Intro to Animation Curves in After Effects

In this lesson we'll take a look at the power of animation curves in After Effects.
Learn More About Animation Curves: www.schoolofmotion.com/tutori...
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Partial, Auto-Generated Transcript Below 👇
Joey Korenman (00:19): Hey there, Joey here for school of motion. And in this lesson, we're going to take a peak at the graph editor in after effects. I know that the graph editor may seem a bit intimidating at first, but if you hang in there through this lesson, you'll be on your way to having better looking animations right away. We can only cover so much in just this one lesson. So if you really want an in-depth animation training, you're going to want to check out our animation bootcamp program. Not only does it entail several weeks of intense animation training, but you also get access to class only podcasts, PDs, and critiques on your work from our experience teaching assistants. Every moment of that course is designed to give you an edge in everything you create as a motion designer. Also, don't forget to sign up for a free student account so you can grab the project files from this lesson as well as assets from any other lesson on the site.
Joey Korenman (01:09): And now let's jump in and check out the graph editor. All right, here we are in after effects. Um, so first thing I want to do is explain a little bit about the way after effects uses curves. And, um, it's, it's a little different than, um, some other programs like cinema 4d and nuke and Maya. Um, so what I'm going to do is just create a, I'll just create a new shape. All right. We'll just make a little little rectangle here. We'll square. Right. Um, so if I put a position, key frame on here, option P a and I go forward one second and I move it over here. All right. Let me set my, uh, set my comp, right? So let's preview this. All right. So it moves from point a to point B very boring doesn't doesn't feel that good, you know, it feels kind of stiff.
Joey Korenman (02:06): So the first trick that everybody learns is to use one of the, uh, the animation helper kind of presets that come with after effects. Um, and so if you select both of these, go up to animation, key frame assistant, you've got easy ease in out and easy ease. And the one most people use is Easy's all right. And now your key frames look a little different. And when we preview this, you'll see that it, it feels better, right? The, um, the box sort of slowly starts moving and then it picks up speed. And then it slowly, decelerates at the end of the move. And this is the way things move in the real world. And this is why, you know, when you see animation, uh, you know, you want it to feel similar to this because it just feels more natural to you. Cause that's what you're to seeing.
Joey Korenman (03:00): Um, animation is all about tricking you into thinking. Things are moving that are not actually moving. And, uh, it helps, you know, the illusion, if you make things move the way they do in real life. Um, and once you sort of get the hang of that, then you can start breaking the rules and, and doing really cool things. So for now, um, we have easy ease, key frames. Now, what is actually happening? What, like, how has after effects deciding how fast and how slow and when to speed up the, the key, the square and, and, and basically how is it setting the timing of this? So the, the way to understand this is to use this button here, which is that they're calling the graph editor and it looks like something out of, you know, your algebra homework, and maybe that's why people are, are not really using it a lot or not as much as they should.
Joey Korenman (03:51): Uh, because it's just a little silly, I mean, look at these cute icons and then you have this one and it's just really boring. So, um, what I'm going to do is click this and you'll see, now we have this graph and now if I click on position, it will show me, uh, what my position, um, key frames are doing. All right. Um, I'm going to show you guys a really handy little button. It's this one down here, uh, fit all graphs to view. If you click that, it will scale your view to just fit the graph you're looking at. It's very helpful. So right now you see this green line down here is totally flat. That is the X position, uh, sorry, the Y position. Okay. And if I float my mouse over it, it'll tell you position wipe. Um, and that's flat because this cube is square is not moving up and down at all.

[@Draaack]

Nobody out here talking about how Joey's been making these better-than-university-quality tutorials FOR YEARS?

[@boya2monkae]

Thank you so much! The graph is very intimidating for newbies like me so this has been super helpful.

[@antonhapunkt4287]

Really good tutorials! Best I've seen so far. Thank you guys for doing this. It helps me a lot to learn.

[@craigmoran5238]

I am just starting out in motion graphics and this is the best video I have come across! I have learnt so much in 37 mins than I have in weeks!

[@FunDumb]

Wow! Amazing in depth tutorial. Thanks School of Motion.

[@seek4change]

This kind of Motion Graphic lessons, I love, I adore and I appreciate, just my favourite, thanks a lot.

[@kenr.9177]

Best explanation of the nuances of the graph editor that I've seen. Great job, and Thanks!

[@SarahAndBoston]

This video is amazingly helpful, I learned so much. Thank you!

