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  • Published 21 May 2026

View Mode to See Frames as Cells in Dope Sheet

I'm currently using Blender for 2D grease pencil animation. Timing in 2D is incredibly important, so being able to see how long a frame lasts/the space between frames is a necessity. The dope sheet is a darling, but I've had many issues with it.

By the way, when I use the word "post", I'm referring to the lines you'd get indicating where a frame can be (Sometimes a frame can't be there, but I'll explain that issue). When I say "Landmark frames", those are frames that are displayed after the dope sheet culls out frames to keep it visually clean (20, 40, 60, etc.)

The issue

For one, the dope sheet culls frame numbers and lines when zooming out, leaving landmark frames to keep it looking clean. That's not a problem, in fact, I like it a lot, but it culls far too aggressively. When fitting frame 0-45 in the timeline, it culls frames to 5 frame increments (5, 10, 15, etc.) I understand the number culling, but culling the frame posts as well removes too much information. I can't tell how many frames lie between the space without counting it myself, which gets difficult if i'm at like frame 156 and I need another frame 3 frames after. I'd need to either do the math, or move the playhead and tap my arrow keys 3 times.

Second, the posts aren't accurate to the frames, when the timeline is running on 5 frame increments, it places a post dab smack in the middle between the landmark frames. That post physically can't hold a frame because you can't have a middle frame for 6 frames (0-5). This confuses the hell out of me, especially when I can't even tell where the frames are supposed to be because all the frames have been culled.

Third, posts are hard to read as frames. it's likely something anyone can get used to, but for 2D animation, cells are so ingrained into everything, you'll never see a line be used as a frame indicator.

My proposal

I think an easy solution at the moment is to lower the amount of culling that happens, maybe even make it user controlled. What I would love to see implemented is a mode to see the dope sheet use cells instead. Similar to how ToonBoom Harmony, TVPaint, and OpenToonz/Tahoma2D do it, especially that it uses spaces as frames, not the posts.

Example: ToonBoom Harmony Screenshot 2026-05-22 070911.png

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Development Status: Open

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Joshua-Teng
21 May 2026

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