Unlock the power of Keyframes in After Effects \\ AE Tutorial

Summary

This video tutorial delves into the intricacies of keyframe types in Adobe After Effects, guiding viewers through the use of linear, Bezier, eased, and hold keyframes. The host demonstrates how each keyframe affects animation, utilizing speed graphs to illustrate the differences. Sponsored by Rise, an intelligent time tracker, the video also covers 'Rove across time' behavior for custom motion paths. Viewers are encouraged to download project files for hands-on learning and to share their unique keyframe applications.

Takeaways

• 📚 The video provides an educational overview of different keyframe types in Adobe After Effects.
• 👕 The presenter mentions a sponsored link to a store for fashionable motion designer apparel.
• 🔑 Four main keyframe types are discussed: linear, bezier, eased, and hold, each with unique properties and uses.
• 🔍 The video explains how to use the speed graph to visualize and adjust the rate of change between keyframes.
• 🎨 The presenter demonstrates how to convert between keyframe types and adjust their interpolation for customized animations.
• ⏱ Rise, the video's sponsor, is an intelligent time tracker that helps improve focus and build better work habits.
• 🛠️ The 'Rove Across Time' behavior is highlighted as a useful tool for adjusting the timing of keyframes without affecting the motion path.
• 🎭 The script includes a practical example of animating a ball with a motion path and adjusting keyframe timing for a dynamic effect.
• 🖌️ The use of the pen tool to modify the motion path and create custom animation trajectories is covered.
• 🎨 The importance of understanding keyframe types for creating professional animations in After Effects is emphasized.
• 🔄 The video also discusses the use of smear frames to add a sense of velocity and motion blur to animations.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is to explain the different types of keyframes in Adobe After Effects and demonstrate their uses through an animation example.

What are the four main types of keyframes discussed in the video?

The four main types of keyframes discussed are linear, Bezier, eased, and hold keyframes.

What is the default keyframe type in After Effects?

The default keyframe type in After Effects is linear.

How does a linear keyframe distribute the value change across time?

A linear keyframe distributes the value change evenly across the time between keyframes, resulting in a constant rate of change.

What is the difference between Bezier keyframes and linear keyframes in terms of velocity?

Bezier keyframes connect the incoming and outgoing velocities between keyframes, allowing for slight easing effects, whereas linear keyframes have separate velocities for each segment with no connection between them.

What is the purpose of the 'Rove across time' behavior in After Effects?

The 'Rove across time' behavior allows for the adjustment of keyframe timing so that the software can automatically distribute the timing of intermediate keyframes between selected keyframes, making it easier to focus on specific keyframes and their easing.

How can you convert a keyframe to a Bezier keyframe in After Effects?

You can convert a keyframe to a Bezier keyframe by selecting the keyframe and Control or Command clicking on it until it turns into a circle shape.

What is the purpose of the hold keyframe in After Effects?

The hold keyframe is used to remove all interpolation between keyframes, maintaining a constant value until the next keyframe is reached, which can be useful for creating segmented animations or preventing unwanted drifting.

What is the sponsor of the video and how does it relate to the content?

The sponsor of the video is Rise, an intelligent time tracker. It is related to the content as the video creator uses it to manage work-life balance and productivity, which is a theme that can resonate with motion designers and other professionals.

What is the 'smear frames' technique mentioned in the video and where can it be downloaded from?

The 'smear frames' technique is a method to add motion blur to animations, enhancing the perception of speed. It can be downloaded for free from BattleAx's website.

How can viewers support more tutorials like the one in the video?

Viewers can support more tutorials like the one in the video by becoming a patron on Patreon, contributing to the creator's efforts in producing educational content.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 After Effects Keyframes and Animation Techniques

This paragraph introduces the video's focus on After Effects keyframe types, explaining their uses and differences. The speaker discusses linear, bezier, eased, and hold keyframes, and how they affect animation. The video is sponsored by Rise, a time-tracking tool, and the speaker promotes his own fashion store for motion designers. A project file is offered for download to follow along with the tutorial.

