User Guide

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ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS 5.0
User Guide
7 Click Start Capture and then, in the Composition window, drag the layer to create the
motion path. Release the mouse button to end the path.
Note: After Effects automatically ends the motion path when the capture time reaches the end
of either your composition or the work area.
Smoothing motion and velocity
Smooth motion paths, value curves, and velocity curves to eliminate bumpiness or excess
keyframes using The Smoother, which adds keyframes or removes unnecessary keyframes.
(You can also use the smooth expression to accomplish this. See “Property attributes and
methods” on page 335.)
Although you can smooth a curve for any property, The Smoother is most useful when
applied to curves that have been automatically generated by either Motion Math or
Motion Sketch, where you may have excess keyframes. Applying The Smoother to
keyframes that have been set manually may result in unexpected changes to the curve. (For
information on using Motion Sketch, see “Using Motion Sketch to draw a motion path”
on page 175.)
When you apply The Smoother to properties that change spatially (such as position), you
can smooth only the spatial curve (the curve defined by the motion). When you apply The
Smoother to properties that change only in time (such as opacity), you can smooth only
the value and velocity curves (the curve defined by the value or the velocity).
In addition to adding keyframes or eliminating unnecessary keyframes, The Smoother
also applies Bezier interpolation at each keyframe when smoothing the temporal curve.
To smooth a spatial or temporal curve:
1 In the Timeline window, either select all the keyframes for a property to smooth the
entire curve, or select at least three keyframes to smooth only a portion of a curve.
2 Choose Window > The Smoother.
In the Apply To menu, The Smoother automatically selects Spatial Path or Temporal
Graph, depending on the type of property for which you selected keyframes in step 1.
UG.book Page 177 Wednesday, February 21, 2001 12:05 PM