Introduction

The Graph Editor lets you edit animation curves, which determine how properties change over time.

The Graph Editor.

Main Region

The curve view allows you to view and edit F-Curves. An F-Curve has several key parts:

Curve

The curve describes how the value of a property (Y axis) evolves over time (X axis).

Keyframes

Keyframes are user-defined values on certain frames and are represented by little black discs that become orange when selected. The values on the other frames are calculated automatically by interpolating between these keyframes.

Handles

Each keyframe has two handles – points that can be dragged around to influence the shape of the curve around it.

A simple curve. The discs are keyframes, and the circles are their handles.

See also

See F-Curves for more info.

Navigation

As with most editors, you can:

Pan

Pan the view by dragging with MMB.

Zoom

Zoom in and out with the mouse Wheel.

Scale View

Scale the view horizontally or vertically by dragging with Ctrl-MMB.

You can also use the scrollbars.

Tip

You can focus the view on the curve of an animated property by right clicking it and choosing View in Graph Editor. If you want to set up a hotkey for this, you need to open the Keymap preferences, open the User Interface category, click Add New, fill in the operator name anim.view_curve_in_graph_editor, and finally choose a shortcut. Normally this can be done more easily by right clicking the context menu item and choosing Assign Shortcut, but in this case, the shortcut would be added to the wrong category and not work.

Playhead & 2D Cursor

Graph Editor 2D Cursor.

The current frame is represented by a vertical blue line called the Playhead. As in the Timeline, you can move it by clicking or dragging with LMB in the scrubbing area at the top.

Combined with the horizontal blue line, the Playhead forms the 2D Cursor which can be used as a pivot point for rotating and scaling. You can disable the horizontal line using View ‣ Show Cursor or Sidebar ‣ View ‣ Show Cursor.

The 2D Cursor can be moved by clicking or dragging with Shift-RMB or by adjusting its coordinates in the View tab of the Sidebar.

Header

View Menu

Sidebar N

Shows or hides the Sidebar Region.

Adjust Last Operation

Displays a pop-up panel to alter properties of the last completed operation. See Adjust Last Operation.

Channels

Shows or hides the Channels Region.

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Frame Selected NumpadPeriod

Pans and zooms the view to focus on the selected keyframes.

Frame All Home

Pans and zooms the view to show all keyframes.

Frame Scene/Preview Range

Reset the horizontal view to the current scene frame range, taking the preview range into account if it is active.

Go to Current Frame Numpad0

Centers the area to the Playhead.

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Realtime Updates

Whether to update other views (such as the 3D Viewport) while you’re moving keyframes around. If disabled, the other views only get updated once you finish the move.

Sliders.

Show Sliders

Shows a value slider next to each channel. Adjusting such a slider automatically creates a keyframe.

Auto-Merge Keyframes

Automatically merge keyframes that end up on the same frame after transformation.

Auto-Lock Key Axis

Automatically locks the movement of keyframes to the axis that best matches the direction of the mouse cursor.

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Show Markers

Shows the marker region. When disabled, the Marker Menu is also hidden and marker operators are not available in this editor.

Show Cursor

Toggles the visibility of the horizontal blue line (see Playhead & 2D Cursor).

Show Seconds Ctrl-T

Show timing in seconds instead of frames. As an example, the timestamp 01:03+02 means “1 minute, 3 seconds, 2 frames.”

Sync Visible Range

Synchronizes the horizontal panning and scale of the editor with other time-based editors that also have this option enabled. That way, they always show the same section of time.

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Show Extrapolation

Toggles the visibility of the extrapolated portion of curves.

Show Handles Ctrl-H

Toggles the display of keyframe handles.

Only Selected Keyframes Handles

Only shows the handles for the selected keyframes.

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Set Preview Range P

Lets you drag a box to define a time range for previewing. As long as this range is active, playback will be limited to it, letting you repeatedly view a segment of the animation without having to manually rewind each time.

You can change the start or end frame using the corresponding button in the Timeline editor’s Playback popover. Alternatively, you can simply run Set Preview Range again.

Clear Preview Range Alt-P

Clears the preview range.

Set Preview Range to Selected Ctrl-Alt-P

Applies a preview range that encompasses the selected keyframes.

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Toggle Dope Sheet

Changes the area’s editor to the Dope Sheet Editor.

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Area

Area controls. See the user interface documentation for more information.

Select Menu

All A

Selects all keyframes and handles.

None Alt-A

Clears the selection.

Invert Ctrl-I

Inverts the selection.

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Box Select B

Lets you drag a box and selects the keyframes and handles inside it.