05:03

🔑 Understanding Bezier and Eased Keyframes

The speaker delves into the specifics of bezier and eased keyframes in After Effects. They explain the subtle differences between linear and bezier keyframes, particularly in terms of speed and easing. The paragraph also covers temporal interpolation, which affects how values change over time between keyframes. The sponsor, Rise, is highlighted again for its role in helping the speaker manage work-life balance.

10:04

🔄 The Power of Hold Keyframes and Motion Path Editing

This section explores the unique properties of hold keyframes, which eliminate interpolation between them, and their applications in animation. The speaker demonstrates how to create and edit motion paths for a more controlled animation effect. The 'Rove across time' behavior is introduced, allowing for dynamic adjustment of keyframe timing along a motion path.

15:06

🎲 Customizing Animation with Keyframes and Effects

The final paragraph wraps up the tutorial by showcasing how to refine an animation using keyframes and effects. The speaker discusses adding motion blur or smear frames for a more realistic animation effect, using a free preset from BattleAx. They also encourage viewers to share their keyframe use cases and support the channel through Patreon, while offering help for any After Effects related queries.

Keywords

💡After Effects

After Effects is a digital visual effects, motion graphics, and compositing application developed by Adobe Systems. It is widely used for video post-production and is fundamental to the theme of the video, which is to teach viewers about keyframe types within the software. The script mentions setting up animations using After Effects to demonstrate different keyframe behaviors.

💡Keyframes

Keyframes are points in time marked by a frame where something changes in the animation, such as position, scale, rotation, or color. In the video, keyframes are the central concept, with various types being explained and demonstrated to show how they affect animation in After Effects.

💡Linear Keyframes

Linear keyframes represent a type of keyframe in After Effects where the change in value between keyframes is evenly distributed over time, resulting in a constant rate of change. The script uses the term to describe the default behavior of keyframes and shows an example of linear movement in an animation.

💡Bezier Keyframes

Bezier keyframes in After Effects allow for more control over the rate of change between keyframes by adjusting handles that affect the speed graph. The script explains how these keyframes connect the incoming and outgoing velocities, providing a subtle easing effect on animations.

💡Eased Keyframes

Eased keyframes are a type of keyframe that automatically applies an easing effect, causing the animation to start slow, speed up, and then slow down again towards the end. The script demonstrates how this type of keyframe creates a more dynamic and natural motion compared to linear keyframes.

💡Hold Keyframes

Hold keyframes are used to eliminate interpolation between keyframes, meaning the value remains constant until the next keyframe is reached. The script describes how this can be useful for creating segmented animations or preventing unwanted drifting effects.

💡Temporal Interpolation

Temporal interpolation refers to how values are distributed over time between keyframes. The script discusses this concept in the context of Bezier keyframes, explaining how it differs from spatial interpolation and how it affects the timing of animation.

💡Rove Across Time

Rove Across Time is a behavior in After Effects that allows keyframes to be evenly distributed along a motion path, adjusting their timing based on the path's length. The script illustrates how this feature can simplify the animation process by focusing on key points and letting After Effects handle the timing of intermediate frames.

💡Smear Frames

Smear frames are a technique used in animation to suggest motion blur or speed, where the image is smeared in the direction of movement. The script mentions a free preset called 'smear' from BattleAx, which automatically generates smear frames based on the layer's speed, enhancing the perception of motion.

💡Motion Path

A motion path in After Effects is the trajectory that an object follows in an animation. The script describes how to create and modify motion paths to define the spatial movement of an object, separate from the timing controlled by keyframes.

💡Behavior

In the context of After Effects, behavior refers to additional properties or effects that can be applied to layers to influence their movement or interaction with other elements in the composition. The script mentions 'Rove Across Time' as an example of a behavior that can be applied to keyframes.

