The Motion Graph

1Find the Motion Graph

The timeline has four view tabs: Frames, Channels, Sequencer, and Motion Graph. Click Motion Graph to switch into it. Where Frames shows your keys as little markers, the Motion Graph plots a single property's value up the vertical axis against time along the horizontal axis, so a bone's rotation over your shot becomes a line that rises and falls. This is the view animators work in for timing, because it shows not just when things happen but exactly how the value moves in between.

2A value is a bendable curve

Here is the mental shift that makes everything click. Every animated property, a bone's angle, a layer's position, a camera's zoom, is a value that changes over time, and the Motion Graph draws that change as a curve between your keyframes. The shape of that curve is the timing. A steep part of the curve means the value is changing fast; a flat part means it is barely moving. So a move is not just its poses, it is the shape of the line connecting them, and you can bend that line by hand.

3Two ways to set interpolation

You choose how a value travels between two keys with its interpolation mode, and there are two ways to set it. In the Motion Graph, right-click a key and pick from the Interpolation menu. Or use the Interp dropdown in the inspector. Both offer the same set of modes. The interpolation you pick applies to the segment leaving that key, so a single move can use different modes at different keys, snappy out of one pose, gentle into the next. This per-key control is where timing craft really lives.

4Linear: the constant, robotic travel

Linear moves the value at a perfectly constant speed from one key to the next, drawn as a straight line on the graph. Because nothing living moves at a dead-constant rate, Linear reads as mechanical: a robot arm, a conveyor belt, a sliding elevator, a bouncing ball's flight before gravity is added. It has no ease in or out, so it starts and stops abruptly. Use Linear on purpose when you want that machined, no-nonsense feel, and avoid it on anything that should feel alive.

5Smooth: the gentle, natural default

Smooth eases the value in and out of each key so the curve rounds off at both ends, giving soft, natural motion with no hard starts or stops. It is the comfortable default for most organic movement: a head turning, a hand drifting, a gentle sway. Because it slows near the keys and speeds up in the middle, it reads as relaxed and lifelike. If you are not sure what a move wants, Smooth is a safe starting point you can sharpen later with easing or curve handles.

6Step: the instant hold

Step (hold) does not travel at all, it holds the value flat until the next key, then jumps instantly. On the graph it draws as a staircase. This is how you get hard cuts and held poses: a character snaps from one drawing to the next with no blur of movement between, exactly the feel of limited animation, a blinking light, or a puppet clacking between mouth shapes. Step is also priceless for blocking, so you can judge your poses as clean holds before adding any in-between motion.

7Ease in: slowing into a stop

Ease in makes the value decelerate as it approaches the key, arriving softly rather than slamming to a halt. On the graph the curve flattens as it reaches the key. This is the feel of something settling: a hand coming to rest, a door swinging shut and easing closed, a head arriving at its final turn. Ease in gives the end of a move weight and grace. Pair it with a snappier start and you get motion that launches with energy and lands softly.

8Ease out: launching with energy

Ease out is the mirror image: the value starts slow and accelerates away from the key, so the curve is flat at the start and steepens. This gives the beginning of a move a sense of building energy, the wind-up before a punch releases, a car pulling away, a character springing into action. Ease out is your go-to for snap: a pose that eases out launches crisply and reads as powerful. It is one of the most useful modes for making action feel like it has real force behind it.

9Ease in/out: the full smooth arc

Ease in/out combines both: the value starts slow, speeds through the middle, and slows again into the key, an S-shaped curve on the graph. It is the most naturally weighted single-segment feel, and it suits self-contained moves that both start and end at rest: a full head turn, an arm raising and stopping, a considered gesture. Where plain Smooth can feel a little floaty, Ease in/out gives a clearer sense of a deliberate move with a definite beginning and end. It is a workhorse for polished character motion.

10Noise: organic jitter and life

Noise adds a randomised wobble to the value instead of a clean path, drawn as a jittery, irregular line. It is how you get things that should never be perfectly still or smooth: a flickering flame, a nervous tremble, a handheld-camera shake, the buzz of an insect's wings, electricity. A tiny amount of Noise on a held pose keeps a character from looking frozen and dead. Used heavily it becomes chaos and vibration. Reach for Noise whenever "too perfect" is the problem you are trying to solve.

11Cycle: repeat without re-keying

Cycle makes a value repeat its motion over and over instead of stopping at the last key, so you can animate one lap of a walk or one breath of an idle and let it loop automatically. On the graph the segment tiles the same shape forward through time. This is the backbone of walk cycles, idle breathing, spinning wheels, and any sustained repeating motion. You get the loop for free once the keyed section reads well, which saves you re-posing the same steps a dozen times over a long shot.

12Bounce: the springy landing

Bounce makes the value overshoot and settle in decaying wobbles, like a ball dropping and bouncing lower each time before it rests. On the graph you see a series of shrinking humps. It is the ready-made feel for anything that lands and jiggles: a dropped ball, a character thumping down from a jump, a sign swinging to a stop, a spring released. Bounce packs a lot of lively physics into a single interpolation choice, saving you from hand-keying every diminishing rebound of a settle.

13Fine control with curve handles

When the preset modes are close but not exact, take manual control. Right-click a key and choose Add curve handles to attach draggable handles to the curve at that key; pulling those handles reshapes the slope directly, so you can dial in precisely how fast the value leaves or arrives. This is how you tune a move past what the presets give, a slightly sharper snap here, a gentler settle there. If your hand-tuning goes wrong, right-click and choose Reset curve handles to snap the curve back to its default shape and start over.

14Spacing and easing are weight and snap

Here is the big idea that ties the whole view together. Spacing, how far the value moves between frames, and easing, how it accelerates and decelerates, together create the illusion of weight and snap. A heavy object eases slowly and spaces its motion evenly; a snappy, light action eases out hard and spaces its frames far apart in the middle. Read the Motion Graph curve and you are literally reading weight: gentle slopes feel heavy and considered, sharp slopes feel quick and light. Shaping these curves is shaping the physical feeling of your world.

15A workflow for timing a move

Put it together into a routine. First block your poses in Step so every key reads as a clean hold. Then switch keys to motion: Ease out of your anticipation for snap, Ease in into your settles for weight, Smooth or Ease in/out for the gentler in-betweens. Preview constantly with Play and Loop, watching the curve alongside the motion. Finally, fine-tune the stubborn segments with Add curve handles. Work coarse to fine, presets before handles, and the timing comes together quickly.

Timing questions