Introduction – Вступ

The NonLinear Animation editor, or NLA editor for short, lets you animate on a higher level. Instead of working with individual keyframes, it works with actions, which are named, reusable animation segments.

../../_images/editors_nla_introduction_example.png

The NLA editor.

Main Region – Головний Регіон

The editor displays a stack of tracks which work like layers in an image editing program. Higher tracks take precedence over lower ones, although you can also choose to blend them.

Each track can contain any number of strips – typically Action Strips, which are instances of actions.

The top track highlighted in orange is special: this is the Action Track. Unlike the other tracks, it doesn’t contain strips – instead, it contains the object’s active action, which is where new keyframes are added to by default.

Editors like the Timeline and the Dope Sheet Editor normally only show the keyframes of this active action. If you want to edit another action, you can select it in the NLA editor and press Tab to enter Tweak Mode.

../../_images/editors_nla_introduction_tweak-mode.png

Tweaking an action. Notice that it’s shown in both its original track and the Action Track. The active action is temporarily hidden.