JsonForge vs mcblend

JsonForge is a visual editor for building Minecraft Bedrock JSON UI screens and exporting UI for resource packs. It runs in modern browsers and as a native Electron application on Windows, macOS and Linux. Users can place interface elements on a canvas, adjust their properties, add textures and inspect JSON. The editor includes 10 element types, such as panels, images, labels, buttons, toggles and custom elements. Its workspace has dockable Toolbox, Hierarchy, Canvas, Properties, Textures, Bindings and JSON Preview panels. The canvas uses anchors and the game’s nine-slice texture behavior, with an Edit/Preview toggle. Export targets include form screens, HUD overlays and restyled vanilla scoreboards, with .mcaddon or .mcpack output as applicable. The app includes five ore-UI texture sets and Minecraft fonts. Projects can be saved as .jfproject bundles with an element tree, bindings and textures, or imported and exported as raw Minecraft Bedrock JSON UI .json files. The desktop app can locate worlds on the machine and install exported packs into resource and behavior pack folders. JsonForge is open source under the MIT license. Its guide notes that resource packs cannot create new values that the game does not draw.

mcblend is a free, open-source Blender add-on for creating and modifying Minecraft Bedrock Edition models. It imports and exports entity and attachable models, including cubes and polymeshes. For animation, it exports keyframes and poses, and can bake animations into Minecraft format, including work using inverse kinematics and constraints. It can also turn Blender camera movement and field-of-view animation into JavaScript data for Minecraft Script API cutscenes and scripted camera playback; additional game logic is needed to apply that data to a player's camera.

The add-on arranges UV coordinates for cube faces and can create a template texture. Polymeshes use Blender's regular texturing features. It also draws on Blender's rigging and physics tools and can set up rigid bodies automatically. Installation uses a ZIP downloaded from GitHub releases and added through Blender's Add-ons preferences; the documentation instructs users to install Blender 5.2. Models must use exactly one armature, with each cube or polymesh as a separate object parented to armature bones. Polymeshes are experimental in Minecraft and may not remain supported. Updates require removing the old add-on and installing a new version.