — no flicker mid-drag
- Dashboard thumbnails frame your character instead of showing 80% empty canvas
- v0.12.0
May 4, 2026
Cleaner navigation
Public pages and the dashboard show just the logo; the editor menu adds a quick way home.
- Logo-only nav on every public and dashboard page
- Editor brand menu now has a direct Home page link
- v0.11.0
May 3, 2026
Smart thumbnails
Dashboard cards now show what you actually built.
- Every save captures a fresh thumbnail of your editor scene
- Smart-deform and Show-mesh are now independent toggles — deform without the wireframe, or inspect the mesh without changing the look
- v0.10.0
May 3, 2026
Marketing facelift
Charios graduated from a dev demo to a proper product surface.
- Smart hero CTA that flips between Sign In and Dashboard
- Pricing page with Free / Pro / Team tiers
- About + Privacy + Terms + Release Notes pages
- Per-page metadata, Open Graph, sitemap.xml, robots.txt for SEO
- Google Analytics wired in
- v0.9.0
May 3, 2026
Smart upload
Layers appear instantly while uploads run in the background.
- Optimistic render — layers visible the moment you confirm
- Parallel asset uploads instead of one-at-a-time
- Per-layer pending spinner
- Live status counter while uploads run
- v0.8.0
May 3, 2026
Photoshop-grade selection
Multi-select, group corner drag, marquee, and joint magnets.
- Marquee drag-select
- Group corner-drag scale + rotate around the bbox centre
- Joint magnet ring during near-joint drag
- Floating responsive toolbar with smart overflow
- Custom rotate cursor on outside-corner hover
- W × H dim badge under the selection
- v0.7.0
May 3, 2026
Layer-import modal
Drop one PNG, get every body part as its own layer.
- Auto alpha-island detection
- α threshold + min size sliders
- Shift-drag manual rectangle cuts
- Mask-aware crops (no neighbour bleed)
- Uniform scale + centroid spread across multi-import
- v0.6.0
May 3, 2026
Smart deform
Layers bend with the rig.
- Linear-blend skinning toggle
- Per-layer alpha-trimmed mesh
- Re-bake on every layer change
- v0.5.0
May 3, 2026
Anim check
Nine clips at once. One toggle.
- 3×3 anim-check grid toggle
- User layers mirror across all 9 cells in real time
- Single preview pauses while the grid is active
- v0.4.0
May 3, 2026
Bone snap
Layers know which bone they belong to.
- Auto bone-snap on every drop
- Bone-local position lock — layers follow the rig
- Per-bone colour cue in the layer list
- v0.3.0
May 3, 2026
Persistent projects
Sign in. Save. Reload. Everything's still there.
- Google sign-in via One Tap
- Project dashboard with create / rename / duplicate / delete
- Autosave on every edit
- v0.2.0
May 3, 2026
The editor
Drop, snap, pose, repeat.
- Click + multi-select
- Drag to move; arrow keys to nudge
- Rotate / scale / snap shortcuts
- 60-deep undo / redo
- v0.1.0
May 3, 2026
The bones
Procedural humanoid + four synthetic clips.
- Walk / idle / wave / jump synthetic clips
- Bone vocabulary: head, neck, spine, arms, legs, hands, feet, sword