Add easing to IK animation

When you use poses to add animation to an IK armature, you can adjust the speed of the animation in the frames around each pose. By adjusting the speed, you can create more realistic motion. Controlling the acceleration of motion near pose frames is called easing.

For example, when you move your arm, it speeds up and slows down at the beginning and end of the motion. By adding easing to an IK pose layer in the Timeline, you can make the armature speed up or slow down before or after each pose frame.

To add easing to frames in a pose layer:

  1. Click a frame between two pose frames in the pose layer.

    When you apply an ease, it affects the frames between the pose frames to the left and right of the selected frame. If you select a pose frame, the ease affects the frames between the selected pose and the next pose in the layer.

  2. In the Property inspector, select a type of ease from the Ease menu.

    The available eases include four Simple and four Stop and Start eases. The Simple eases slow the acceleration of the motion in the frames immediately following the previous pose frame or the frames immediately before the next pose frame. The Strength property of the ease controls which frames are eased as well as the degree of the ease affect.

    The Stop and Start eases slow the motion in the frames immediately after the prior pose frame and the frames immediately before the next pose frame in the layer.

    Each of the two types of eases has a Slow, Medium, Fast, and Fastest version. The Slow version has the subtlest effect and the Fastest is the most pronounced effect.

    These same ease types are available in the Motion Editor when using motion tweens. You can view the curve of each type of ease in the Motion Editor when a motion tween is selected in the Timeline.

  3. In the Property inspector, enter a value for the strength of the ease.

    The default strength is 0, which is equivalent to no easing. The maximum value is 100, which applies the most significant easing effect to the frames preceding the following pose frame. The minimum value is -100, which applies the most significant easing effect to the frames immediately after the preceding pose frame.

When you are finished, scrub the playhead in the Timeline between the 2 pose frames where you applied the ease to preview the eased motion on the Stage.