Insect and creature swarms in Blender
Crawlers · Lifelike Creature Swarms
Add ants, wolf spiders, cockroaches, centipedes, earthworms, maggots or snakes at their real size, then send them along a path, toward a target or after your mouse cursor.
What is Crawlers?
Animating a crowd of small creatures by hand is slow: every leg needs a gait and every body has to follow uneven ground. Crawlers handles the movement inside one Geometry Nodes modifier. Choose a creature and its size, way of moving and skin come with it, from a 1.2 cm ant up to a 90 cm snake.
Select the meshes the swarm should treat as terrain, and the creatures climb over logs, rocks, walls and each other, overhangs included. Modes such as Hunt, Infest, Emerge, Flee and Burst are ordinary modifier inputs you can keyframe, so one shot can have worms leave a drain, bury a statue and flee when a lantern flares.
WATCH THE VIDEO
What you can make with Crawlers
Horror and dark fantasy
Cockroaches darting along walls, worms emerging from a drain, a swarm that scatters when a light comes on.
Nature and macro shots
An ant trail over a mossy branch, earthworms piling onto a rolling berry, wolf spiders lying in ambush on the forest floor.
Infested props and characters
Point Infest at any mesh and animate Infest Amount to send the creatures onto it and call them back off.
Stylised looks
Swap to skins such as Abyss Glow, Toxic or Leech, or to moods like Frenzy and Tower Builder.
How it works
Pick from the catalog
Select the meshes to climb, then click + on a picture card in the Crawlers sidebar tab, or pick several cards and click Add Together.
Direct the swarm
Press Play and move CR_Target, drag a route with Draw Path, or lead the creatures with Lure with Mouse.
Dress and bake
Add one of four procedural grounds, choose a mood and a skin, then click Bake before you render the animation.
Tips for better results
- Creatures are true to scale, so an ant swarm is only a few centimetres wide. Zoom in, or raise Worm Length for stylised giants.
- Finish a Draw Path stroke close to where it began and the swarm keeps walking it as a loop.
- Hold the left mouse button while luring to blast the creatures apart.
- The viewport shows lighter geometry while you work and full detail at render time; live playback speed depends on creature count and your hardware.
- Blender
- 5.0–5.2
- Type
- Add-on
- Category
- Geometry Nodes
- Sold on
- Superhive
Crawlers questions
Do I have to animate the legs?
No. Each creature comes with its own gait and behaviour. Insects step with planted feet, worms follow their own trail and heap up, and snakes move in S-curves.
Which Blender versions are supported?
Blender 5.0 or newer. Crawlers 1.2 is tested on Blender 5.0.1 and 5.2.0 LTS.
Can I mix different creatures?
Yes. Select several cards in the Creature Catalog and click Add Together for one swarm per kind, all heading for a shared target.
Can I edit the setup?
Yes. Crawlers is pure Geometry Nodes with one simulation zone, and the whole node setup stays open to editing.
Crawlers on Superhive
Real-size earthworms, ants, hairy spiders, cockroaches, centipedes, maggots and snakes. Pick them from a picture catalog, draw their path or lure them with the mouse.
