Why Graph Editor is an Animator's HOLY GRAIL

Graph editor workflow tips and tricks for character animators!
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-- This Video's Music --
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Video Chapters:
0:00 - Is the Graph Editor Important?
0:44 - Autodesk Maya
1:44 - Set Key Fix
2:48 - 3 Curve Views
4:47 - Weighted Tangents
8:44 - Hotkey Editor
10:08 - Curve Syncing
12:52 - Curve Names
14:33 - Curve Colors
16:53 - Opinions
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Thanks for watching!
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SEO Stuff: maya graph editor, maya graph editor tips, graph editor animation, how to animate in graph editor, how to use graph editor, what is graph editor, graph editor, dope sheet, blender, blender graph editor, blender dope sheet, maya tips, animation graph editor, animation splines, how to spline, graph editor tutorial, character animation tutorial, animation tips, character animator, character animation, character animation software, advanced animation, animation workflow, graph editor workflow
#Autodesk #AutodeskPartner #MagicLinks #characteranimation
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[@SirWade]

Which of these was the most interesting to you? And what graph editor tips or questions do you have? :D

[@Im_Ninooo]

The channel selection syncing feature is nice, in Blender you have to search the channel name which works fine but the Maya way is a lot faster :)

[@Capitainefutur]

The weughted tangent and the curve synching are game changers. I'm gonna save so much time just with those! Thank you for all the info! Super useful as always

[@fun_and_profit]

I'm not too familiar with Maya, I messed around with it for a while a few years back, but didn't get too advanced. I've been using After Effects. Here's a question, is it possible to do 2.5D stuff with Maya? I mean, I'm sure it's possible. But I wonder if it would be worth it?

[@rayanxfit]

All of them!

[@Ironpants57]

My favorites are stacked view and curve colors. My now biased opinion is that colorizing graph curves should be a standard for all animation tools.

[@deanervik]

Graph editor tip. Select key frame like a frame number/s or values, then if you want to move the selected keys by say 5 frames just type “+=5” in the graph editor value or frame field, the selected keys should move forward 5 frames. -=5 will move them backwards 5 frames. It’s handy when you want to increase or scale a set of selected keys by a certain amount like scale some value keys by 10% you’d use +=1.1

[@learningthief]

10% should be +=0.1

[@InscrutableObjects]

I think that would just move it .01 frames. I think you want "*=0.1" if you want 10%. I'm not by Maya at the moment but can check tomorrow. This is a good tip. I use it all the time with mocap and other dense frame animations. You can also use it to change the values as well. So if you want to offset all your x rotates by 180 degrees, select the keys you want, select the value field and put in something like "-=180" if you want to subtract 180 or "+=180". Super great to help when things get gimbaled up. :)

[@laudeharo]

View>Curves name>Active Only. Spot on!! These videos are like taking a painkiller against Maya headaches, THANKS Sir Wade for sharing it

[@MichaelSAMyatt]

This is a game changer for me! I knew about weighted tangents, 3 curve view, and the hotkey editor but blew my mind that I dont have to i + middle click to set keys anymore. And I'm going to give a try with the curve syncing and curve colors. Great video! I dont think I'm brave enough to get rid of the sidebar just because I like to double check myself. Thanks for making this!

[@Jovalix]

I’ve been animating in maya for 2 years now and every one of these helped me!

[@brandonberrycg8758]

You got me on the first tip. I didn't know they added that. Glad to see you back at it Sir Wade!

[@sonario6489]

Just in time! I'm starting over from the beginning with animation, starting with your graph editor tutorial.

[@chrisdaleyanimated]

Holy cow-I thought I knew the graph editor until I watched this. I'd heard of some of these tips, but now I'm putting them all into practice. Thanks Sir!

[@madsahren2208]

I can't imagine my life without the graph editor, I've never NOT used it, thanks for these tips!! Learned so much!

[@loganhogg6237]

When I watched this 3 weeks ago it totally changed my work flow. So much great advice!! Thank you.

[@ADreamCalledeternity]

I used to be SO confused how to use the Graph Editor in Maya in college to the point of where I didn't bother using it at all. Now it's like my child, I love it so much. Now I can love working in it even more. Thanks a bunch! This'll 100% help for class and hmwk!

[@geoff1917]

Great content my friend, don't do much animation in my work flow daily but when I do, I can already foresee some of these tips making my life easier.

