description: "After Effects Keyframing & Easing — Module 1 set static Transform values. Real motion graphics work is about values that change over time — a title…"---

02 · After Effects Keyframing & Easing¶

Module 1 set static Transform values. Real motion graphics work is about values that change over time — a title sliding in, a logo scaling up, an element fading out — and about making those changes feel natural rather than robotic. This module covers keyframing any property and shaping its motion with the Graph Editor and easing presets.

1. Setting your first keyframes¶

Select a layer, move the playhead to where the animation should start, twirl open the property to animate (e.g. press P for Position), and click the stopwatch icon next to the property name — this creates the first keyframe at the current value and time, and switches the property into "animated" mode.
Move the playhead forward (e.g. 1 second later), then simply change the property's value — After Effects automatically adds a second keyframe at the new time/value; you do not need to click the stopwatch again once it's enabled.
Keyframes appear as small icons on the property's row in the Timeline. Drag them left/right to retime, or select and Delete to remove.
Use K and J to jump the playhead forward/backward to the next or previous keyframe on the selected layer.

2. Keyframe interpolation types¶

Right-click a keyframe > Keyframe Interpolation... for full control, or use the quick shortcuts:
Default new keyframes are Linear (constant speed, straight line in the graph, and a visually "robotic" start/stop).
F9 applies Easy Ease to the selected keyframe(s) — speed ramps smoothly in and/or out, the standard default for natural motion.
Shift+F9 / Ctrl+Shift+F9 apply Easy Ease In / Easy Ease Out to only one side of a keyframe.
Hold interpolation (right-click > Toggle Hold Keyframe) makes a value jump instantly at the keyframe with no interpolation at all — useful for stop-motion-style or strobing effects.

3. The Graph Editor¶

Click the Graph Editor button (the small chart icon) at the top of the Timeline panel to switch the keyframe view into a value or speed graph.
Switch between Edit Value Graph and Edit Speed Graph from the graph's panel menu (the icon at bottom-right of the Graph Editor) — the Speed Graph is usually more intuitive for easing since it plots velocity directly: a flat line at zero at a keyframe means the motion fully stops there, a tall smooth hump means fast motion through the middle.
Drag the Bezier handles that extend from an eased keyframe to fine-tune exactly how sharply or gently speed ramps in and out — a short, steep handle gives a snappy start; a long, shallow handle gives a slow, gentle one.
Click Snap and Auto-Zoom Graph Height (icons along the graph's toolbar) to keep the curve readable while adjusting.

4. Spatial keyframes and motion paths¶

For a spatial property like Position, keyframes also draw a motion path directly in the Composition panel — a dotted line with a dot per frame, closer-together dots meaning slower motion.
Drag the path's Bezier handles at a keyframe point to curve the motion itself (not just its speed) — useful for an arc instead of a straight line between two points.
Roving keyframes (right-click a middle keyframe on the motion path

Rove Across Time) let After Effects redistribute timing along a path automatically for constant speed through a curve, rather than easing/slowing at every intermediate point.

5. The Motion Sketch and Keyframe Assistant helpers¶

Window > Motion Sketch lets you drag the layer live in the Composition panel while recording, generating a full set of position keyframes from the drag in real time — fast for organic, hand-drawn motion.
Animation > Keyframe Assistant > Easy Ease (same as F9) and > Sequence Layers (auto-offsets a set of selected layers' in/out points one after another, handy for staggering multiple text layers) live in the same menu.

Worked example: easing the title card¶

Open the Title_Card composition from Module 1.
Set a Position keyframe on the text+logo group off-frame left at 0:00, and a second Position keyframe at its on-frame resting spot at 0:01:00.
Select both keyframes and press F9 for Easy Ease.
Open the Graph Editor, switch to Edit Speed Graph, and drag the handle on the second (arrival) keyframe outward to make the deceleration longer and gentler, so the group settles into place rather than stopping abruptly.
Add an Opacity fade-in over the same range (0 to 100) for a combined slide + fade entrance.

Cheat sheet — keyframing & easing¶

Task	Where
Enable keyframing on a property	Click the stopwatch icon
Jump to next/previous keyframe	K / J
Apply Easy Ease	F9
Easy Ease In only / Out only	Shift+F9 / Ctrl+Shift+F9
Hold keyframe (instant jump)	Right-click keyframe > Toggle Hold Keyframe
Open Graph Editor	Graph Editor button, top of Timeline
Rove keyframes for constant speed	Right-click path keyframe > Rove Across Time
Freehand keyframes from a live drag	Window > Motion Sketch

How It Actually Works¶

Interpolation between two keyframes is literally curve-fitting a function through two (value, time) points, and every interpolation type is just a different family of curve. Linear connects them with a constant-slope straight line — equal time steps yield equal value changes, hence uniform speed and the "robotic" feel. Easy Ease fits a Bézier curve whose tangent (first derivative, i.e. velocity) is forced to zero at the keyframe, so the value's rate of change genuinely approaches zero as it nears that point — this is a real velocity calculation, not a cosmetic ease.
The Speed Graph is the literal first derivative of the Value Graph, which is why it's more intuitive for tuning ease. The Value Graph plots the property's value over time; differentiating that curve with respect to time gives instantaneous velocity, which is exactly what the Speed Graph displays directly. A flat zero on the Speed Graph at a keyframe means the Value Graph's slope is zero there (motion has actually stopped, not just slowed near-imperceptibly), and dragging a Bézier handle on either graph reshapes the same underlying curve — you're just looking at two different derivatives of one mathematical object.
A spatial motion path is the Position property's value curve rendered directly in 2D/3D space instead of on a time axis — because Position has two or three simultaneous numeric channels (x, y, [z]), After Effects draws the parametric curve those channels trace through space rather than a single value-over-time line, with per-frame dot spacing encoding speed: since frames are evenly spaced in time, dots bunched close together mean the position curve is covering less distance per frame, i.e. moving slower at that point in the path.
Roving keyframes solve a real timing-distribution problem: without them, each keyframe's time is fixed, so an intermediate point on a curved path forces a deceleration/acceleration at that exact frame regardless of the path's shape. Marking a keyframe as roving tells After Effects to treat its value (spatial position on the path) as fixed but let its timing float, then redistributes timing across all roving keyframes so that equal path-distance is covered in equal time — a numeric solve, not a preset, over the arc length of the spatial curve between the fixed endpoint keyframes.
Motion Sketch works by recording your mouse's position at the application's frame rate while you drag, and writing one keyframe per sampled frame. That's why freehand Motion Sketch output tends to be noisy/jittery compared to hand-placed keyframes — every small mouse tremor becomes a literal keyframe — and why a Smoother pass (Keyframe Assistant) afterward is standard: it's a real curve-smoothing algorithm reducing the keyframe count and fitting a gentler curve through the captured points, not just relabeling the same data.

Exercise¶

Animate the title card's entrance with at least three eased properties (Position, Opacity, and one more — Scale or Rotation). Use the Graph Editor's Speed Graph to confirm every property ramps in and/or out smoothly with no linear (robotic) segments, and stagger the logo's entrance slightly after the text using Sequence Layers or manual retiming.