Guide to Keyframes in After Effects

March 23, 2009

Today, I will be going over the difference between keyframe styles. I concentrate on showing all the different styles of animation that can be done with only two keyframes.

Download the After Effects Project File to follow allong.

Topics Covered

  • Linear Keyframes
  • Easy Ease
  • Bezier Keyframes
  • Spacial Keyframing
  • Temporal Keyframing
  • Graph Editor
  • Custom Animation

24 Comments

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  1. zach blumstein on March 23, 2009 said...

    hey nick thanks for the tutorials i would really be interested to see one where you take us through your workflow for a project from conception to completion
    thanks
    zach

  2. Harry Mitchell on March 23, 2009 said...

    Yer I agree with zach, I would love to see these lessons in practise e.g. making a simple project and showing us you’r work flow.

  3. curt on March 23, 2009 said...

    great nick that makes moving around the keyframes so much easier, i didn’t even know you could adjust the keyframes like that. also thanks for explaining the graph, that thing can be confusing.

  4. on air on March 23, 2009 said...

    very cool! keep up all this nice video podcast!!

  5. Xavier on March 23, 2009 said...

    Very nice tips Nick, realizing that two keyframes can do that much helps a lot.
    Thanks and please keep making them!
    (some basics on expressions would be awesome)

  6. Karpathia on March 23, 2009 said...

    This is very use full, but to me I would like to see more advanced tuts.
    I am not playing the pro here because I am not, but it is just a thought.
    Many thanks keep up the inspirational work!
    Karpathia.

  7. Nick Alexander on March 23, 2009 said...

    animator that use a shitload of keyframe to do a simple thing = me.

    thx

  8. Nacho on March 23, 2009 said...

    Thank you so very much. Looking forward to these advanced tutorials.

    I love the new layout.

  9. dkn on March 24, 2009 said...

    while I do agree with Karpathia about advanced tutorials, this was still VERY useful and clearly shows I got alot to learn even at the basics.

    Thanks alot, Nick, animations look a whole lot organic now. :)

  10. Seth on March 24, 2009 said...

    Great stuff. I have really enjoyed the tutorials. I’m new to after effects and am defiantly getting a good start with your help. Thanks.

  11. Paolo on March 24, 2009 said...

    VERY nice pointers! Using less keyframes means less headaches.
    Now, what is the best way to animate something that follows a path of a circle or square.
    Keep up the informative and great work.

  12. YasserAzmy on March 27, 2009 said...

    thats big man
    am in advanced level ..and am enjoying ur videos

  13. Matt on April 2, 2009 said...

    This tutorial is great. I would have loved a nice Easy-E(ase) joke to be thrown in for good measure.

  14. David on June 19, 2009 said...

    God tutorial but please stop moving the cursor around, it´s very annoying.

  15. Anders Hattne on September 30, 2009 said...

    Yello!
    That finally got me understanding the graph better.

    At 10:55 would be a good opportunity to show “roving keyframes” since they adjust the .. position in the time line according to their spatial location – motion remains smooth.
    Also new for CS4 is the Separate Dimensions / XYZ in the graph editor. I find it really useful when moving around in 3d space!

  16. ALEXA on October 30, 2009 said...

    really nice, i apreciate it.
    thank you very much

  17. Frank on November 9, 2009 said...

    Hey Nick.

    Thanks so much for the effort to make these tuts.

    It’s definetely opened the way I see AE.

    Cheers from Brazil

  18. mr wolfy on November 22, 2009 said...

    Great tutorial! Very well designed.

    Coming from a 3D animation background the spacial vs temporal thing was a bit confusing. I thing I get it now.

  19. ODE on March 3, 2010 said...

    Great tips, nice tut. Just wish that AFX would finally ad real animation keyframing that takes into account the idea of breakdowns and extremes as an option. I get that you can make a motion path an two key do some really crazy things but When it comes to stuff like character animation and anything that has to specific pose or attitudes, what a pain. Crossing my finger for some serious graph editor reworks soon.

  20. Franke on May 23, 2010 said...

    Thank you for this great keyframe tutorial. Now i’m an AE rookie jamming the timeline no more!

  21. Hauff on June 28, 2010 said...

    Nick, thank you very much for this tut, it clarified a lot of things to me. This is my first comment at your site and I´m just amazed of how you get the things going around here. Just fantastic! Keep up the good work!
    Cheers from Brazil!

  22. Alex on July 30, 2010 said...

    You rock, man! Thanks for doing this stuff. :)

  23. Peri on August 11, 2010 said...

    Finally somebody explain to me how it works!
    Thanks man

  24. helloPaul on August 15, 2010 said...

    Man! This is truly amazing! You saved my time and work probably!

    I’m so thankful for this tutorial. Videocopilot says nothing on this topic in his Begginer’s Guide.

    Once more, thank You very much and keep it going!

    Regards
    Paul

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