Introduction

Introduction

The Graph Editor allows users to adjust animation curves over time for any animatable property. F-Curves.

The Graph Editor.

Main Region

The curve view allows you to view and edit F-Curves. An F-Curve has several key parts:

Curve

The curve defines the value (Y axis) of the property over time (X axis).

See F-Curves.

Keyframes

Keyframes are user-defined values on certain frames and are represented by little black squares which become orange if selected.

See Keyframes for more information.

Handles

Each keyframe has a handle that helps determine the values of the curve between keyframes. These handles are represented by extruding lines with circular ends and can be selected and modified to change the shape of the curve.

See F-Curve Handles for more information.

A simple curve.

See also

See F-Curves for more info.

As with most editors, you can:

Pan

Pan the view vertically (values) or horizontally (time) with click and drag MMB.

Zoom

Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel Wheel.

Scale View

Scale the view vertically or horizontally Ctrl-MMB.

In addition, you can also use the scrollbars to pan and zoom the view.

Tip

You can frame an F-Curve channel from any animated property by right clicking on it and choosing View in Graph Editor. In order to bind that function to a hotkey, you need to make a hotkey manually in the e.g. User Interface category. Using the right click menu won’t work as it would be in the wrong category. The operator name is anim.view_curve_in_graph_editor.

Playhead & 2D Cursor

Graph Editor 2D Cursor.

The current frame is represented by a blue vertical line called the Playhead.

As in the Timeline, you can change the current frame by LMB-dragging in the scrubbing area at the top of the editor.

The blue horizontal line is called the 2D Cursor. This can be enabled or disabled via the View Menu or the View Properties panel.

These two lines can be used as a reference for moving and scaling keyframe handles.

See also

See Graph Editor’s View Tab.

View Axes

For Actions the X axis represents time, the Y axis represents the value to set the property.

Depending on the selected curves, the values have different meaning: for example rotation properties are shown in degrees.

Header

Sidebar N

Show or hide the Sidebar Region.

Adjust Last Operation

Displays a pop-up panel to alter properties of the last completed operation. See Adjust Last Operation.

Channels

Show or hide the Channels Region.

Frame Selected NumpadPeriod

Reset viewable area to show selected keyframes.

Frame All Home

Reset viewable area to show all keyframes.

Go to Current Frame Numpad0

Centers the area to the Playhead.

Realtime Updates

When transforming keyframes, changes to the animation data are propagated to other views.

Show Sliders

A toggle option that shows the value sliders for the channels. See the Fig. The Action editor’s channels region..

Auto-Merge Keyframes

Automatically merge nearby keyframes.

Auto-Lock Key Axis

Automatically locks the movement of keyframes to the dominant axis.

Show Markers

Shows the markers region. When disabled, the Markers Menu is also hidden and markers operators are not available in this editor.

Show Cursor

Toggles the visibility of the Playhead & 2D Cursor.

Show Seconds Ctrl-T

Show timing in seconds not frames.

Sync Visible Range

It synchronizes the horizontal panning and scale of the current editor with the other editors (Graph, Dope Sheet, NLA, and Sequencer) when this option is set. That way you always have these editors showing the same section of frames.

Show Extrapolation

Toggles the visibility of the extrapolated portion of curves.

Show Handles Ctrl-H

Toggles the display of a curve’s handles in the curve view.

Only Selected Keyframes Handles

Only shows the handles for the currently selected curves.

Set Preview Range P

Interactively define frame range used for playback. Allows you to define a temporary preview range to use for animation playback (this is the same thing as the Playback Range option of the Timeline editor header).

Clear Preview Range Alt-P

Clears the preview range.

Set Preview Range to Selected Ctrl-Alt-P

Automatically select the preview range based on the range of keyframes.

Toggle Dope Sheet

Changes the area’s editor to the Dope Sheet.

Area

Area controls, see the user interface documentation for more information.

See also

See Graph Editor’s View Tab.
See Timeline’s View Menu.

All A

Selects all keyframes and handles.

None Alt-A

Clears all selected items.

Invert

Selects all unselected items and unselects any currently selected items.

Box Select B

Selects items inside the defined box.

Box Select (Axis Range)

Todo.

Box Select (Include Handles)

Selects keyframes and their handles inside the defined box.

Circle Select C

Selects keyframe points using circle selection.

Lasso Select

Selects keyframe points using lasso selection.

Columns on Selected Keys K

Selects all other keyframes that are on the same frame as the selected keyframes.

Column on Current Frame Ctrl-K

Selects all other keyframes that are on the same frame as the current frame.

Columns on Selected Markers Shift-K

Selects all other keyframes that are on the same frame as the selected Markers.

Between Selected Markers Alt-K

Selects all keyframes that are between the first and last Markers as they fall in the timeline.

Before Current Frame

Select keyframes to the left of the current frame.

After Current Frame

Select keyframes to the right of the current frame.

Select Handles

Selects the associated handles to the currently selected keyframes.

Select Keys

Selects the associated keyframes to the currently selected handles.

Select More/Less

Selects/deselects keyframes in close proximity to currently selected keyframes.

Select Linked

Select keyframes occurring in the same F-Curves as selected ones.

Markers are used to denote frames with key points or significant events within an animation. Like with most animation editors, markers are shown at the bottom of the editor.

Markers in animation editor.

For descriptions of the different marker tools see Editing Markers.

View Controls

View controls.

Show Only Selected

Only include curves related to the selected objects and data.

Show Hidden

Include curves from objects/bones that are not visible.

Show Only Errors

Only include curves and drivers that are disabled or have errors. Useful for debugging.

Filter (funnel icon)

Only include curves with keywords contained in the search field.

Type Filter

Filter curves by property type.

Filtering Collection

Select a collection to only show keyframes from objects contained in that collection.

Sort Data-Blocks

Objects data-blocks appear in alphabetical order, so that it is easier to find where they occur (as well as helping to keep the animation of related objects together in the NLA for instance).

If you find that your playback speed suffers from this being enabled (it should only really be an issue when working with lots of objects in the scene), you can turn this off.

Normalize

Normalize curves so the maximum or minimum point equals 1.0 or -1.0. When enabled, the view scales to fit the normalized curves and the outer range is darkened.

If a preview range is defined, keyframes within the range are normalized, while the rest is scaled proportionally.

Auto

Automatically recalculate curve normalization on every curve edit. This is useful to prevent curves from jumping after tweaking it.

Create Ghost Curves (framed F-Curve icon)

Creates a picture with the current shape of the curves.

Transform Controls

Transform controls.

Pivot Point

Pivot point for rotation.

Bounding Box Center:

Center of the selected keyframes.

2D Cursor:

Center of the 2D Cursor. Playhead + Cursor.

Individual Centers:

Rotate the selected keyframe Bézier handles.

Snap

Activates automatic snapping when you moving keys.

Snap To

Type of element to snap to.
- Frame:
  
  Snap to frame.
  
  Second:
  
  Snap to seconds.
  
  Nearest Marker:
  
  Snap to nearest Marker.
Absolute Time Snap

Absolute time alignment when transforming keyframes