[@1WillyDAVID]

Awesome bro, thanks, this is great! learned tons!, God Bless You!

[@galefraney]

Great tutorial, explained perfectly !!

[@erictko85]

You've likely heard this before. you are a DAMN GOOD TEACHER. Thank you. I might be signing up for some courses at SoM (im a camera operator./producer/some editing and dont do much graphical work...but all of a sudden i feel like a lot of progress could be made in relatively less time than i thought due to such quality teaching)

[@suraiyaabedin9783]

u shud be awarded with the title of 'best-explainer-who-turns-boring-thing-into-engrossing'

[@swarnamanjari1506]

This was very helpful, thank you!

[@giovanabrandao5789]

Thank you guys so much for sharing knowledge!

[@inglesnapratica4704]

Amazing! Thank you for another incredible tutorial, guys!

[@sofiaiervolino]

Thank you for this great tutorial, now I finally understand it!

[@nittygrittyfilms666]

Amazing tutorial! Thanks so much!

[@marinatomiatti3537]

Thank you so much for this tutorial!

[@dinaadel4582]

this is so helpful,thanks alot

[@kimtoh8117]

extremely helpful tutorial, thanks man

[@NikhilBhat]

Amazing tutorial! I learned so much in such a short time, I didn't realize that using the value graph was the proper way to animate over the speed graph. Thank you so much!

[@schoolofmotion]

Yep, this technique is essential! Glad you learned a lot.

[@enanta7]

⁠@@schoolofmotionis it still essential? Because nowadays all the youtube tutorials say I have to edit the speed graph… what is the right way? And nice tutorial, you are a great teacher!

[@ItsJustMeStevie]

Seriously dude... your videos are just ridiculously good. Been watching your videos all day today. Been struggling with my animation and now understand why. You rock!!!!

[@schoolofmotion]

Thanks for letting us know! :D

[@YEIYO1]

holly molly i been using the speed graph for years, this should be post on adobe or something, now i have full control and my animations are way better than only editing the speedgraph, thanks.

[@dommafia]

@Noe Demetrius SCAMMERS ABOVE. WHO FALLS FOR THIS CRAp???

[@zenyoon]

Amazing! So helpful!! Thank you!!

[@MichaelaPLD]

Thank you so much! This is SO helpful!

[@3syllables]

That was hilarious when he said the graph offends him. Too funny!

[@rr.studios]

@bananas no u... it was funny

[@mlpa1]

good work king, love you

[@aaronaguilar4593]

Nice. Thanks a lot actually. It worked, you explained it well.

[@ByKimsesiz]

This was so helpful!! Thank you

[@EasyEditpro]

Good one! Thank you for sharing♥️

[@zarnagadhiya]

Getting started with AE! This was incredibly helpful, thanks!!

[@sebastianodibusti]

Perfecto tutorial, thanx so much for teach us, amazing video , 😁

[@magnificatnegociosdigitais8459]

Super cool and very useful! Thank you!

[@diegovega4090]

13/5000 VERY EDUCATIONAL

[@WeggaBusiness]

Very very helpful. Thaaaaaaaanks man!

[@arts9466]

It's Helpful and very informative. thanks

[@cimsaunissula9854]

Very helpful, thank you

[@stevedoetsch]

The slope represents acceleration for both the motion and speed graphs. Which graphs you choose depends on whether you want to focus on location or movement.

[@ibrahimDotQ]

YOUR THE BEST!

[@Guty90210]

yOU´RE AWESOME!

[@schoolofmotion]

No...no. You're awesome.

[@jcapdevila]

great vid many thanks!

[@schoolofmotion]

Cheers!

[@wiewiorka_ojoj4167]

thank U! Now I love the value graph :D What I've noticed is You in the School of Motion have handsome and great teachers ;)

[@kikasso1984]

splendid

[@Dexteritye]

So glad to see a tutorial like this. Animating paths must offend you too then 😆

[@2592Thomas]

thanks a lot!

[@jhndavidjnr6673]

5 years later i realised starting with the speed graph was more easier for me to understand.

[@malayalamremix7434]

Thnkyou.

