Easing
Easing shapes the motion between two keyframes. Here is what the nine presets do, which keyframe owns the change, and the four places you can set it.
Two keyframes give you a start and an end. Easing decides everything in between: whether the layer leaves slowly and arrives fast, coasts to a stop, or holds dead still and snaps at the last moment.
Easing is stored on the keyframe, and it governs the segment leaving that keyframe. Select the first of a pair to change how the motion between them feels: the last keyframe of a channel has nothing after it, so its easing does not show.
The presets
| Preset | What the motion does |
|---|---|
| Linear | Constant speed from one keyframe to the next. The default. |
| Ease In (Quad) | Starts still and builds speed |
| Ease Out (Quad) | Starts fast and settles |
| Ease In-Out | Eases at both ends, gentle throughout |
| Hold / Step | No motion at all: the value holds and jumps at the next keyframe |
| Cubic In | A stronger ease in than Quad |
| Cubic Out | A stronger ease out than Quad |
| Cubic In-Out | A stronger ease at both ends |
| Custom Bezier | A curve you shape yourself with two handles |
Custom Bezier starts from a gentle ease-out shape and is edited in the Easing panel or the Graph Editor. Its handles can be pulled past the ends of the segment, which is how you get anticipation and overshoot without extra keyframes.
Channels that take no easing
Switch and Z-Order step by nature: they carry a whole-number value that has no meaningful halfway point, so they hold and jump, and their rows offer no easing menu. The same is true of on/off and whole-number effect parameters.
Where you set it
Four surfaces write easing, and they differ in how far the change reaches. Pick the one whose scope matches what you mean.
The Timeline header combo
Fastest for a bulk change. It is disabled until a keyframe is explicitly selected. It will not act on whatever happens to sit under the playhead.
- A keyframe on a parameter row: that keyframe only.
- A keyframe on a sub-track row: that channel only. On a two-axis channel such as Position or Scale, all axes are set together.
- A diamond on the main layer row: every channel keyed at that frame, including style, effect and bone parameters.
The right-click Easing submenu
The same nine presets, scoped to the row you right-clicked. From a layer row it applies to every channel of every selected frame on that layer. From a sub-track or a parameter row it applies to that one channel at that one frame.
The Easing panel
A dedicated panel for the keyframe you last worked with, with the preset list and a bezier canvas for shaping a custom curve by hand. See the Easing panel page for how it decides which keyframe it is pointing at.
The Graph Editor
Choose a preset from its toolbar, drag tangent handles on the curve itself, or use the Linear, Smooth and Sharp buttons for one-click tangents. This is the precise surface, and the only one that shows you the result as a curve while you work. See Graph Editor.
Practical notes
- Ease out of a keyframe and into the next by setting Ease Out on the first and Ease In on the second only if you want a pause between them; a single Ease In-Out on the first is usually what you mean.
- A pose that reads as floaty is nearly always Linear where it should be Cubic Out.
- Easing does not change timing. If the motion is still wrong after easing it, move the keyframe.