Smooth motion with roving keyframes



Using roving keyframes, 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, Anchor Point, and effect control points. 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 (top) shows different velocities between keyframes. After the keyframes are set to rove (bottom), the motion path shows 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 want to smooth.
  2. Determine the beginning and ending keyframes for the range you want to smooth.
  3. Do one of the following:

    • 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.

Revert to a nonroving keyframe

  • Select the roving keyframe option from the keyframe menu, or drag the roving keyframe left or right.
  • Select the keyframes you want to change, and choose Animation > Keyframe Interpolation. Then choose Lock To Time from the Roving menu.