Animation

The Animation section lets you manage settings related to Animation. This includes how editors look and also some different tools properties.

Blender Preferences Animation section.

Timeline

These settings control things in the Timeline.

Allow Negative Frame

Playback and animations can occur during negative frame ranges.

Minimum Grid Spacing

The minimum number of pixels between grid lines.

Timecode Style

Format of timecodes displayed when not displaying timing in terms of frames. The format uses ‘+’ as a separator for sub-second frame numbers, with left and right truncation of the timecode as necessary.

Zoom to Frame Type

Defines what time range (around the cursor) will be displayed when the View Frame Numpad0 is performed.

• Keep Range:

  The currently displayed time range is preserved.

  Seconds:

  The number of seconds specified in the Zoom Seconds field will be shown around the cursor.

  Keyframes:

  The number of animation keyframes defined in the Zoom Keyframes field will be shown around the cursor.

Keyframes

These settings control Keyframes which are the building blocks for animations.

Default Key Channels

Which channels to insert keys at when no keying set is active.

• Location:

  Inset keyframes for an object’s Location.

  Rotation:

  Inset keyframes for an object’s Rotation.

  Scale:

  Inset keyframes for an object’s Scale.

  Rotation Mode:

  Inset keyframes for an object’s Rotation Mode.

  Custom Properties:

  Inset keyframes for Custom Properties.

Only Insert Needed

This will only insert keyframes if the value of the property is different.

• Manual:

  When keying manually, skip inserting keys that don’t affect the animation.

  Auto:

  Auto-Keying will skip inserting keys that don’t affect the animation.

Keyframing – Visual Keying

When an object is using constraints, the object property value does not actually change. Visual Keying will add keyframes to the object property, with a value based on the visual transformation from the constraint.

Auto-Keyframing

• Enable in New Scenes

  Enables Auto Keyframe by default for new scenes.

• Show Warning

  Displays a warning at the top right of the 3D Viewport, when moving objects, if Auto Keyframe is on.

• Only Insert Available

  This will only add keyframes to channels of F-Curves that already exist.

See also

Learn more about Auto-Keyframing.

F-Curves

These settings control how F-Curves look and their default behavior.

Unselected Opacity

Controls the opacity of unselected F-Curves against the background of the Graph Editor.

Default Smoothing Mode

Controls the behavior of automatic curve handles for newly created F-Curves.

Default Interpolation

Controls the default Interpolation for newly created keyframes.

Default Handles

Controls the default Handle for newly created F-Curves.

XYZ to RGB

Color for X, Y, or Z animation curves (location, scale or rotation) is the same as the color for the X, Y, and Z axis.

Channel Group Colors

Display groups and channels with colors matching their corresponding groups.

Only Show Selected F-Curve Keyframes

Only shows the keyframes markers on the selected curves.

Use High Quality Display

Display F-Curves using Anti-Aliasing and other effects (disable for a better performance).