Animated health bar
by PerfLite
On NeoForge alone, Animated health bar swaps the vanilla health and hunger bars for custom versions whose fill glides when the underlying value changes.
What it does
Vanilla health and hunger bars jump to their new value. This mod swaps them for custom bars whose fill animates over time as health or food changes, so a hit or a meal reads as a gradual motion rather than a sudden step. The bars are drawn on the client only, so a player can run the mod on a single-player world or on a multiplayer server without the server needing any copy of it.
The health bar's texture changes with active status effects. Red is the normal state, purple appears under Wither, green under Poison, blue under Freeze, orange under Fire, and lime under Regeneration. The colors are a visual cue for the effect that is currently active, and they require no setup beyond installing the mod.
Builds target NeoForge for Minecraft 1.21.1 and 1.21.5, with 1.3 for 1.21.1 as the latest file, published on 2026-05-10. The mod is open source under the MIT License, which allows free use in modpacks, and the source code and issue tracker are public. Only the client needs it, so it can be added to packs without any server-side install.
Key features
Smooth bar animation
Health and hunger values glide to their new level when they change, instead of snapping to the new amount.
Effect-based bar colors
The health bar takes a color that matches the active status effect, such as purple for Wither or green for Poison.
Vanilla bar replacement
The custom bars take the place of the default health and hunger display on screen, with no extra hotbar to learn.
Six effect colors
Red, purple, green, blue, orange and lime each mark a different effect, so a player can tell the state at a glance.
Gallery
Compatibility
Latest build for each game version and loader.
Only full game releases are shown. This mod publishes no snapshot builds.
Use cases
Who it’s for: Players who want the health and hunger display to animate, and modpack authors who need a client-side visual upgrade that works with NeoForge.
How it compares
Animated health bar is a client-only NeoForge mod released under the MIT License and open source, for 1.21.1 and 1.21.5. Configurable Boss Bars is also client-side only and open source under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later, but it covers 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 and also runs on Fabric. Entity Health Bars is different in function, since it is server required with client optional, has the MIT License, and targets 1.21.4 – 1.21.11 across four loaders.
| Mod | Loaders | Game versions | Environment | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animated health bar | NeoForge | 1.21.1 – 1.21.5 | Client-side only | 2026-05-10 |
| Configurable Boss Bars | Fabric and NeoForge | 1.20.1 – 1.21.1 | Client-side only | 2024-09-25 |
| Entity Health Bars | Fabric, Forge, NeoForge and Quilt | 1.21.4 – 1.21.11 | Server required, client optional | 2025-06-22 |
Questions
Does Animated health bar need to be installed on the server?
Which Minecraft versions does Animated health bar support?
Can Animated health bar be used in a modpack?
In the catalog
Animated health bar is one of 5,392 Social mods on ModsFinder, and one of 1,784 Social mods for NeoForge. 15,307 mods support Minecraft 1.21.5.
More from PerfLite
Similar mods
What the author says
A that replaces the vanilla health and hunger bars with smooth animated custom bars.
Official listing
- Modrinth page
- modrinth.com/mod/animated-health-bar
- Owner
- PerfLite
- Published
- 2026-03-10
- Updated on Modrinth
- 2026-05-10
- Facts verified
- 2026-10-15