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  • Published 5 May 2025

UI: Timeline frame grid does not align with the frames on one of the detail levels

On one of the detail levels, the frame grid of the timeline, and other time editors, does not align with the frames and the play head.

Exact steps to reproduce the error

  • open Blender
  • zoom into the timeline until the frame numbers are 5 frames apart
  • try to move the play head to the frame with the gray grid line

There is no frame right in the middle between frame 100 and 105. With this current implementation of the grid, the middle grid line does not indicate a frame, and so does not serve as a useful grid.

Current situation:

Video of the current situation: projects.blender.org/attachments/3f7a918f-7257-499e-be48-cd7e2ca4d1b3

The gray lines are not frames, they just show the mid point between certain frames, which can't be snapped to, and thus are not a useful grid. current.png

When animating, it is important to see if the keys are on the right frame in relation to each other.

On this detail level the keys align with the grid. placement2.png

Zooming out a little it looks like there is an additional frame between keys on consecutive frames. placement1.png

Possible solutions:

#1

Don't draw the gray lines on this detail level. I don't prefer this, but it is a solution. no-lines.png

#2

Drawing every second frame as gray lines, skipping one dark line. I prefer this personally for this zoom level, because this also jumps less, than the current situation, coming from the more zoomed in detail level, where every second frame has a dark grid line. lines-every-second-frame.png

Zooming out more, it still looks good: lines-every-second-frame-zoomed-out.png

This was originally a bug report: projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/138409

100%

Development Status: In Development

Upvote 11 Downvote 0 blender/pulls/143562
max4
5 May 2025

5 Comments

chris.lend

hey thanks for the proposal, I never noticed that but now that you mentioned it, it's hard to unsee it. I think this should be changed so lines are on frames :)

2
max4 Author

Yes. Thank you. I also think so. What are the next steps to make this happen?

chris.lend

I'll put it on the agenda for this weeks Animation & Rigging meeting to hear what other people think. If people are in favor of changing this, we just need to find dev time to change this :)

2
max4 Author

While you are adding things to the agenda, can you also add projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/138399 ? This bug can change an animation even when the operation is cancelled, which is very scary.

chris.lend

No need to add it to the agenda, that's just a bug we need to fix :)