Reference
Menu:
Topbar ‣ Render ‣ View Animation
Shortcut:
Ctrl-F11
The animation player is a utility typically used for previewing rendered animations, supporting all image and video formats also supported by Blender. This is a convenient way to play back image sequences at the correct frame rate.
Launching the animation player opens a new window, playing back images or a video located at the render output of the current scene. You can also drop images or movie files in a running animation player. It will then restart the player with the new data.
Tip
An external player can also be used instead of the one included in Blender. To do this, select it in the Preferences.
Ping Pong
When enabled, playback loops forwards than backwards.
X/Y Flip
Flip the image horizontally or vertically.
Viewing the animation from a different perspective can help you see the animation with “fresh eyes”.
The following table shows the available hotkeys for the animation player.
Playback
| Action | Hotkey |
|---|---|
| Start/Pause: | Spacebar |
| Start playback (when paused): | Return |
| Quit: | Esc |
Timeline
| Action | Hotkey |
|---|---|
| Scrub in time: | LMB |
| Step back one frame: | Left |
| Step forward one frame: | Right |
| Step back 10 frames: | Down |
| Step forward 10 frames: | Up |
| Manual frame stepping: | NumpadPeriod |
Playback Options
| Action | Hotkey |
|---|---|
| Backward playback: | Shift-Down |
| Forward playback | Shift-Up |
| Slow down playback: | NumpadMinus |
| Speed up playback: | NumpadPlus |
| Toggle looping: | Numpad0 |
| Toggle frame skipping: | A |
| Toggle ping-pong: | P |
Display
| Action | Hotkey |
|---|---|
| Toggle Playhead (Indicator): | I |
| Flip image on the X axis: | F |
| Flip image on the Y axis: | Shift-F |
| Hold to show frame numbers: | Shift |
| Zoom in: | Ctrl-NumpadPlus |
| Zoom out: | Ctrl-NumpadMinus |
Frame Rate
| Action | Hotkey |
|---|---|
| 60 fps | Numpad1 |
| 50 fps | Numpad2 |
| 30 fps | Numpad3 |
| 25 fps | Numpad4 |
| 24 fps | Shift-Numpad4 |
| 20 fps | Numpad5 |
| 15 fps | Numpad6 |
| 12 fps | Numpad7 |
| 10 fps | Numpad8 |
| 6 fps | Numpad9 |
| 5 fps | NumpadSlash |
Image files are cached during playback for faster access.
While loading images is rarely a bottleneck, there are situations where high resolution images may slow down playback causing frame skipping.
See also
Memory Cache Limit preference to control this limit, which may be increased to cache more images during playback. Animation Playback Options to specify this value when launching from the command line.