Highlights

The video provides an in-depth tutorial on keyframe types in Adobe After Effects.

Introduction to four different keyframe types: linear, bezier, eased, and hold.

Explanation of the default linear keyframe and its even value distribution.

Bezier keyframes allow for connected velocity handles and subtle easing effects.

Temporal interpolation versus spatial interpolation for value landing in time.

Sponsored content by Rise, an intelligent time tracker for better work habits.

Eased keyframes demonstrated with clear speed graph easing in and out of values.

Hold keyframes remove interpolation, showing value changes only at set keyframes.

Use of 'Rove across time' behavior for customizing motion path and timing.

Technique for sculpting motion paths for precise control over animation.

Adding smear frames for traditional animation look at 24 frames per second.

Free smear preset from BattleAx to generate automatic smear frames.

Customization options for smear frames to adjust length and distance threshold.

Importance of understanding keyframe types for effective After Effects animation.

Invitation for viewers to share their special use cases for keyframes in After Effects.

Encouragement for supporting more tutorials through Patreon.

Call to action for viewers to ask questions about After Effects for potential video topics.

Transcripts

this video is sponsored by Rise you

probably don't understand how all the

keyframe types in After Effects work you

may have seen them before but you don't

know exactly what they do and when you

might want to use one over the other in

this video I'm going to walk you through

all the different types of keyframes

that we have in After Effects and some

really cool stuff that you can do with

them and I know what you're thinking

Jake where'd you get that amazing shirt

and I'm glad you asked you can click the

card above or follow the link in the

description to my store where you can

find a variety of fashionable designs

for motion designers now let's actually

take a look at the four different types

of keyframes that we have here in After

Effects linear bezier eased and hold and

you've probably seen all four of these

icon types before what I've done is set

up an animation of these four keyframes

moving across the screen using their

particular type of keyframe and you can

download this project file if you want

to follow along with me again just

follow the link in the description let's

start with the first keyframe type which

is linear and I'll just turn off these

other ones for a second so we can focus

on it what linear is is the default

keyframe this is what's going to happen

the first time you set a keyframe for

any property you're going to get this

shaped icon on and it's going to evenly

distribute the value change across the

time so in this case the position

property is set to this value at this

point in time and it's set to a second

value at that point in time after

effects is going to evenly interpolate

between those two keyframes giving us a

linear movement or a linear change in

value between each one of those

keyframes all these little dots in

between those are the interpolated

frames that we don't have to set After

Effects is generating those for us but

it's completely linear totally evenly

distributed the second keyframe type is

bezier and you can get to this type of

keyframe with them selected and just

control or command clicking on them once

they turn into circles instead of the

diamond shape and what this is going to

do is not all that apparent if we play

this back and look at them side by side

they almost look like they're identical

but if we go into the speed graph you'll

see that it's not linear if we zoom in a

little bit we can see that there are

some easings happening between keyframes

versus the linear keyframes let's just

look at those is just one rate of change

and then a second rate of change there's

no connection between the incoming and

outgoing velocities of any of these

values but with the bezier keyframes

it's connected all of those incoming and

outgoing velocities and just ever so

slightly eased everything out the thing

is it literally looks identical the

easing is so slight that you really

can't see a difference but if I jump

back into that speed graph one more time

what it does do for us is connect the

handle so I can go in now and start

easing things and these two handles are

going to be connected whereas in the

linear they're separate and if I wanted

to ease them together I'm either going

to have to line them up and hope that

I'm precise or convert them to bezier

keyframes by Alter option clicking on

them until they're all connected like

that and now they are bezier keyframes

instead of linear keyframes let me undo

back to linear keyframes and I want to

point something out with these bezier

keyframes you see this one that I edited

it's now showing up as an eased keyframe

if I right click on it and go to

keyframe interpolation we're going to

see that it's actually set to continuous

bezier on the temporal interpolation now

in a previous video I talked all about

spatial interpolation this is not

spatial interpolation where it's dealing

with where the interpolated frames

actually are positioned in the comp this

is temporal interpolation where these

values actually land in time between the

keyframes that you set and keeping track

of time is something that I believe is

not only important in After Effects but

in my daily life as well and Rise the

sponsor of this video can help you do

just that since I work for myself I have

to manage my own work life schedule and

one way to make sure that I'm successful

in both of those things is by keeping

track of my time and seeing where I'm

spending that time each day that lets me

get my work done faster so that I can

spend the time that I have where I

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family rise is an intelligent time

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free today and start maximizing your

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description can save 25 off your first

