Introduction

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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

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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.

Main Region

Keyframes

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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.