Animation timing cannot be adjusted

Symptoms

If one or more of these match what you are seeing, you are on the right page.

• •Dragging a keyframe snaps to the wrong position
• •Moving one keyframe breaks the relative timing of the rest
• •Timing cannot be set between two frames
• •Stretching a sequence has to be done keyframe by keyframe

Causes and fixes

Ordered from most to least likely. Work down the list — each cause is paired with what to do about it.

1. 1

   A whole sequence needs to scale, not one keyframe.

   Select the range and use Timeline → Scale Time of Selected Keyframes. Enter a percentage — 200% makes the animation take twice as long — or absolute start and end frames, or a duration. Values are untouched; only timing changes.

2. 2

   Keyframe snapping is constraining the position.

   Keyframe Snapping in Animation Settings snaps drags to the nearest frame boundary. Turn it off for sub-frame precision, though that is rarely needed.

3. 3

   Only one keyframe is selected.

   Multiple selected keyframes move together and preserve their relative timing. Marquee-select the range before dragging.

4. 4

   Frame-accurate positioning is needed.

   Select the keyframe and use Ctrl+Left or Ctrl+Right to move one frame at a time, or right-click and choose Set Time to type an exact frame number.

5. 5

   Several tracks need to hit the same moment.

   Select the keyframes across tracks and press Ctrl+Shift+K to snap them all to the playhead.

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