[@Thecreator301]

Few of them I already know but curve syncing and curve names are incrediblely helpful. Thank you for sharing these tips. : )

[@CGISchoolz]

This is a complete new outlook for me on Graph editor! I haven't explored this earlier. Thanks for sharing buddy.

[@adamszczesny2646]

Your tuts are priceless! Funny how much preferences digging you have to do to make Maya work almost as intuitive as Blender😂

[@Netbro678]

I was using blender, I was literally stressing about some options which I can't find until I saw "wait it's Maya?"

[@adamszczesny2646]

@@Netbro678 :D

[@Nickfooker]

Navigation in Blender is so much easier with the G keys, which is great for everything including animations. But its graph editor is a big mess though.

[@user-cl6vy3xd1h]

Man as someone who has dabbled more in motion graphics in After Effects than with 3D stuff, the weighted tangents are going to be a gamechanger. I have always wished to have something like that in Maya but because I wasn't taught it I didn't even think to look up if it was a setting. I've always been a fan of the graph editor but man this video really shows you its potential!

[@davidnfernandez]

Didn't know any of this. So glad you made this video, thank you so much. I'm using all of these tips immediately!

[@Profe_FcoMendoza]

Through your videos i started to love more and more the graph editor!. and this one is so easy way to get the work done!... thanks so much sharing material!.

[@nas101]

Curve syncing is just a life saver! Thank you for this!

[@claudiaconde7458]

I open my computer to start splining on my project, and here you are saving my life again!!!! Thank you!!!

[@CVerse]

Haha I remember you really emphasizing the graph editor during the Maya workshop 2 months ago. Happy to see everyone here is gonna get these useful tips too

[@Martin3m]

the sync chekbox... its GOLD !! thank you !

[@okori05]

Thank you Wade! I didn't know so much things that you showed I'll try all of this

[@maddysdaddystevem563]

Your videos are always good (thanks for not having the music so loud that we can't hear you), and this one is very helpful. Thanks.

[@ekapratama2894]

I'm new to Maya and animating so all of these are great news to me. Thank you so much, I'm glad I found your channel.

[@MonsterBandage]

Mind blown. I've been using maya for years but never knew some of these tricks. Set key fix is definitely gona save me some time! Thanks!

[@ARTMUUV]

This is exactly what I needed, thanks so much for these awesome videos!

[@roshnifernandes6811]

This is great content .weighted tangents and the color change was a nice surprise.Thanku so much for this

[@MDanimations44]

Wow!! So many great options! Thankyou so much 🙏

[@i20010]

Very useful information! 15:35 There is now in M24 a View->Theme-> TRS distinct where it gives you those colors automatically!

[@AWA1L]

Jeeesus, every tip other than the Weighted Tangents I has absolutely no idea about. Huge gains right here. Thanks Wade!

[@AWA1L]

Wow 30 secs in and already learned some invaluable knowledge lol. Had noooo idea Maya indie existed, was dreeeading having to get the commercial license before, now I dont have to. Thanks dood!

[@romanwest9114]

Working like charm !!!! thanks for sharing and keep up !!!

[@dariamerkulova6175]

Curve Syncing is a game changer! :D Thanks for the tips, very useful.

[@MrJJAbrans]

Amazing video, Sir!!! Thx for the tips!!

[@ObzTicle]

Dude I've been animating for about 2 years, and some of these points my mouth was legit open the whole time in shock I never knew this.

[@valeriagonzalezpantoja7070]

Super cool, really like your videos and know the graph editor is a better spaghetti and useful. Thank you a lot for the tip and the help saving my life.

[@RichardDeDappere]

Especially that annoying sidebar gone is a awesome tip. I work with the graph editor all the time so this video a massive help!

[@WW_Studios]

Can you do a version of this video just for blender? 😅

[@johncecilaguilar2553]

It's been a minute since I've watched one of your videos - you're rocking that facial hair!

[@praneshshakya8281]

Awesome bro... your videos are always nice and informative...helped me a lot. Thank you 😊

[@amyaw98]

Great to see you, Sir. Hope you're recovering well 😄

[@sunshiner2]

Thanks for sharing with us your knowledge, really helpful! I'm new to Maya, actually, start animating on Maya like three months ago, and I was so curious about the weight tangents, and what's the point of them :D. Everything in this video was really new and helpful to me. Thanks a lot, again

[@meghapanchal9339]

BEEESSSSTTTTT!!!! Something I was looking for yeaaaarrrssss!