three months with rise thanks so much to

rise for sponsoring this video now let's

get back to the keyframes now if we go

into this menu there's actually bezier

continuous bezier and Otto bezier if you

want to know the difference between

these three things I'll link to it in

the description to the Adobe help guide

where it explains it I was originally

going to try and explain it in this

video but honestly it's a little bit

confusing and it isn't very beneficial

to know all you really need to know is

the fact that when you convert these to

bezier keyframes and you go into the

speed or the value graph these handles

are going to be linked and that's

beneficial so if you need that to happen

across all those keyframes that's how

you can do it now let's take a look at

the eased keyframes and see how that

looks a little bit different obviously

the motion is much different because

we're easing in and out of every

keyframe value and if I go into the

speed graph we can see all that easing

very clearly with the speeds starting

and ending at zero for every single set

keyframe and speeding up between those

keyframes with the interpolated frames

however if I were to grab one of these

handles and click and drag it up note

that those two handles are not together

because again this is not a bezier

keyframe it's just eased now I can again

convert this to a bezier keyframe by

Alter option clicking on that keyframe

once and then one more time and it's

going to link them together and then I

can re-ease this however I want make it

totally custom but that's the difference

between eased and bezier finally we have

a hold keyframe and this is a very

interesting one that can solve some

problems in some cases but what it's

going to do is remove all interpolation

between keyframes you see my speed graph

is a straight zero linear line across

and that's because there's no

interpolation between these keyframes

it's just showing the change in value

where you set those actual keyframes and

nowhere else and this can be useful for

a lot of situations again in the spatial

interpolation video this solved the

problem of drifting position when you

have two position keyframes with the

exact same value it eliminates any kind

of interpolation between those two

keyframes in time another scenario is

when you want to have this kind of

segmented very posterized animation and

you don't want to use the posterize time

effect or actually lower the frame rate

of your comp if you want something to be

here and then there or rotate from this

point to that point without any

interpolation that's exactly what hold

keyframes are for and you can set hold

keyframes by either right clicking and

saying toggle hold keyframe or click on

the keyframe while holding Ctrl and ALT

and that converts it to a hold keyframe

another thing to note about hold

keyframes as you can see is that it's

half Square it doesn't look like the

actual icon up here because this is only

holding on the outgoing frames if I were

to change this to a linear keyframe then

it's going to reinterpolate between this

keyframe and the next one unless I

converted that one to a hold keyframe as

well and in some cases that's exactly

what you would want to happen be able to

interpolate into that keyframe but that

hold that value until the value changes

again so those are the four main types

of keyframes that we have access to in

After Effects but there's one more

Behavior that's really useful called

Rove across time so let's jump over to

the second comp and I've got a couple of

keyframes laid out in this ball in the

center that I'm going to animate just

using the position property and I'm

going to have it kind of go around all

these keyframes and end up off screen

again so let's start by just moving it

off screen and I'll set a position

keyframe here I'll move forward to about

one second and let's say I want the next

spot for this ball to be right

underneath this linear keyframe so I'll

zoom in here nice and close and I want

it to come really close to that keyframe

but not quite touch it and then

eventually it will go off screen over

here why don't we go to the two second

Mark and I'll just move it up and over

here now this is not the path that I

actually want it to take but it is the

timing that I want the one second spread

apart and that's how I'm approaching

this animation as the first step of the

process the next thing I want to do do

is kind of draw out the motion path that

I want this ball to actually take this

is the spatial interpolation that I

talked about in the other video so the

way that I want to do this is by just

going to a different point in time

between the first two keyframes it

doesn't really matter where in time it

is yet and then just click and drag the

ball and move it to about where I want

