Graph Editor View menu

This menu controls which components are visible, and therefore editable, in the graph view of the Graph Editor. This is useful for controlling the amount of information displayed in the graph view, as well as specifying which of the animation curve components are available for editing.

Note

When framing the desired range, the Graph Editor may scale the area in the graph view horizontally and vertically to display the desired range.

Clip Time: Clip Time lets you view the clip animation curves at their position and scale in the Trax Editor.
Frame

Frame All: Adjusts the graph view to fit all animation curves in the window.
Frame Selection: Adjusts graph view to fit selected animation curves or curve segments in the window.
Frame Playback Range: Adjusts the graph view to fit the playback range in the window.

Center Current Time: If you change the view in the Graph Editor and want to shift the view so the current time is in the middle of the editor, select Center Current Time from the View menu.
Auto Frame: Automatically adjusts the graph view to fit the display of the animation curves associated with a selected object or objects.
Show Results: When types of animation that do not create animation curves (such as motion paths and Expressions) are part of your animation, you can use Show Results to see a graphic representation of the behavior of these animation types.

Note
To edit these types of animation, you must transform them into animation curves by performing a Bake Channel.

Any numeric attribute can drive Show Results. This is useful for looking at animations driven by anything other than a single animation curve. Select Show Results > to open and set the Show Results Options.

Show Results Options window

Screen Based: Samples the result of what one pixel represents in time. This may not accurately reflect the actual animation (especially if you are zoomed out). However, by adjusting the sampling rate, you can choose between curve accuracy and update time. A higher sampling rate means more accurate representation but longer computation time.
Samples: When screen based sampling is turned on, the sample rate specifies the number of pixels per sample. When it’s turned off, the sample rate specifies the number of frames or current time units per sample.
Updates: Sets when the result curves are updated. Select Delayed to update curves after the mouse is released, or select Interactive to update result curves as you move the cursor.

Show Buffer Curves: Turning this on will cause the graph view to display the original shape of edited curves.
Keys: Lets you set the viewable status of keys.

In order to operate on a component of an animation curve, you must make it viewable by loading it into the Graph Editor. By default, objects selected in a scene view are automatically loaded in the Graph Editor.

NoteKeys are represented in the graph view as black points, and when selected, they are highlighted yellow.

Always: Sets keys to be visible at all times in the graph view of the Graph Editor.
Never: Hides keys in the graph view. Because keys are no longer available for picking, you can no longer edit them.
Active Only: Sets keys to be available only when you select the curve they are associated with.

Tangents: Lets you set the viewable status of tangents. (In order to operate on a component of a tangent, you must make it available by being designated as viewable.)

Tangents are represented in the graph view as brown handles tangential to the curve segment of the animation curve. When selected, they are highlighted green.

NoteIf Unify Tangents is on for a curve segment, the handles on both sides of the key will be adjusted uniformly when you edit the selected handle. If Break Tangent is in effect, each tangent handle operates independently of the other.

Always: Setting the viewable status of tangents to Always results in tangents being visible at all times in the graph view of the Graph Editor.

Note
If you wish to operate on tangents and you’ve disabled curves and keys in the Select menu of the Graph Editor, set the visibility of tangents to Always so they are available for selection.
Never: Setting the viewable status of tangents to Never hides tangents in the graph view. Because tangents are no longer available for selection, you can no longer edit them.
On Active Keys: When the viewable status of tangents is set to On Active Keys, tangents are available only when you select their associated curve or curve segment.

Infinity: Infinity turns on or off the display of the animation curve extrapolated outside the first and last keys of the curve.

The curves before the first key and after the last key will be constant by default.
Stacked Curves: When on, the graph view displays individual curves in a stack, rather than displaying all curves overlapping.

When Stacked Curves is on, each curve displays with its own value axis, normalized between 1 and -1 by default. Use the Stacked Curves Options to determine how the stacked curves display.

See Display stacked curves.

Important
When using the Scale Keys Tool or the Lattice Deformer Keys Tool with Stacked Curves turned on, you can only modify the time value.
Stacked Curves >: Opens the Stacked Curves Options window.

Layout

Set the following options:

Min Value: Sets the minimum value for each curve’s axis. Default is -1.
Max value: Sets the maximum value of each curve’s axis. Default is 1.
Spacing: Sets the amount of space between each curve in the stack. Default is 0.20.
Enable normalized display when enabling stacked curves: When on (default), curves display normalized when you switch to Stacked Curves display.
Disable normalized display when disabling stacked curves: When on (default), curves are automatically de-normalized when you turn off Stacked Curves display.

Display Normalized

When on, this option scales down large key values or scales up small key values to fit within a -1 to 1 range. When animation curves are normalized, they are adjusted to fit within the range of normalization.

Curve normalization is useful when you want to view, compare, or edit animation curves that are related (such as rotation and translation curves), but have drastically different ranges. For example, with curve normalization you can compare all the translation and rotation animation curves for an object.

When you turn Display Normalized off, the curves revert to a non-normalized state, back to their original ranges.

Note

Animation curves that are normalized appear thicker than other curves in the Graph Editor.

Limitations: Curve normalization does not work with the following types of curves:

Rotation curves that use quaternion rotation interpolation
Referenced animation curves
Locked animation curves.

Renormalize

Available only when Display Normalized is on. Select this option to renormalize the curves displayed in the graph view.

Note

Curves are automatically renormalized when you turn on Display Normalized or the active curve list changes.

You can also quickly renormalize curves by selecting the Renormalize icon in the Graph Editor toolbar.

Classic Toolbar

Lets you toggle between the standard Graph Editor toolbar with a full set of curve editing and display options, or a more streamlined version of the toolbar with only select editing and display options. If you primarily use Maya as part of a suite of Autodesk applications, you may prefer to disable Classic Toolbar and use a more simplified interface in the Graph Editor, more consistent with the other products in your suite.