[@justinpasion9194]

OMG man you're a life saver I can now save so much time from this especially now I know about the Curve Synching and Colors!! 😄😄😄

[@MrTip8]

What an awesome video. Thanks for this usefull tips!!!

[@i20010]

5 years in maya and i learned a lot, thanks!

[@BrunoCasas.M]

This is gold thank you brother

[@antstar1005]

Great video on the "Graph Editor" in Maya. Even a veteran Animator such as myself, I learned a thing or two watching this video. Thank you so much, Sir Wade, and keep up the great work.

[@JeromyDBall]

Video looks great!!

[@path541]

wow you completely changed the graphics for me thank you very much I really want to have an environment like yours I want to have a lot of animators in my environment

[@modus8363]

so helpful man the curve views were tormenting me and i'm only starting

[@saulosatoshi]

Yeap! You said it all, Graph Editor is the Holy Grail. lol Great video! I learned a lot from it. Awesome tips that I'm already using myself. Thanks, Sir Wade! One thing that I would recommend is testing the Graph Editor TRS theme. If you go to the Graph Editor>View>Theme>TRS Distinct.... it will change the color of the rotation curves and the scale curves, making them different from the translation curves. This way you won't mess up the colors of the curves in the Color Editor. And you can go back to the standard colors with one click.

[@ChrisOfTheDead]

These are all amazing! :D

[@Masarofia]

Awesome video ! I'll definitely minimize the side bar ! The color stuff is super nice as well ! Although, a note on weighted tangents. I used them as I started animating but then I got Animbot, and from my experience, these two DO NOT like each other. So all the Ease in/outs, all the different sliders available in Animbot (which absolutely rocks), would not work at all. Maybe it was a bug, but... yeah, that happened to me and I switched to non weighted. Also, with 2022 and above, we can now have auto ease instead of just automatic, which is better, and I like being able to switch between step and automatic without losing anything (as you would lose your weights otherwise)

[@Axiassart]

3 out of these blew my mind!

[@rayanxfit]

This is soo helpful!

[@loganhogg6237]

I'm going to go on an extended relationship with weighted tangents

[@toddlawrimore3577]

Set Key Fix: So funny. Always thought I was doing just inserting keys the wrong way. And, had no idea about the stacked curves. Use the absolute and normalize all the time. Thank you.

[@abiyyupanggalih854]

thanks, for sharing, I use Maya lately as a Blender use I really excited using Maya👍

[@jonathanzepeda713]

This was great! I'm definitely using weighted tangents from now on 👍

[@SirWade]

One of us one of us

[@SandroSanakoti]

Curve colors is a thing! Thank you, Sir Wade!

[@InscrutableObjects]

Oh, man. If I can get Curve Syncing working, you will have changed my life. ...20 years too late, but better late than never. Thank you!

[@kuichib]

Maya's graph editor is still king for me. I've been using Blender for years now, and it still just doesn't feel right. Everything in Maya is super clear even though the UI is tiny compared to Blender. Recently started using Unreal Engine and while it does have a stacked view, if you can avoid animating in that program, please do. Run, just run!

[@sonario6489]

Trust me, Source Filmmaker makes anything modern look like a godsend in comparison. But at the end of the day, it's not the software that matters, it's the animator.

[@handsomesquidward151]

@@sonario6489 SFM has been abandoned for a long time now, must suck to be broke and not be able to afford a computer that can run blender or maya, kek

[@sonario6489]

@@handsomesquidward151 I know SFM has been abandoned for years. I started with SFM in 2014 and migrated to Blender 2.8 as soon as it came out. SFM1 is still a good entry point to 3D animation though and has like, 4 or 5 QoL Improvements Blender definitely needs to look at

[@Birii23]

Oh man the stacked view and curve names??? I had no idea those options were there!

