Create dynamic movement between keyframes with the Graph Editor

Sometimes when you create animation using the typical Linear keyframes or Easy Ease keyframes just won't cut it.

It's those kinds of times when I look to create more dynamic movement by adjusting keyframes using the Graph Editor.

If we look at our project here, you'll notice I already have a layer that's animated with two linear keyframes.

I'll move my Current Time Indicator back to frame 0;00;00;00 and press the Spacebar so you can see how bland this animation actually is.

Yes, technically, it's fine, it slides in and stops, but it's linear and it's not very engaging.

So, I'll press the Spacebar to stop playback and to fix the linear nature and actually have this move in a more smooth fashion I'll go ahead and click on the word Position so that both keyframes are selected and then I'll right click on either one of the keyframes and go to the Keyframe Assistant and choose Easy Ease.

You can also press F9 on your keyboard as long as those keyframes are selected.

Once we've done that, if we press the Spacebar here, you'll notice now the motion is a little bit more smooth.

Once it actually eases out of the first keyframe and into the next one, it doesn't stop quite as abruptly.

Now, I'll press the Spacebar to stop playback because while this is interesting it's still not quite dynamic.

So, I'll start by clicking on the word Position in the Timeline to make sure both those keyframes are selected and then I'll click this button here to open the Graph Editor.

Inside the Graph Editor you may or may not see something that looks like this.

Let's make sure we're on the same page.

I'm going to go to the second button from the left here at the bottom of the Graph Editor and I'll click once and choose Edit Speed Graph.

Now if yours already looks like this you're already in the Speed Graph.

Just make sure Edit Speed Graph is selected.

Now, in order to change how the motion of this object moves I need to go ahead and select these keyframes again, but they aren't visually represented the same way, they're represented a little bit more like anchor points in this view.

So, I'm going to click up here and hold my mouse down and drag a lasso around both of those squares to select both keyframes, and when I let go, they'll both be selected, and I have these handles.

Now, the velocity is setup with a baseline of 0 down here at the bottom and then this arc moves up and at this point this object is moving at around 2000 px/sec, even faster than that and then it slows down again.

I want it to start slowly and then move quickly and then stop.

So, I'll click on this left handle and drag to the right and notice now the graph will change.

It's going to start slowly and then it'll move really quickly and then slow down rather quickly the same way.

So, I'll press the Spacebar here and now you'll be able to see the motion is a lot more interesting.

It kind of slides into the scene with authority and stops.

Now if I don’t like this, I can press the Spacebar to stop playback and I'll press Ctrl Z on Windows to undo or Command Z on a Mac to undo and this time I'll click and drag on the right handle and I'll drag that to the left.

So, this way the velocity starts quickly and then it slowly stops.

Let's press the Spacebar and preview that animation.

Now in the preview here you could see it wasn't quite playing in real time.

So, it looked a little jerky as it was resolving, but as you can see, the overall motion is actually moving a little bit more slowly.

So, utilizing the Speed Graph is a nifty way to take movement of your typical keyframe animations from okay to something much more dynamic and engaging.