The Curve Editor allows you to create, see, and modify animation curves or
Lookup curves. You can change the curve type, as well as its cycling
mode. For more information on specific curve types, jump to About
Splines.
There are two curve editors the first for the animation of values, and
the second for lookup-style curves that generally relate to color correction.
This second type is generally inside of the parameter tab itself (see the ColorCorrect
node for example), and is a sub-set of the animation curve editor.
Loading and Viewing
Curves into the Editor
There are two basic ways of loading curves:
- Inside of a Parameter tab, toggle the "load curve" button
.
This loads the parameter into the Curve Editor it does not necessarily
animate the value. If you press the autokey button, it puts a keyframe down
for that frame, and turns on the load curve button
.
In the following list, even though value is animated, only center
shows up in the Curve Editor:
- The second way is by using the Viewing Filters in the Curve Editor. When
current is active, all animated parameters from the currently loaded
node are loaded into the Curve Editor. When selected is active, all
animated parameters from the selected nodes are loaded.

In the list of loaded parameters are two columns for toggling
visibility and persistence.

- Visibility turns the display of a curve on and off in the Editor,
but keeps it in the list.
- Persistence keeps a curve in the Editor regardless of the current/selected
filter settings.
- Unload a curve from the Editor by selecting the curve and pressing Backspace.
- Unload a curve by untoggling it in the Parameter tab:

Adding and Modifying Keyframes
Add and insert keyframes in several ways:
- In the Parameter list, pressing the autokey button
or modifying a value when it is on enters a keyframe.
- In the Viewer, using the Viewer Autokey button
enters a keyframe for all onscreen parameters (i.e., Move2D has x,yPan,
x,yScale, angle, x,yCenter associated with its
onscreen controls). Note this will override expressions, which can sometimes
suck.
- You can insert a keyframe on a curve by Shift+clicking on a segment.
Note the curve name is highlighted as well as the keyframe values when you pass
the cursor over them:
When moving keys, you can lock off movement by using the axis
lock buttons:
-
X an Y movement.
-
no Y movement.
no X movement.
There are also two helpful toggles on the Right mouse menu:

- Display Timecode toggles the frame count to timecode count.
- Sticky Time (S hotkey) jumps the current time to the time
of the keyframe you are modifying so you are viewing the proper frame.
- Time Snap turns on and off the locking of the keyframes to frame increments.
- Display Select Info displays the numerical information for selected
keyframes.
You can select keyframes in several ways:
- By clicking on a blank spot, you deselect all keyframes.
- By dragging, you set a new group of keyframes of what you drag over.
- By Shift+dragging, you add to your current group of keys.
- By Ctrl+dragging, you remove from your current group of keys.
- By dragging over a curve(s), or selecting it in the curve list, and then
pressing Shift+A, you select all keyframes on that curve.
- To select all keyframes in the Editor, press Ctrl+A (select
all curves) and then Shift+A.
- You can modify a keyframe numerically by typing its values into the text
fields at the bottom of the Editor window.

Therefore, the Key box is the time you want the keyframe
to be at, and Value is of course the value. Clever, that part, eh? If
you set the tangents to 0, it flattens the keyframe out on a Hermite curve.
By the way, the text fields in the actual Curve List (the ones to the right
of the curve name) are absolutely useless and are there just to frustrate you.
- To break the tangents of a curve, hold down Ctrl and drag
on the tangent end:
Modifying Curves
You can modify a curve type, its repetition mode, as well as apply filter effects
(smooth, jitter extraction, etc.) on a curve.
To change a curve type
- Select the curve either by dragging over it or by selecting it in the list.
- You can set the Curve Type
to Hermite, Linear, CSpline, JSpline, NSpline
or Step curve. The ones most popular with the kids these days are Hermite,
JSpline, and Linear. You can only have one curve type per curve.
For graphs of these types, jump to About
Splines.