it to be so let's use this grid and

maybe just put it right about here and

then I'll switch to my pen tool to

modify the motion path that we can see

up here in the comp so I'll grab the pen

tool and I can click and drag on this

point to just shape this however I want

just like if I were drawing Vector paths

then I can come to this keyframe click

and drag and just shape that out as well

so that it kind of swoops down below

this keyframe and then ends up up here

and so what that's going to look like is

that I've got the ball swooping down on

that motion path the timing between the

keyframes the interpolation that's

happening there has not changed it's

just the spatial interpolation up here

in the comp where we see that ball

actually traveling this is something

that's only available on the position

property when the dimensions are

combined so if you separated Dimensions

you can't use a motion path like this

which is why a lot of times I don't

separate those Dimensions but now that I

have this motion path I can modify this

however I want so if I switch to my

selection tool with the V key I can

maybe move this up closer to that hold

keyframe just shape this however I want

to get the path that I'm after so maybe

it swoops in a little bit coming from

right to left and then dips down comes

up to this linear keyframe and I want it

to kind of hold there before dropping

back down and going around these

keyframes so again I'm going to go to a

different point between these two

keyframes grab my pen tool and I can

actually just click anywhere on this

motion path to add another keyframe

there and then go back to my selection

tool and move this around wherever I

want so let's say it comes up to the

linear keyframe and then drops back down

does a loop around the East keyframe and

then back through here swoops around the

bezier keyframe and that flies off the

side so I'm going to need a keyframe

right there and I'll add some bezier

handles G's the keyboard shortcut for

the pen tool I'll click and drag that

that out and then go back to right about

here click and add another keyframe

again I'm not worried about the timing

yet just the actual placement where this

ball is going to travel so that it can

plot out the motion path and then I'll

work on the timing in a minute so I

wanted to kind of curve around there

I'll add another keyframe we'll drag

this one down probably around the same

spot it doesn't have to be exactly the

same as that first keyframe below the

East one right there but I'm just

sculpting this motion path to do the

motion that I actually want and what I

wanted to do in the end is kind of just

loop around the East keyframe one more

time and then change directions and fly

off to the right now that might be a

little too extreme of emotion going this

direction in that direction so why don't

I pull this up a little bit and we've

got something like that now we have a

lot more segmentation in our path our

motion path right here because there

aren't nearly as many frames to

interpolate between the keyframes I've

set as we'd have on the front end but

really all I'm concerned with is the

starting point this point right here and

the last point because in my head the

way that I want this ball to travel is

moving very quickly out of the first

keyframe and kind of pausing right here

under this linear keyframe so easing

very strongly into that and then ease

very strongly out of that keyframe while

it does all this other motion and

eventually flies off the screen so I

don't really want to concern myself with

all the timing of the other keyframes

just the ones that I really want to ease

and that's exactly what Rove across time

is going to allow me to do so again

those keyframes that I'm most concerned

with are the last one this one right

here and this one and with those

selected in the current version of After

Effects I can actually label those

keyframes so that they're easier to

identify so if I just give myself some

more room right click go to label I

could say make these pink and now I know

those are the keyframes that I really

care about the other ones can all just

be evenly distributed based on the

easing of the keyframes that I just

selected to do that I just need to

select those keyframes and I can do all

of them at once so I'll select all those

right click on one of them and go to

Rove across time and immediately they

change to these circles but there's

smaller than the bezier keyframes it's

not the same I can still select them but

as soon as I try to move them they're no

longer Rove across time so let me undo

back to where we were and you'll notice

they've also spaced out differently than

how they were before what After Effects

is doing is looking at this motion path

and the time that it takes to get from

