Introduction#

The Dope Sheet offers a bird’s-eye view of the keyframes inside the scene. It’s inspired by classical hand-drawn animation, where animators make use of a chart showing exactly when each drawing, sound, and camera move will occur, and for how long.

../../_images/editors_dope-sheet_introduction_overview.png

The Dope Sheet.#

Dope Sheet Modes#

The editor has several different modes that can be selected from a dropdown in the header. The default Dope Sheet mode gives an overview of most types of animatable data. For others, such as masks, you need to switch to a more specific mode.

../../_images/editors_dope-sheet_introduction_modes.png

Dope Sheet modes.#

The modes are as follows:

Main Region#

The Dope Sheet Editor shows a stack of channels (animatable properties), and for each channel, a series of keyframes laid out along the time axis.

../../_images/editors_dope-sheet_introduction_types.png

The Dope Sheet Editor with object channels.#

Keyframes can take on various colors and shapes:

Gray

Unselected

Yellow

Selected

Other colors

Custom keyframe tag set by the user (Key ‣ Keyframe Type)

Diamond

Free Keyframe Handle (Key ‣ Handle Type)

Round

Auto-Clamped Keyframe Handle

Circle

Automatic Keyframe Handle

Square

Vector Keyframe Handle

Rhombus

Aligned Keyframe Handle

Gray bar between keys

Held key (the two keyframes are identical)

Green line between keys

The curve segment uses custom interpolation (Key ‣ Interpolation Mode)

Upwards arrow

Local maximum in curve (visible if View ‣ Show Curve Extremes is enabled)

Downwards arrow

Local minimum in curve

Keyframes can be selected by clicking and moved by dragging. See the Select and Key menus for more options.