The Key and Val columns are next to useless as you can't modify
a value there. Useless as much as when I mentioned it a minute ago.
The Cycle type
determines what happens before the first keyframe and after the last key. You can
keep the value (default), continue the tangent, repeat the curve, invert the
curve, or repeat offset the curve. For graphs of these types, jump to About
Splines.
For a tutorial on using local variables and expressions to control your curves,
jump to the Fan Tutorial.
You can apply functions to curves or keyframes with the function buttons:

The first pop-up controls the function type. If appropriate (smooth
and jitter), you modify the amount as well. The next two buttons apply
the effect, and designate if the effect is on the entire curve or on selected
keys. The final pop-up can apply the effect to selected curves, or you can select
a specific curve in the list.
Starting with a curve that looks like this, you can get several results using
filters:

- smooth: This "blurs" the curve by the Amount factor,
which indicates how many neighbor keyframes are calculated in the smoothing.
The higher the number, the smoother the result.

- jitter: This is the opposite of smooth, in that it removes all values
except for the noise using the formula (Unmodified Curve - Smoothed Curve
= Jitter). Once you apply the function, the curve snaps down to the approximately
the 0 value, so it probably just looks like the curve disappears. This is
good for stabilizing a jerky camera move. You can keep the overall move but
remove the jerkiness. The vertical scale of this image is much smaller than
the first example snapshot.

- reverse: This makes the curve go backwards:

- negate: This flips the curve around the 0 point, so a value of 300
turns into a value of -300. Again, this probably means it disappears until
you reframe the curve in the Editor by pressing Home or F (for
frame).

- average: This allows you to average two curves together. When you
select this function, a second popup appears at the end of the function row
prompting you to indicate what curve the current curve is to be averaged with.
Deleting Keys
You can delete keyframes either by:
- Selecting them and pressing Delete
- By moving the time slider to where the keyframe is, and pressing the Delete
Key
button if you are using an onscreen control. This only deletes keyframes related
to the onscreen controls.
- By using the Right mouse menu in the Parameter tab, you can
delete a keyframe from any one parameter by going to that frame and selecting
Delete Current Key.
- If the keyframe is on an onscreen control, you can also use Backspace
in the Viewer. This only deletes keyframes related to the onscreen controls.
Deleting Curves
Delete entire curves in several ways:
- Select all points on the curve (Shift+A) and press Delete.
- Select the curve, and convert it to a Const curve type
- Go to the parameter in the Parameter View, and select Clear
Expression from the Right mouse menu.
Navigating the
Curve Editor
There are several functions to help you use the Curve Editor window.
- You can frame a selected curve(s) by pressing F.
- You can frame all curves by pressing Home.
- Middle mouse or Alt+left mouse pans the viewing area.
- +/- by the Backspace keyframe zoom the editor.
- Ctrl+Middle mouse or Ctrl+Alt left mouse
zoom the editor.
- Space Bar zooms the Editor full screen.
Right Mouse Menus
Function
|
Effect
|
Hot Key
|
Add All Curves |
Adds all animated curves into the editor. |
|
Remove Curves |
Removes selected curves from the Curve Editor. Does not
delete the animation. |
Backspace
|
Visibility: Hide Curves |
Turns off visibility of selected curves. You can also press
the visibility button on the Curve List. |
|
Visibility: Show Curves |
Shows selected curves. You are selecting curves in the Curve
List before doing this function. |
|
Visibility: Toggle Visibility |
Inverts the visibility of all selected curves. |
|
Select: All Curves |
Selects all curves in the Curve List. |
Ctrl+A
|
Select: CVs |
Selects all CVs on active curves. Therefore, to select all
CVs on all loaded curves, press Ctrl+A and then Shift+A. |
Shift+A
|
Display Timecode |
Toggles the time display from frames to time code. |
T
|
Sticky Time |
When this is on, the current frame is set to whatever keyframe
you are modifying. |
S
|
Time Snap |
When this is on, keyframes snaps to frames, rather than
float values. |
|
Display Selected Info |
Displays data on selected curves and keyframes when active. |
|