To Smooth Motion Over Several Keyframes; To Revert To A Nonroving Keyframe - Adobe AFTER EFFECTS 7.0 Manual

To smooth motion over several keyframes

Using the roving keyframe option in After Effects, you can easily create smooth movement across several keyframes
at once. Roving keyframes are keyframes that are not linked to a specific time; their speed and timing are determined
by adjacent keyframes. When you change the position of a keyframe adjacent to a roving keyframe in a motion path,
the timing of the roving keyframe may change.
Roving keyframes are available only for spatial layer properties such as Position. In addition, a keyframe can rove
only if it is not the first or last keyframe in a layer, because a roving keyframe must interpolate its speed from the
previous and next keyframes.
The original motion path (left) indicates different velocities between keyframes. After the keyframes are set to rove (right), the motion path
displays consistent speed over the range of keyframes.
1 In layer bar mode or in the Graph Editor, set up the keyframes for the motion you will smooth.
2 Determine the beginning and ending keyframes for the range you want to smooth.
Do one of the following:
3
•
For every keyframe in the range (except the beginning and ending keyframes), select Rove Across Time in the
keyframe menu .
•
Select the keyframes you want to rove and choose Animation > Keyframe Interpolation. Then choose Rove Across
Time from the Roving menu.
The intermediate keyframes adjust their positions on the timeline to smooth the speed curve between the beginning
and ending keyframes.
For more information on setting up keyframes for a motion you want to smooth, see "To add a position keyframe
by moving the layer" on page 211.

To revert to a nonroving keyframe

❖
Do one of the following:
•
Select the roving keyframe option from the keyframe menu, or drag the roving keyframe left or right.
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