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Using the Graph Editor

Lesson 1: Keyframes and the Graph Editor

Fine tuning an animation

 

Learning Resources > Tutorials > Getting Started with Maya > Animation > Lesson 1: Keyframes and the Graph Editor > 

Changing the timing of an attribute

The ball seems to move too slowly in its journey. In the following steps, you’ll use the Graph Editor to hasten its movement. Specifically, you’ll cause the ball’s animation to finish its journey in two seconds (48 frames) rather than three (72 frames).

To speed up the animation of the ball’s movement

1. Drag a selection box around all key points of both curves.
2. Select the Scale tool.
3. Click and hold the middle mouse button anywhere in the graph at frame 1 (slightly to the right of 0).

   Notice the question mark icon. The location of this icon indicates the point from which scaling occurs. (Because you need to scale the animation inward toward frame 1, you need to start your drag operation at frame 1.)

4. Without releasing the mouse button, drag to the left until the right-most key points on both curves are positioned roughly at frame 48. (When selected, the right-most key points are yellow.)

   

   This scales the curves symmetrically towards frame 1. The animation of the ball now plays from frame 1 to 48 rather than 1 to 72. The ball traverses the scene in less time, which, of course, means it moves faster.

   If you had started your drag operation from the middle of the frame range, the scale operation would have pulled the curves toward the middle of the frame range. You can snap the keypoints to whole values to keep the keyframes on a consistent timing.

5. Widen the Graph Editor window as necessary to see the graph clearly. Also, dolly the view or select View > Frame Selection (in the Graph Editor window).