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[edit] Animation Timeline

Relevant to Blender v2.37

[edit] Introduction

The Timeline is a new window type in Blender to support animation editing. It offers a large set of animation controls, but also a more advanced method of animation playback. A new functionality included in this release is that the windows in Blender now get continuously updated with a built-in timer system, keeping the full interface alive. You can edit keys, do modeling, change material settings in real time during an animation. Using tools like transform, or interface buttons will halt playback temporarily.

[edit] User Interface

Playback speed is controlled by a timing system following the Frames/Sec value. To change the value use menu Playback>>Set Frames/Sec. If no audio syncing is set, this is the maximum speed for playback. The display can show the timeline in either Frames or Seconds. This is toggled by pressing T and selecting either Frames or Seconds in the popup, see Time value Menu., or using the menu View>>Show Seconds alternative View>>Show Frames.

Note The menus can be animated, which means, using the above example, that the menu choices change depending on the actions you take.

Use the Playback pulldown menu, see Playback Menu., to define which windows should refresh during playback. Windows that don't refresh will show updated time on redraw still.

Note The ALT-A animation hotkey still works as usual, giving blocking playback of the current window (or for current window + all 3d windows with SHIFT-ALT-A). Playback is controlled by the Screen itself, so it will stop when you switch to another Screen.

Animation Controls, Animation Controls.. Options are from left to right:

• Go to first frame.
• Go to previous Key.
• Play/Pause: start or stop playback.
• Go to next Key.
• Go to last frame.
• Record - Set the Auto key insert option, which

adds key frames on each transformation change of Objects or Bones.

• Audio Sync - Synchronize playback with Audio Strips in Sequence Window.

When there are no Audio strips, it still synchronizes playback to be real time (possibly skipping frames).

Markers, Marker.. You can set Markers on specific frames by pressing M, this also works during animation playback. A small yellow triangle appears at the current frame position. Selected Markers have a yellow color and un-selected Markers are white. Markers are very useful as reminders for certain timing moments, or for synchronizing with sound. Name a Marker by selecting it, and press CTRL-M. Markers can be moved with RMB and drag or G and pressing LMB or SPACE to set the new position. The window header will display current frame and offset of the Marker while moving. Remove Markers with hotkey X.

Key Frames. Keyframes of the active object are shown as vertical lines in the Timeline. Yellow lines represent Object keys, blue lines represent Action keys and orange lines represent Material keys. Summary of hotkeys to navigate on the timeline:

• PageUp / PageDown - Step

through Markers.

• CTRL-PageUp / PageDown - Step through

Keys.

• SHIFT-UpArrow / DownArrow -

Goto start or end of animation.

• LeftArrow / RightArrow - Single

step animation backward/forward.

• Home - The animation from start

to end is zoomed in the timeline window.

• C - The timeline window is

centered around the current frame.

• M - Add marker at current

frame.

• CTRL-M - Set name on selected

marker.