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Upside down curve in graph editor

New Here ,
Jul 15, 2023 Jul 15, 2023

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Hi there, been struggling with this problem all morning.

I have a single shape going up and down my screen at equal speed but I see to many points and an upside down curve in my graph editor.

I am a beginner so any help would be really appreciated.

 

here is a couple of screen shots,

thank you

Screenshot 2023-07-16 at 12.18.21 pm.png

Screenshot 2023-07-16 at 12.18.34 pm.png

 

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New Here ,
Jul 15, 2023 Jul 15, 2023

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Additional information - i am attempting a bouncing ball animation and was instructed to seperate to X and Y dimensions in P/position. The next instruction was to create position keyframes up and down and up and down in the exact same places on the composition. I took off the easy ease instruction but this is what it looks like with easy ease in the speed graph

Screenshot 2023-07-16 at 12.50.44 pm.png

... 

 

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Community Expert ,
Jul 16, 2023 Jul 16, 2023

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You are looking at the speed graph. It shows you the speed between keyframes and also the direction. A rising curve indicates an acceleration a descending curve indicates deceleration. Zero is no movement. When you separate dimensions, the speed graph also indicates direction. Positive values indicate the values are increasing, and negative numbers are decreasing. 

 

I almost never separate dimensions because you lose the ability to see and edit a motion path with the pen tool. Position values are almost never edited using the value graph because it's impossible to visualize the motion path in the graph. Easing or acceleration changes are much easier for me to understand if I do not separate dimensions.  

 

A bouncing ball constantly accelerates during the fall, which would be a rising curve, then instantly changes to a decelerating curve when it hits the ground. That gives you a speed graph that looks like the acceleration and deceleration you would expect to see. When you separate dimensions, you get two rising acceleration graphs that are split by a vertical cliff when the ball hits the ground. It's a little harder to see and adjust.

RickGerard_0-1689541996551.gif

Acceleration on Earth is 32 feet per second per second or (32.1740 ft/s2). When you are working in the graph editor, you can drag the influence handles left or right to get the graphs to look right, but the easiest thing to do for a bouncing ball is to edit Keyframe Velocity (Right click on a keyframe or Shift + Ctrl/Cmnd + k) for the three keyframes. Velocity starts at zero when the ball is at the top of its path and when it is at the bottom of the path. To create a good-looking acceleration curve, an Influence value of about 70% gives you a very nice starting point. As long as these values match and the keyframes at the bottom of the path have the Influence set to Zero, you'll have a realistically looking bouncing ball and a perfect speed graph. 

 

You can do it all by just dragging handles, and if you click and wait for a while with the default preferences, you can see those values, but for me, it's easier to just set the Keyframe Velocity for anything that I need to bounce by editing the values in the Keyframe Velocity Panel. 

RickGerard_1-1689542074816.png

If you need to be scientifically accurate, you could do the math and calculate the precise acceleration curve, and then calculate the difference in time between Earth, Moon, and Jupiter's gravity and create a perfectly accurate ball-dropping and bouncing animation created with keyframes, but it would be easier to make the fall and bounce accurately by using Dan Ebberts wonder full Bounce and Overshoot expressions that I have used in about 50 custom animation presets I have created for creating Dynamic Graphics and Text animations for Explainer videos.

 

I hope this helps get you started on the proper use of the graph editor. You might also like this tutorial I created a few years ago. It demonstrates using the graph editor and the pen tools to create fully customizable animations. 

You got lucky. I'm working on a whole new tutorial series, and your question let me preview some of my projects. I hope this helps.  In the future, when you have having any issues with a tutorial, please post a link to the tutorial so we can help you figure out the problems. Most of the ones you find on a simple search are created by enthusiasts, and the explanations and even the workflows can be lacking.

 

My Quick Tips Playlist

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New Here ,
Jul 16, 2023 Jul 16, 2023

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Thank you very much for taking the time to reply. Here is the tutorial for your info. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEmRHw4p4_A

 

I was considering School of Motion as my online course to study. Do you know of them? Would you have a after effects beginner course you could recommend? 

 

Thanks again.

 

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Community Expert ,
Jul 16, 2023 Jul 16, 2023

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I would give that tutorial a B. It left out a lot of critical information that would help make you an expert.

 

I would start with the Learn workspace in After Effects, then spend some time with the User Guide. My favorite for more advanced tutorials is Linkedin Learning. Subscriptions are about $240 per year or $40 per month. They constantly update the content, and you have access to all of their channels, from business management, social media, and marketing to Photoshop and cell animation.

 

For 3rd party effects that you purchase or download from sites like VideoCopilot.com (a bunch of free ones), Boris FX, or Maxon, I strongly recommend the tutorials on their sites. They are better than most of the tutorials you find on any other sites for their products.

 

School of Motion is OK, but I have seen and helped solve quite a few problems that users have had with their tutorials. Most of them are pretty good, but the promise that you can learn After Effects in 8 weeks is a little optimistic. You should have a fairly good understanding of where the tools are and how the UI works. It won't make you a compositing or animation genius, but you should understand how the UI works and workflows for many common projects. I've been using AE as one of the major tools in my production company for almost 30 years, and I seem to learn something new just about every time I face a new problem. 

 

If you search YouTube, make sure you vet the trainers. Most of the tutorials you find on YouTube are not much more than recipes that users find, a lot of them only work with the shots they use, and most of the explanations leave critical information out of the workflows. 

 

 

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New Here ,
Jul 16, 2023 Jul 16, 2023

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Thank you very much! I'll check out the LinkedIn options today 🙂 

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