[@knot4real]

Thanks

[@PascalDickhoff]

thank you

[@mrx-lo8gc]

it work on my pc thx bro vеry much

[@talkingreels2937]

very helpful

[@saravanakumar4904]

very usefull, Thanks. please make a tutorial for how to make film look in aftereffects

[@randomBBL]

great tutorial! very helpful for a noob like me ... 17:08 the only thing he didnt know was 17+8 lol

[@MostraGulla]

thks

[@dimtodim]

u r god :)

[@ForesterGaming]

the "old" speed graph is so much more intuitive :P

[@amirhosseinahmadi3706]

I agree

[@JakeLewisReal]

i also agree

[@staghound3468]

I agree with this too. I see the value (no pun intended) of the Value Graph when you can see the bounce that he made in the curves. However, if you're animating the x and y and even z positions, and you want their easing to be the same, it's much faster (and simpler) to animate in the Speed Graph and affect all position values at once rather than matching your eases on the x and y curves. I can see situations where both graphs are useful, but I will admit that I've used the Speed Graph a lot more than the Value Graph.

[@mdab0123]

Darn! It isn't loading. Thanks though for your other tutorials. I subscribed. :)

[@AnthonyRosbottom]

Great tutorial, I'm just getting back into AE so learning keyboard shortcuts is great. But, the keyframes you made when the square hit the ground are unnatural and disobey the laws of physics (the square should always be getting slower on it's way back up, not gaining speed). Also you correctly tell people to use the minimum amount of keys possible yet as you say this you show your curve that has redundant keys at the apogee of the square's bounce.

[@Asavaka]

how are you able to pull the handles down and up? I can only get it to go left and right??

[@TheDonutboy1573]

Hi! Cool stuffs! I'm wondering if you guys have a tutorial of your intro animation? If not, can you tell me what style is that type of animation? Floating geometries? Appreciated.

[@seanwalker6664]

I'm considering the animation bootcamp in January. I would have to work around University study and home life. How much hours should I expect to dedicate to this camp per week?

[@davidwolske3873]

Did Adobe change how the graph editor works since this tutorial was posted? Like @Novian Media Productions, I cannot pull the handles up or down, only left or right. I cannot find an answer anywhere and I feel like I'm going crazy!

[@atyGraphic]

nice

[@rahuldeshpande9997]

It offens me? that's hilarious

[@putinmoscow8615]

During the entire quarantine period, I learned how to write soft at soft soft. TNice tutorials is not to say that self-isolation is a pleasant tNice tutorialng,

[@sfrerku]

I want to manually set the increasing/decreasing speed, not by dragging that. I can't find anywhere how to do it. I need specific values

[@evelynnathania7454]

sotNice tutorialng either - I assu that works with Edison too) and I never thought about after that. Now, at tNice tutorials mont, I am inspired! I am

[@ChristopherDudley]

Question: Why is this graph not simply upside down. So it looks like the actual bounce over time?

[@DesignedByMaejor]

is there a way to flip the value graph upside down? it feels like it should be flipped. thoughts?

[@zimbairkali7454]

I've got a technical question. I'm using After-effects 5.5.......don't laugh...........and it doesn't accept all my AVI's, so I bought an NCH file converter software...........and ti still doesn't accept all my AVI's. It tells me ''no such avi compressor''..............so I'm wondering if it's the encoder options which need to be reset? And if so to what? or the video options? and if these then to what? I've written to NCH and they reading the 5.5 manual, but I can't see any relevant listing in the menu. Can anyone help with this? It's holding back my schedule.

[@FunDumb]

Do you use media encoder? I would convert it to number of file types and try them out. MP4 should work though. If you haven't used it before ADOBE offers a one month free trial.

[@MrYuan321]

❤️

[@theatomicghostbr]

13:14

[@phnmnn5991]

Just the sight of the graph offends you lmao

[@actionj9777]

Was it really that funny?

[@keifferbuckles8976]

to me i guess. i don't remember

[@greenruwa]

😂😂

[@SentriFPS]

I'm having an issue when dealing with a vector that has two independent paths to form a logo however, I'd like to animate each path individually and it seems that when I try and separate the dimensions, it's unavailable because of the groupings within the shape layer? Any tips or tricks to get around this would be incredibly helpful!

[@dwadeworkx1644]

Put each path on a separate layer in illustrator

[@rxwww]

💎

[@heliumtart1121]

When making the waves and selecting the keyframes. My graph isn't in a S shape it's like a hill going up and then back down. I can't move the handles to change it. All it does is move the whole line.

[@schoolofmotion]

This is the view from the "Speed Graph" at the bottom of the timeline panel make sure to select "Value Graph" for the graph view. Note: Some properties will can only be viewed with the speed graph, but most can be viewed with both.

