Introduction¶

The Dope Sheet.¶

The Dope Sheet gives the animator a birds-eye-view of the keyframes inside the scene.

The Dope Sheet is inspired by classical hand-drawn animation process, in which animators will make use of a chart, showing exactly when each drawing, sound and camera move will occur, and for how long. This is called an exposure sheet or “dope sheet”. While CG foundations dramatically differ from classical hand-drawn animation, Blender’s Dope Sheet inherits a similar directive.

Dope Sheet Modes¶

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

Dope Sheet modes.¶

While the Dope Sheet Mode allow you to edit multiple actions at once, the other ones are dedicated to view and edit specific data-blocks used in different context of animation.

Dope Sheet
Action Editor
Shape Key Editor
Grease Pencil
Mask
Cache File: Alembic Todo 2.78.

Main Region¶

Keyframes¶

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

The Dope Sheet Editor with object channels.¶

This area contains keyframes for all visible action channels. As with the other time-based editors, the X axis represents time. The Y axis represents a stack of action channels.

On these channels lay the keyframes, which can show different information:

Gray	Unselected
Yellow	Selected
Diamond	Free Keyframe Handle
Round	Auto-Clamped Keyframe Handle
Circle	Automatic Keyframe Handle
Square	Vector Keyframe Handle
Rhombus	Aligned Keyframe Handle
Various colors	These represent custom keyframe tags set by the user (Key ‣ Keyframe Type)
Gray bar between keys	Held key (the two keyframes are identical)
Green line between keys	Fixed keyframe interpolation (set in Key ‣ Interpolation Mode)
Upwards arrow	Maximum Extreme keyframe (visible if View ‣ Show Curve Extremes are enabled)
Downwards arrow	Minimum Extreme keyframe (visible if View ‣ Show Curve Extremes are enabled)

Selecting Keyframes¶

Selection tools are available in the Select menu in the header, and the main shortcuts are listed below:

Selecting

Click on a key to select it. Hold Shift to extend the current selection.

Box Selecting

Click and drag to box select multiple keyframes at once. You can hold Shift to extend or Ctrl to subtract from the current selection.

Select/Deselect All

To select all keys, press A.
To deselect all keys, press Alt-A.
To inverse the selection, press Ctrl-I.

Select all to the right or left

Hold Shift-Ctrl and click on either side of the Playhead. You can also use ] and [.

See the Select menu for a full list of selection tools.

Manipulating Keyframes¶

Keyframe tools are available in the Key menu in the header, and the main shortcuts listed below:

Moving Keyframes: To move a single keyframe, click and drag on a key. To move multiple keyframes, make sure several keys are selected and press G.
Scaling Keyframes: To scale (stretch) selected keys, press S.
Extending Keyframes: To extend the time between two keys, select all with A, place the Playhead between two keyframes and press E.

See the Key menu for a full list of selection tools.

Channels Region¶

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The Action editor’s channels region.¶

See Channels.

Header¶

Here you find the menus, a first group of controls related to the editor «mode», a second one concerning the action data-blocks, and a few other tools (like the copy/paste buttons, and snapping type).

Summary: Toggles the «Dope Sheet Summary» channel at the top of the Channels Region. This is used to give an overview of all the channels by combining all the actions into one channel.

View Menu¶

../../_images/animation_keyframes_introduction_interpolation.png

Handle types.¶

Show Handles and Interpolation

Instead of displaying all keyframes as diamonds, different icons are used to show the Bézier handle type. When curves use a different interpolation type, a line is shown between keys to highlight that.

See Handles & Interpolation Display.

../../_images/editors_dope-sheet_introduction_extremes.png

Extreme markers.¶

Show Extremes: Detect keys where the curve changes direction based on comparing with the adjacent key values, and display that by changing the keyframe icons to resemble an arrow. A muted version of the icon is used if the curve overshoots the extreme, or for groups with different results for contained curves.

See Graph editor’s View Menu.

Markers Menu¶

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

../../_images/editors_graph-editor_introduction_markers.png

Markers in animation editor.¶

There are some options that are exclusive to the Dope Sheet editor:

Sync Markers: Sync Markers with keyframe edits.
Show Pose Markers: Available in Action and Shape Key modes. Shows pose markers owned by the active action instead of the scene ones.
Make Markers Local: Available in Action and Shape Key modes. Converts selected scene markers in pose markers, assigning them to the active action.

For more information and the description of the other marker tools see Editing Markers.