[@bilosofie]

man .. . im 40 years old now n i can say im alright in animation now .. not ugly .. i have been through many videos and channels for the last maybe 5 years ... and no one could break it down like u Sir .. ur the GOAT brother.. and when i decided to start using the graph editor i thought id give it a try coz ur right ,, this is the missing thing i lack in animation .. and after this .. now i know who can i always give cridet to if i made it in this industry as the person to go to if they have issues with the graph editor .. thank you sir for the super cool advices u have been giving me for 5 years ,, its much love n respect right here ... and excuse my english as its not my native language ,,, i think u should be working with autodesk now,,,

[@sonario6489]

I got into animation with Source the in 2014, but I never got anywhere UNTIL I saw SirWade's channel, and his introduction video on the Graph Editor. I learned more from him in a day than I did in 8 years, and finally feel like I'm getting somewhere I'd say SirWade's would be better at working with the Blender Foundation. He can help Blender's animation 2023 project SOAR to incredible heights

[@olya_gorbunova]

Thank you so much! ❤‍🔥

[@sonario6489]

The most useful thing in the video for me is honestly the Weighted and Unweighted Tangents since SFM doesn't have any of the other stuff.

[@adamkovarik]

Awesome video! I'm stoked to try and apply these tips in my workflow The new maya logo tho Bruh

[@sangeetagupta8212]

Thank you so much 🖤

[@miguelg2944]

Thank you. ! So help ful.

[@unet7292]

I'm going to start using the Graph Editor to stop people running away from me!

[@nicksantangelo6168]

Graph Editor Vids >>>>>>>>>>>

[@claired5006]

This multiple color tip is great, but how do you isolate only one curve easily without the side bar ? I know you can right click and isolate but it's 2 actions instead of one. I did not find how to put a hotkey into that isolate in the graph, if someone knows

[@_eggs_bene]

im learning maya after using blender and this helps so much. i was trying to mess with the graph editor and was getting frustrated cause it seemed impossible to change the curves in any convenient way

[@ZaDussault]

Ooh, curves colors is nice! It would be nice to have those colors in the channel box, that would help a lot!

[@asabovv]

Thank You so much ☺️

[@Aharon_I]

Great video thank you!! Good luck with your collaboration with Harris Heller

[@PikaPetey]

The opening sentance had me laughing. I love the GE

[@magneticbehavior]

Good god, Ive been searching for years to figure out how to get weighted/non weighted tangents in Maya. It was the default in XSI Softimage. It really screwed animators who had to work with fixed handles. thanks! Autodesk should change the default IMO.

[@NickEnchev]

Let's get an animation tutorial series, themed "Man running from the gear of death"

[@ChromaStudio_]

i was thinking to swap to maya from blender, im a freelancer and i want to learn maya if one day i need to go on a job because my society fall. But i never heard about indie version and the price of commercial was too expensive, but now, u give me the solution. Take your commision for my purchase. Thank you !

[@KingPicolo]

One of my favorite things was the man running from the gear of death 😂 Edit: Curve names in the graph editor... The amount of times I've scrolled through a huge list of channels to find a tiny square is embarrassing

[@roswarmth]

the set key, 3 curve and curve names were new and interesting for me

[@gabrielfernandes-or3lo]

Colooourssss colourss everywheeere

[@vienlopohoa1778]

Thanks for your video

[@jtricker1614]

big thanks

[@nabanitabiswas11]

After so long❤✌

[@Fr3akyBro]

I've done just about every pre-change workflow you've described 😂 My future time thanks you

[@doeeman1]

he said dont do what i just did literally a second after i did what he did lmaooo. god damn itttt

[@toddlawrimore3577]

Would love to see how you use your Stream Deck with Maya. Especially would like to see which hot keys you setup and is it on the left or right side of desk. Your thoughts would be much appreciated.

[@ProfKisuto]

How does this not have more views!?

[@Ed_Crumbs]

Thank you

[@Blacbeast987]

Thanks for Sharing Great skilled Info about Graph Editor. CHEERS

[@macksnotcool]

dreamworks' renderer (Moonray) is open source now!

[@ytubeprashant]

Sir Wade, tut for weighted mode in preferences > setting> animation menu how to set before going to animate

[@yuldashevmuhammadmuso2003]

thank you

[@ChrisAthanasopoulos]

Who dislikes a great video about the GE? haha Great tips Wade!

[@ewerybody]

11:28 Dang! I was having my own script tool written in MEL to do this like .. 12 years ago!? 🙈 Never saw that one can have it from the channelbox. Interesting!

[@BU-sj2gn]

Finally