[@vuthixuantrang9292]

how did you change the GSM because if i add it it is just a long buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz but in your vid it is a short app plz help

[@ajspice]

How does the speed graph confuse you? It's visually the easier of the two to understand.

[@azwraithlance5159]

yeah i agree, is value graph more powerful or useful than speed graph???

[@KPVProductions]

@@azwraithlance5159 With the value graph, you can visually see the values instead of relying on the speed of the animation. Of course it's up to you which one you use and if you find speed graph easier then all power to you, however, most people find value graph better. Especially with time remapping. I'd rather see a simple graph where each keyframe states the value instead of seeing fluctuating lines all over with little control over the true value, instead the speed.

[@priyakp683]

TNice tutorials is pretty much a modern day Fairlight CMI.

[@jorgemario2102]

The only tNice tutorialng I learnt myself in soft soft is pressing tab in the keyboard to bring up the channel rack

[@devilsforkdigital1490]

This tutorial should be titled "Animation 101". Hardly any of this 37+ minutes is really about animation curves.

[@RogerGopaul]

34:58

[@eladet11]

Really great explanation! But I have one problem, hope you could help me. When I try to move an object in an oblique line (in both x and y axis after I separated them), and then manipulate the speed of the axes, the object moves in a curvy way in the frame. How do we deal with it?

[@aaronmatthewtunguia8625]

what's happening here is that the x and y values are not being changed equally. like, if you crank the bezier handle of the x pos keframe more than the y, you'll get a curvy path rather than a straight one. as far as i know, we have 2 solutions here. first is to use the speed graph instead of the value graph so that when you manipulate the bezier handles, after effects will be the one adjusting the x and y values equally. OR, if you hate using the speed graph(like i do), do your best to adjust the pos dimensions(x and y) equally. what i usually do is select them both and manipulate the bezier handles together in the value graph. if you just wanna adjust the easing, hold shift while adjusting the bezier handles to ensure that you're changing the values perfectly linear. and that should do it. :)

[@eladet11]

@@aaronmatthewtunguia8625 Thank you for the detailed answer!

[@aaronmatthewtunguia8625]

@@eladet11 you're welcome!

[@posebukse]

Aight Alright Okeh? Aight? Aiit oKAyh? Allright Aiight Okeh? Aith OKEH? Still got the 100th like tho, thanks for the knowledge. It's like with Ash Thorp vids, half the words you hear are "The good stuff" and "You guys", but it's worth the training despite hearing unnecessary words 60.000 times.

[@keyan.9524]

you didnt explain this before webinar (in animation bootcamp), you were using value graph for everything and i was so confused

[@strahilprimedivision8718]

Fucking useful! Thank you!

[@Ravenseyes10]

Usually he can play with it until it feels good? Phrasing....

[@martismartola]

man what do i do if i deleted my graph lol

[@tyler5120]

14:48 things go faster until they reach their terminal velocity, unless inside a vacuum. Great tutorial, need to work on your physics homework though ;P

[@DannyBoy443]

My graph editor isn't showing any lines, handles or curves. Just a graph with numbers.

[@anshulgupta3735]

Select the property which is keyframed then check.

[@AlexPresa]

Can someone please buy the dude a new keyboard or get a stand for it. Haha good tut tho.

[@user-jx5fg6ye2t]

In the beginning of the video you speak like rocket then you turned like a turtle 😂😂😂

[@shreybhagat]

watching this in 2020

[@filipvonhohenburg3550]

It does not help when my path is not straight - when I use value graph it changes the path's shape, and the velocity graph is just a nightmare. I was using Maya before - it's graph is much easier.

[@jp3585]

🤔OOPS! YOU'VE STRETCHED TOPIC LIKE CHEWING GUM😂😂

[@kieninh5318]

video and try that on your own DAW. Be patient. It's not so complicated.

[@yagyakhadka2628]

watcNice tutorialng tNice tutorials on a Friday tNice tutorialnking ima be the next Skrillex by monday.

[@EmmanCollective]

The old Speed graph is better and EASY not consuming your time to animate the object.

[@vonzyper7086]

I am doing this video for class, brand new to after effects. Your command key buttons need to be more specific than little dashes and arrows!! This is extremely difficult for beginners if they don't know the actual command keys, it does nothing to help them.

[@FunDumb]

This isn't School of Motions prob. Figure them out. There's AE quick key reference charts everywhere online.

[@mikebale8362]

surely your teacher should be able go tell you this? or google...

[@rameshsharma4422]

Speed Graph offends me...😂😂😂😂