2009

The 3ds Max Dope Sheet editor is similar to the classic X sheet. It displays
keyframes over time, only using a horizontal graph (rather than vertical). This
provides tools for adjusting the timing of your animation. Here, you can see
all the keys in a spreadsheet-type interface. You can select any or all of the
keys in a scene, scale them, move them, copy and paste them, or otherwise
work directly here, rather than in the viewport. You can choose to select the
keys for children, or subtree, or both, so you can make simple changes that
affect many objects and their keys at once.
A common use of Dope Sheet is to stagger the movement of a character's limbs
so they don't all move simultaneously. If you have a crowd of characters, you
could use Dope Sheet to shift movements so they don't all move in unison.
Dope Sheet Menus and Tools
In the Dope Sheet, you can select any or all of the keys in a scene, scale them,
move them, copy and paste them, or otherwise work directly, rather than
working with objects in viewports. You can choose to select the keys for
children, or subtree or both, so you can make simple changes that affect many
objects and their keys at once.
Dope Sheet allows for soft-selection of keys which is very useful when working
with motion capture data that has keys on every frame.
Dope Sheet provides tools for working directly with time. You can select, cut,
copy, paste, and insert and reverse time using the tools on the Time menu.
Like the
Curve Editor on page 3518, Dope Sheet has both a menu bar and toolbars
to provide you quick access to tools.
Dope Sheet menu bar
Unlike Curve Editor, Dope Sheet has two modes: Edit Keys and Edit Ranges.
These modes change the display in the Key window.
Edit Keys Mode
When Edit Keys is turned on, the keyframes are displayed as boxes within
rectangles on a grid. The keys are color-coded to show what has been keyframed
(position is red, scale is yellow, rotation is green, and so on.)
3520 | Chapter 15 Animation