Introduction¶
The NonLinear Animation editor, or NLA editor for short, lets you animate on a higher level. Instead of working with individual keyframes, it works with actions, which are named, reusable animation segments.
The NLA editor.¶
Main Region¶
The editor displays a stack of tracks which work like layers in an image editing program. Higher tracks take precedence over lower ones, although you can also choose to blend them.
Each track can contain any number of strips – typically Action Strips, which are instances of actions.
The top track highlighted in orange is special: this is the Action Track. Unlike the other tracks, it doesn’t contain strips – instead, it contains the object’s active action, which is where new keyframes are added to by default.
Editors like the Dope Sheet Editor normally only show the keyframes of this active action. If you want to edit another action, you can select it in the NLA editor and press Tab to enter Tweak Mode.
Tweaking an action. Notice that it’s shown in both its original track and the Action Track. The active action is temporarily hidden.¶
Header¶
View Menu¶
- Sidebar N
Shows or hides the Sidebar Region.
- Adjust Last Operation
Displays a pop-up panel to alter properties of the last completed operation. See Adjust Last Operation.
- Channels
Shows or hides the Track Region.
- Playback Controls
Show or hide the Playback Controls.
- Frame Selected NumpadPeriod
Pans and zooms the view to focus on the selected strips.
- Frame All Home
Pans and zooms the view to show all strips.
- Frame Scene/Preview Range
Reset the horizontal view to the current scene frame range, taking the preview range into account if it is active.
- Go to Current Frame Numpad0
Centers the view on the Playhead.
- Realtime Updates
Whether to update other views (such as the 3D Viewport) while you’re moving strips around. If disabled, the other views only get updated once you finish the move.
- Show Control F-Curves
Shows a graph on top of each strip that uses Animated Influence.
- Show Markers
Shows the marker region (provided any markers have been defined). When disabled, the Marker Menu is also hidden and marker operators are not available in this editor.
- Show Local Markers
Shows action-local markers (which you can create in the Action Editor). This can be useful to align strips to each other.
Local markers shown in the NLA Editor (top) and the Action Editor (bottom).¶
- Use Timecode Ctrl-T
Shows timing in seconds instead of frames.
- Sync Visible Range
Synchronizes the horizontal panning and scale of the editor with other time-based editors that also have this option enabled. That way, they always show the same section of time.
- Set Preview Range P
Lets you drag a box to define a time range for previewing. As long as this range is active, playback will be limited to it, letting you repeatedly view a segment of the animation without having to manually rewind each time.
You can change the start or end frame using the corresponding button in the Timeline editor’s Playback popover. Alternatively, you can simply run Set Preview Range again.
- Clear Preview Range Alt-P
Clears the preview range.
- Set Preview Range to Selected Ctrl-Alt-P
Applies a preview range that encompasses the selected strips.
- Area
Area controls. See the user interface documentation for more information.
Marker Menu¶
Markers are used to denote frames with key points or significant events within an animation. Like with most animation editors, they’re shown at the bottom.
Markers in animation editor.¶
For descriptions of the different marker tools, see Editing Markers.
Filters¶
- Only Show Selected
Only shows tracks belonging to objects that are selected.
- Show Hidden
Shows tracks from objects that are hidden.
- Include Missing NLA
Shows the Action Track even if there is no action in it.
- Search
Filters the track list by a search term.
- Filtering Collection
Select a collection to only show tracks from objects in that collection.
- Filter by Type
Filter tracks by target type.
- Sort Data-Blocks
Sorts data-blocks alphabetically to make them easier to find.
If your playback speed suffers because of this (should only really be an issue when working with lots of objects), you can turn it off.
Snap¶
The toggle button enables/disables automatic strip snapping. The dropdown button shows a popover with the following options:
- Snap To
Type of element to snap to.
- Frame:
Snap to full frames.
- Second:
Snap to seconds.
- Nearest Marker:
Snap to the nearest Marker.
- Absolute Time Snap
When disabled, strips will move in increments of Snap To. For example, if you selected Second and have a strip that currently starts on 0:06+5, dragging it to the right will snap it to 0:07+5. Its time increases by a second, and its subsecond offset of 5 frames remains the same.
When enabled, strips will snap to multiples of Snap To. Taking the above example, the strip would snap to 0:07+0, removing the subsecond offset.
Playback Controls¶
The Playback Controls region contains controls and options related to playback, keying, auto keyframing, and transport.
These settings allow you to:
Control how animations are previewed and synchronized with audio.
Insert and manage keyframes through keying sets and auto keying.
Navigate the timeline using playback and transport controls.
Adjust frame ranges and preview specific segments of the animation.
See also
For a detailed description of all properties and controls commonly found in the footer, see the Playback Controls documentation.