one keyframe to the next and just

spreading out those other keyframes

between those keyframes you've already

set you can think of these as kind of

custom interpolated keyframes After

Effects is still determining the timing

of those interpolated keyframes but you

got to set the values for them which

means I can now go into these

highlighted keyframes and ease them

however I want so let's start by just

easy easing them with the F9 key and go

into the speed graph and you'll notice

it looks like I only am dealing with

those three keyframes because all the

row of across time keyframes have been

evenly distributed between the standard

keyframes and I can adjust this easing

however I want and all those robocross

time keyframes are going to Rove

depending on how much space is between

each frame up here in the comp on that

motion path so I can click and drag

these around and that affects where

they'll be roving in the timeline itself

so from here I can really go to town

just easiness however I want I want

strong easing out of that first keyframe

and into the second one so it's moving

very fast at the start and then slows

down once it hits this linear keyframe

so I'm going to just totally blow out

the influence to 100 there pull it

really far out from that keyframe going

into the next one and that's where it's

going to speed up loop around a couple

times and then swoop off the side of the

screen again I'm going to remove the

influence from that outgoing keyframe so

that it moves very quickly at the end

and I can modify this motion path

however I want and everything is going

to update for me so maybe I want to have

this not go off to the right so much

maybe I wanted to go more straight up

and then I can just kind of curve this

out and maybe adjust the shape of that

entire motion path

until I'm happy with the way that this

looks so why don't we play this back and

see how that ball is traveling around

that actually looks pretty cool so we

have that very fast motion coming in it

gets very close to touching the linear

keyframe but doesn't and then swoops

around and flies off the screen very

quickly and you saw just how easy it was

for me to be able to sculpt that motion

path and get the ball to travel exactly

where I wanted it to but then only

concern myself with the timing of Select

keyframes that way I don't have to think

about the easing of anything else and I

can just tell after effects to handle

the rest of it now I think this looks

pretty good but I can make it look even

better because it's moving so fast and

there's no motion blur I am working at

24 frames per second which is a

traditional frame rate for animation and

typically you're not going to use motion

blur in a traditional frame rate if

you're trying to make this look like it

was more of a traditional animation

instead smear frames would be a much

more appropriate option here and over at

battle ax we made a freebie called smear

which I love I use it all the time and

it's just a little preset that you can

download and apply or you can set it up

with kbar which is how I have it set up

I've got the little smear icon so with

that ball selected I'll just click on

smear and that's going to generate

automatic smear frames based on how fast

your layer is traveling now I want to

move the effects that it just added to

above the two glows that I have applied

to that ball that way it's not smearing

out the glow and the glow is applied

after the smears but look at the

difference that that makes in the

overall motion it just really sells the

velocity of that ball and I can dial

this in however I want I think those

trails are a little bit long so I'm

going to change the smear length from

100 down to 70 percent and I'm also

going to increase the distance threshold

up to say let's say 70 as well that way

it doesn't generate smears as often the

ball has to be traveling more quickly

before you see the smears but I think

that looks just so much better and very

quickly I was able to add those

customizable smear frames with no effort

at all and you can go download that for

free at battleaxx.com but those are all

the types of keyframes that I think you

need to be aware of in After Effects

that's very important that you really

have a good grasp on all those keyframe

types and when to use them let me know

if you have any special use cases for

keyframes and after effects I'd love to

hear about it and if you're interested

in supporting more tutorials like this

one then please consider becoming a

patron over on patreon a huge thank you

to all the patrons that are already over

there as always if there's something

about after effects that confuses you

leave a comment down below and I'll

consider making a video about it thanks

so much for watching this video and I'll

see you in the next one