Timeline Editor

The Timeline editor, identified by a clock icon, is shown by default at the bottom of the screen.

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The Timeline.

The Timeline is not much of an editor, but more of an information and control.

Here you can have an overview of the animation part of your scene. What is the current time frame, either in frames or in seconds, where are the keyframes of the active object, the start and end frames of your animation, markers, etc...

The Timeline has Player Controls, to play, pause the animation, and to skip though parts of the scene.

It also has some tools for Keyframes, Keying Sets, and Markers.

Main View

The main Timeline region displays the animation frames over time.

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Timeline Main Area.

Adjusting the View

The Timeline can be panned by holding MMB, then dragging the area left or right.

You can zoom the Timeline by using Ctrl-MMB, the mouse Wheel, or pressing NumpadMinus and NumpadPlus.

Time Cursor

The Time Cursor is the green line, it is used to set and display the current time frame.

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Time Cursor.

The Time Cursor can be set or moved to a new position by pressing or holding LMB in the Timeline editor.

The current frame or second can be displayed on the Time Cursor, check the View menu for settings.

The Time Cursor can be moved in steps by pressing Left or Right, or in steps of 10 frames by pressing Shift-Up or Shift-Down.

Playback/Rendering Range

By default, the Playback/Rendering Range (Frame Start 1 to Frame End 200) is a lighter shade of gray. The start and end frame can be set to the Time Cursor by pressing S or E. The Playback Range can also be set by pressing P then drawing a box.

Keyframes

For the active and selected objects, keyframes are displayed as a yellow line. For Armatures, the object keyframes and the pose bones keyframes are drawn.

Only Selected Channels can be enabled. Timeline ‣ View ‣ Only Selected Channels. For Armatures, this will draw the object keyframes, and the keyframes for the active and selected pose bones.

Markers

Markers are the small triangles, with their name near them. Markers are usually used to identify key parts of the animation.

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Markers.

See the Markers page for more information.