Fly/Walk Navigation

The standard navigation controls are sometimes limiting, especially for large environments such as architectural models. In these cases, it may be preferable to use first person controls instead, where you can look around while “standing” in one place rather than orbiting around a central viewpoint.

Blender offers two such alternative navigation methods: Flying and Walking. You can initiate either method from the View ‣ Navigation menu. You can also initiate your preferred one (configured in the Preferences) by pressing Shift-AccentGrave.

View Navigation.

Common use cases for Fly/Walk include:

Navigating

This can be a quick way to navigate a large scene.

Positioning a camera

When activated from a camera view Numpad0, the camera will move along with you.

Recording camera movement

You can record the path you take by entering a camera view, enabling Auto Keying in the Timeline, starting animation playback, and finally activating Fly/Walk navigation. The path will be recorded as camera keyframes which can then be used for rendering.

Animation playback can’t be controlled while Fly/Walk navigation is active, so when you’re done recording, you first need to exit the navigation with LMB before you can stop playback.

Walk Navigation

Reference

Mode:

All modes

Menu:

View ‣ Navigation ‣ Walk Navigation

This navigation method behaves like a typical first person game. It works with a combination of keyboard keys and mouse movement.

Usage

Move the mouse in the direction you want to look and use the keys listed below to walk around the scene.

When you are happy with the new view, press LMB to confirm. In case you want to go back to where you started, press Esc or RMB.

All these keys are also listed in the Status Bar while navigating. Settings like mouse sensitivity and default speed can be adjusted in the Preferences.

W/Up	Move forward.
S/Down	Move backward.
A/Left	Strafe left.
D/Right	Strafe right.
E	Move up (global) – only available if Gravity is off.
Q	Move down (global) – only available if Gravity is off.
R	Move up (local) – only available if Gravity is off.
F	Move down (local) – only available if Gravity is off.
Spacebar	Teleport to the location at the crosshair (offset by the Camera Height value set in the Preferences).
WheelUp/NumpadPlus	Increase the movement speed.
WheelDown/NumpadMinus	Decrease the movement speed.
Shift	Speed up the movement temporarily.
Alt	Slow down the movement temporarily.
V	Jump – only available if Gravity is on.
Tab	Toggle Gravity.
Z	Correct the Z axis of the view (smoothly roll it to ensure it’s upright, not tilted to a side).
Period	Increases the jump height.
Comma	Decreases the jump height.

Fly Navigation

Reference

Mode:

All modes

Menu:

View ‣ Navigation ‣ Fly Navigation

On activation, the cursor is centered inside a rectangle that defines a safe zone. When the cursor is outside this zone, the view will rotate/pan.

Usage

Move the mouse outside the safe zone in the direction you want to look.

Click LMB or press Spacebar to keep the current view and exit Fly navigation. In case you want to go back to where you started, press Esc or RMB.

W/Up	Accelerate forward.
S/Down	Accelerate backward.
A/Left	Accelerate left.
D/Right	Accelerate right.
E	Accelerate upward.
Q	Accelerate downward.
MMB	Drag to pan the view. Flying will pause while you’re doing this.
WheelUp/NumpadPlus	Increase the acceleration in the direction of motion. If there is no motion, start accelerating forward.
WheelDown/NumpadMinus	Decrease the acceleration in the direction of motion. If there is no motion, start accelerating backward.
Alt	Slow down as long as the key is held, until the view eventually comes to a standstill.
Ctrl	Disable rotation – while held, the view rotation doesn’t influence the flight direction. This allows you to fly past an object, keeping it centered in the view even as you fly away from it.
X	Toggle X axis correction. If enabled, the view will smoothly pitch to look at the horizon when the cursor is in the safe zone.
Z	Toggle Z axis correction. If enabled, the view will smoothly roll to an upright orientation.