1.1.2.2. Zoom

In a video project it is important that you can zoom in on the section you’re working on. On the other hand it’s also important to have an overview of your timeline. Zooming in and out is thus a frequent occurring action.

Figure 1: Annotated video with all the Zoom commands.

Note

As with all commands in Blender, the interpretation of it depends on the position of the mouse cursor. Pressing Home when the mouse cursor is over the preview window will only zoom the preview window. To zoom in or out of the Sequencer, your mouse cursor must be over that area.

Figure 2: Menu View

Ctrl-Spacebar

The Ctrl-Spacebar key will switch the window under the mouse cursor into semi-full view. The header and menus are still visible. The video in figure 1 is created with this view. You can tell because at the very top, there is a button “Back to Previous” . This full-screen view will help you to keep an overview; especially in the vertical dimension (channels). Pressing Ctrl-Spacebar again or the Back to Previous button will restore the window. You can invoke this command from the menu: View > Area > Toggle Maximize Area.

Alt-Ctrl-Spacebar

The Alt-Ctrl-Spacebar key will switch the window under the mouse cursor into full view. All the available screen space is reserved for the Timeline. To restore the window, you need to press Alt-Ctrl-Spacebar again. No other key will do! Or you can hover your mouse over the top right corner of the window until the restore button pops up. It’s very easy to miss! You can invoke this command from the menu: View > Area > Toggle FullScreen Area.

Home

Pressing the Home key zooms in on the total project; from Start to End and from channel 0 to channel 7. If some strips are beyond these borders, the range is extended to cover these strips (see section on Moving the Timeline window. Whenever you get lost in your timeline, press the Home key to get back at the complete picture. Many Zoom commands can also be issued from the menu (see figure 2). The menu equivalent for Home is: View > Frame All.

NumpadPeriod

Pressing the NumpadPeriod key zooms the Visible Range to fit only the selected strips. Please note that this key is the period key on the numpad, not the period key on the alphanumeric keypad. The menu equivalent is: View > Frame Selected (see figure 2).

Warning

If you don’t have a numpad, the Emulate Numpad option in the User Preferences will not help you out. You cannot use the regular period key from the alphanumeric keypad.

You can however change these shortcuts or make some of your own. Blender Frenzy has a nice video about creating these Custom Keymaps.

Numpad +/-

Pressing the Numpad + or Numpad - key will zoom in or out in small incremental steps (+/- 5 frames, +/- 10 frames, +/- 15 frames, …), starting from the current Visible Range. You can continue pressing the key until you have reached the desired zoom level.

Shift-B

After pressing the Shift-B key (from Box Select), a crosshair cursor appears and you can click and drag to draw a rectangle in the Sequencer window. Upon releasing the mouse button, the Visible Range is zoomed to this rectangle. The menu equivalent of pressing Shift-B is: View > Zoom (see figure 2).

MMB + Wheel Roll

Scrolling the middle mouse wheel will zoom in horizontally around the playhead. Scrolling towards yourself will zoom out. Scrolling towards the screen will zoom in.

Using the MMB wheel roll in combination with Ctrl or Shift will change the behavior from zoom to move (see Moving the Timeline window).

Ctrl-MMB + drag

Pressing Ctrl-MMB and dragging left will zoom out or dragging right will zoom in. Dragging up will zoom in vertically and dragging down will zoom out vertically.

It’s important to press the Ctrl-MMB first and then drag.

Scrollbar circles

At the bottom and far right of the sequencer area, there are scrollbars. The length or the height of the scrollbar gives you an indication how much percentage of the Strip Range is visible. Pressing the Home key for example will make the scrollbars at full length and height because the Visible Range will then be equal to the Strip Range.

Each scrollbar has a circle at the beginning and end (see figure 3). Dragging these circles will shrink or expand the scrollbar length or height and therefore also the Visible Range. For example, in figure 3, dragging the left zoom circle to the left, will expand the Visible Range from frame 200 to frame 1 (which is the start of the project). The right zoom circle can be dragged to frame 1000 (End of the project). At that moment the scrollbar is full length (you see the complete project Duration). The visible range will then be larger than the Strip Range and will ultimately show you the largest visible Range possible in Blender, which is -500 000 to + 500 000 frames.

Figure 3: Vertical and horizontal scrollbars with zoom circles.

Most commands from above will zoom in or out on both dimensions simultaneously. For example, the Home will zoom until all strips are visible, both on the horizontal and vertical dimension. With the scrollbar circles, you can zoom in or out in one dimension only and choose in which direction you want to zoom.