Easing & interpolation
Interpolation is per keyframe, not per property. Two keyframes on the same track can ease completely differently.
The five types
| Type | Behaviour | How to apply |
|---|---|---|
| Linear | Constant rate between keyframes | Animation → Keyframe Interpolation → Linear |
| Ease | Slow in and out | F9 |
| Ease In | Slow on arrival | Shift + F9 |
| Ease Out | Slow on departure | Ctrl/⌘ + Shift + F9 |
| Hold | No interpolation — the value jumps at the next keyframe | Animation → Keyframe Interpolation → Hold |
Plus custom cubic Bézier, set by dragging handles or by typing the four control numbers.
Hold is the one people forget. It is how you do frame-by-frame swaps, hard cuts on a property, and stepped motion.
One graph editor, in two places
Shift + F3 in the timeline, where it takes over the whole panel. Value mode draws the property curve as a Bézier path; drag keyframes to retime or revalue them, drag handles to reshape the ease.
Speed mode draws the derivative. It is read-only vertically on purpose — a Y position there is a speed, not a value. Use it to find where a move actually accelerates.
The Graph panel (Window ▸ Panels ▸ Graph Panel) hosts the same editor in a dock of its own, beside the Bounce generator and the expression editor. It is one component in both places, so “ease out” means the same thing wherever you set it.
Its toolbar holds the easing selector, named easing presets (eight families, each in, out and in-out), a frozen reference curve to bend a new track against, rove across time, and a library of your own saved curves.
The ease clipboard
This is the feature that makes a scene feel like one piece of work. It is in the graph editor’s toolbar.
- Select a keyframe whose ease you like. Press Copy.
- Select any other keyframes — different property, different layer, any number of them.
- Press Paste.
The curve is stamped onto all of them. Nothing else about the keyframes changes.
Keyframe assistants
| Assistant | Effect |
|---|---|
| Easy Ease All Keyframes | Ease every keyframe on the selection |
| Time-Reverse Keyframes | Reverse the order in time |
| Sequence Layers… | Lay the selected layers’ bars end to end |
| Stagger Layers… · Stagger Animations… | Offset the selected layers one after another |
| Smooth motion path | Ctrl/⌘ + Alt + S |
See Keyframe assistants.
Practical advice
- Ease out of nothing, ease into rest. Entrances usually want ease-out on the final keyframe; exits want ease-in on the first.
- Match the ease across a group. Copy one curve and paste it onto everything in the sequence; then stagger the timing, not the shape.
- Check the speed graph before adding more keyframes. A move that feels wrong is usually a velocity problem, not a missing keyframe.