# graph animation Actions in the real world take time to build up to speed or slow down. They don’t spontaneously start and stop at the same speed. We call this [[five types of motion & easing#increasing or accelerating motion|Easing In]] and [[five types of motion & easing#decreasing or decelerating motion|Easing out]] of an action and it is one of the [[12 principles of animation#6 slow in and slow out|12 principles of animation]]. By default, animations in After Effects are linear. They run at a constant speed from start to finish. That usually doesn’t look quite right. Fortunately, there is an easy process to make things look better. ### easy ease for the win! Once you have finished your [[keyframe animation]] work, you can convert your standard keyframes to graph animations. Select the keyframes in your Timeline by using Shift-Pick on each or by drawing a window over a range. **Right-Click** and choose **Keyframe Assistant >Easy Ease** or use the keyboard **F9** key. ![[Pasted image 20221027141424.png]] This may be enough to make your animation a little bit better. If you want to tweak deeper, open the **Graph Editor** by clicking the little graph icon at the top of the Timeline above the Layers section. ![[Pasted image 20221027141658.png]] Your Timeline changes view to show a graph of the animation. At the bottom of the Timeline you will now find a series of icons to adjust view settings and ways to tweak the timing curve. ![[Pasted image 20221027144219.png]] A good smooth animation will have a gentle S curve like you see above. The action will start out slow and build up to speed and then slow down as it approaches the end of the sequence. Grabbing the little yellow circle dots at the end of the yellow lines allows you to manipulate the bezier lines to adjust the curve to really fine-tune your timing. In the graph below, I have a much longer build up to speed. The tradeoff is that I now have a shorter time for the speed to slow down at the other end. ![[Pasted image 20221027145113.png]] --- Learn more… - <https://teckers.com/how-to-smooth-animation-keyframes-in-after-effects/> - <https://www.webdew.com/blog/graph-editor-in-after-effects> - <https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/intro-to-the-graph-editor-in-after-effects> - <https://www.webdew.com/blog/graph-editor-in-after-effects> --- tags: #aftereffects #animation #resources home: [[! after effects]]