Dope Sheet

This simple editor shows keyframes in objects (to the left of the Dope Sheet, you’ll find a list of the objects in the scene) as yellow diamond shapes in a timeline. This editor basically lets you move keyframes in time so you can adjust the timing of your animation.

You can use basic controls such as G to move keyframes or S to scale them, or even press Shift while you right click more keyframes to select several at once. Press B to box select a group of keyframes. With Shift + D, you can duplicate keyframes.

Activate the Dope Sheet Summary option on the Dope Sheet’s header to display another line at the top of the editor that shows all the keyframes in every object on the list.

The Dope Sheet Editor also has different modes. There is a mode selector on the header that, by default, is set to Dope Sheet, but there are other options, such as the Action Editor, or you can access the Masks keyframes (created in the Movie Clip Editor and used in the Compositor), Shape keys, keyframes, and more.

The Action Editor is especially important. An object can store different animations (actions) and, in the Action Editor, you’ll be able to select which one is currently displayed; of course, it will also let you name them, so later you can have a list of different actions that you can mix together in the NLA Editor (explained later in this section). If you work on videogames, you probably know that a character can have different animations, such as walking, running, standing idle, picking up something, and so forth. These are different actions that you can have in the same scene and switch between them. You can create new actions or edit the ones you previously created thanks to the Action Editor.

Basically, you could say that the Dope Sheet is a more general editor that displays all the animations going on in a scene. The Action Editor works with a specific animation for a specific object and is especially useful with armatures so that you can store different animations for your characters.