Box Select (Axis Range) Alt-B

Lets you drag a box and selects the keyframes and handles inside the corresponding time range, even if they’re above or below the box.

Box Select (Include Handles)

Selects keyframes and their handles inside the defined box.

Circle Select C

Displays a circle around the cursor, which you can drag over keyframes and handles to select them.

Lasso Select Ctrl-RMB

Lets you draw a freehand shape and selects the keyframes and handles inside it.

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Columns on Selected Keys K

Selects keys that are on the same frame as a key that’s already selected.

Column on Current Frame Ctrl-K

Selects all the keys that are on the current frame.

Columns on Selected Markers Shift-K

Selects keys that are on the same frame as a selected marker.

Between Selected Markers Alt-K

Selects keys that lie between the leftmost and rightmost selected markers.

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Before Current Frame [

Select the keys that lie before (or on) the current frame. You can also click Shift-Ctrl-LMB anywhere to the left of the Playhead.

After Current Frame ]

Select the keys that lie after (or on) the current frame. You can also click Shift-Ctrl-LMB anywhere to the right of the Playhead.

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Select Handles

Selects the handles of the currently selected keyframes.

Select Keys

Selects the keyframes of the currently selected handles.

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Select More Ctrl-NumpadPlus

Expands the selection to include the neighbors (in time) of the currently selected keys.

Select Less Ctrl-NumpadMinus

Deselects keyframes with fewer than two selected neighbors.

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Select Linked

Selects keys that are on the same curve as a key that’s already selected.

Marker Menu

Markers are used to denote frames with key points or significant events within an animation. Like with most animation editors, they’re shown at the bottom.

Markers in animation editor.

For descriptions of the different marker tools, see Editing Markers.

Channel Menu

See Editing Channels.

Key Menu

See Editing F-Curves.

Normalize

Scales the display of each curve so that they all (appear to) occupy the same value range, going from -1 to 1. This can make editing easier when you’re working with curves whose value ranges are far apart.

When you enable this option, the view is zoomed accordingly and the area outside the normalized value range is darkened.

If a preview range is defined, keyframes within the range are normalized, while the others are scaled proportionally.

Auto Normalization

Automatically recalculate curve normalization on every curve edit.

View Controls

View controls.

Show Only Selected

Only show curves belonging to objects/bones/… that are selected.

Show Hidden

Show keyframes from objects/bones/… that are hidden.

Show Only Errors

Only show channels that have errors (for example, because they try to animate a property that doesn’t exist on the object).

Create Ghost Curves (framed F-Curve icon)

Creates a snapshot of the current curves and shows it in the background so that you can use it as a reference. Click the button again to clear the snapshot.

Filter (funnel icon)

Search

Filters the channel list by a search term.

Filtering Collection

Select a collection to only show keyframes from objects in that collection.

Filter by Type

Filter curves by property type.

Sort Data-Blocks

Sorts data-blocks alphabetically to make them easier to find.

If your playback speed suffers because of this (should only really be an issue when working with lots of objects), you can turn it off.

Transform Controls

Transform controls.

Pivot Point

Pivot point for rotating and scaling.

Bounding Box Center

Center of the smallest possible box around the selected keyframes.

2D Cursor

The intersection between the Playhead and the horizontal Cursor line.

Individual Centers

Rotate/scale each handle around its keyframe.

Snap

The icon toggles snapping on or off. The dropdown offers the following options:

Snap To

Type of element to snap to.

Frame

Snap to full frames.

Second

Snap to seconds.

Nearest Marker

Snap to the nearest Marker.

Absolute Time Snap

When disabled, keyframes will move in increments of Snap To. For example, if you selected Second and have a keyframe that’s currently on 0:06+5, dragging it to the right will snap it to 0:07+5. Its time increases by a second, and its subsecond offset of 5 frames remains the same.

When enabled, keyframes will snap to multiples of Snap To. Taking the above example, the keyframe would snap to 0:07+0, removing the subsecond offset.

Proportional Editing O

See Proportional Editing.

Sidebar Region

View Tab

View Tab.

Show Cursor

Toggles the visibility of the 2D Cursor’s horizontal line.

Cursor X, Y

Shows, and lets you change, the X coordinate (current frame) and Y coordinate (value) of the 2D Cursor.

Cursor to Selection

Places the 2D Cursor at the average time and value of the selected keyframes.

Cursor Value to Selection

Places the 2D Cursor at the average value of the selected keyframes, leaving its time unchanged.

F-Curve Tab

See F-Curve Properties.

Modifiers Tab

See F-Curve Modifiers.