Graph Editor

Graph Editor

To demonstrate how best to use the Graph Editor, I devised
the project 02_graphEditor.aep in the accompanying
disc’s Chapter02 directory. It contains a simple animation,
“bouncing ball 2d,” which you can create from scratch;
you can also see the steps below as individual numbered
compositions.
To enable the Graph Editor, click its icon in the Timeline
or use the shortcut Shift+F3. Below the grid that
appears in place of the layer stack are the Graph Editor
controls (Figure 2.3).















Show Properties
By default, if nothing is selected, nothing displays; what
you see depends on the settings in the Show Properties
menu . Three toggles in this menu control how animation
curves are displayed:
. Show Selected Properties displays animation whatever
property names are highlighted.
. Show Animated Properties shows everything with keyframes
or expressions.
. Show Graph Editor Set displays properties with the
Graph Editor Set toggle enabled.
Show Selected Properties is the easiest to use, but Show
Graph Editor Set gives you the greatest control. You decide
which curves need to appear, activate their Graph Editor
Set toggle, and after that it no longer matters whether you
keep them selected.
To begin my bouncing ball animation, I include Position in
the Graph Editor Set by toggling its icon . Alt/Option+P
sets the fi rst Position keyframe at frame 0; after that, any
changes to Position are automatically keyframed.