The view area of the Dope Sheet displays keys hierarchically along the vertical axis. It displays time along the horizontal axis as cells or blocks.
The time blocks represented in the view area of the Dope Sheet are integer value divisions of time; that is, the block at time 2 includes the range of animation information from 2 to 3, excluding information at time 3.
Animated attributes are bounded by solid lines to indicate their extents. The colors of the blocks define the placement of an attribute or group of attributes within the hierarchy of the Dope Sheet.
Editing ranges of time and keys with the Dope Sheet Manipulator
Key and Curve colors
Blue
All keys of all displayed objects (Summary object).
Dark green
All of the keyable attributes for the selected object in the Dope Sheet outliner (object groups).
Light green
All of the individual attributes of a particular type, such as translation, rotation, and so on (compound attributes).
Black
Keys for unselected individual attributes.
Yellow
Selected keys.
Gray
Keys with a value of 0.
Dope Sheet pop-up menu
Right-click anywhere in the view area to open the Dope Sheet pop-up menu.
Sound in the Dope Sheet
Sounds appear in the Dope Sheet view area according to the settings in the Preferences window.
Select Tool, Move Tool, and Scale Tool
In addition to the Dope Sheet tools in the toolbar, the Select Tool, Move Tool, and Scale Tool also are used to manipulate keys in the view area of the Dope Sheet. Because of the hierarchical nature of the Dope Sheet outliner, you can edit groups of attributes by type. This lets you perform powerful timing editing on large numbers of objects at once. See Select Tool, Move Keys Tool, and Scale Keys Tool.
Navigating the view area
- To scroll horizontally or vertically in the view area, press Alt or Option (Mac OS X) and middle-drag.
- To zoom in or out, press Alt or Option and right-drag.
- To zoom in on a specific area, press Ctrl + Alt and drag the area.
- To zoom out from a specific area, Ctrl + Alt and middle-drag the area.