Hello everyone, it's Jen from Olde Tinkerer Studio
In this tutorial, we will be learning how to use the graph editor for animation in Blender 2.83
So, let’s get on with the tutorial
The Graph Editor allows users to adjust animation curves over time for any animatable property
The main region is where you can view and edit F-Curves
The X-Axis of the curve represents time
The Y-Axis of the curve represents the values of the properties
The small black dots are the keyframes (which turn orange when selected)
Each keyframe has handles that determine the value of the curve between the keyframes
You can pan the view by clicking and dragging the middle-mouse-button
You can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel
You can scale the view with CTRL + middle-mouse-button
By using the Home key, you can scale the graph editor to only the selected region – in our case, 50 keyframes
The Playhead is the blue vertical line which indicates the current frame
You can change the current frame by holding down the left-mouse-button and dragging the playhead
You can also change the current frame by changing the frame number in the “Current Frame” field
The blue horizontal line is the 2D Cursor
In the Header, we have various menus and controls for the Graph Editor
The View Menu has all the settings you can choose from to change the various views and options of the Graph Editor
The Select Menu contains all the options for selecting keyframes and F-Curves
The Marker Menu has all the settings for adding and editing markers
The Channel Menu contains all the settings for the channels
The Key Menu has all the settings for adding and modifying keyframes
The Normalize control normalizes the curves so they are set at a minimum value of -1 and a maximum value of 1
This option prevents curves from jumping and moving after you have moved the curve
The Show Only Selected control allows you to only include curves related to the selected objects
The Show Hidden control shows curves from objects and bones that are not visible
The Show Only Errors control will only show curves and drivers that are disabled or contain errors
(useful for debugging)
The Create Ghost Curves control creates a snapshot of selected F-Curves
as a background aid for the Graph Editor
The Filter popover allows you to select various controls
The Pivot Point control allows you to select various controls for the pivot point
The Nearest Frame control is used for time snapping settings
The Proportional Editing control is used to transform one F-Curve
while also transforming nearby F-Curves
The Sidebar can be accessed with the N key
Under the View tab, we can turn the 2D Cursor on and off
We can also use the Cursor X to move the playhead to a specific frame
The Cursor Y will move the 2D Cursor
The Cursor to Selected control will move the cursor to the midpoint of a selected key
The Modifiers tab allows you to add modifiers to the F-Curves
These modifiers are similar to object modifiers
The F-Curve tab is where you will find the properties for the active F-Curve
(We will be delving into F-Curves in the next tutorial)
The Channels Region is the area where you can select and manage the F-Curves within the Graph Editor
You can see the objects and their animation data hierarchy as individual headers
Each level can be expanded and collapsed
The Pin icon makes the channel always visible whether or not it is part of the current selection
The Eye icon hides and unhides the channels and F-Curves
The Wrench (or Spanner) icon allows you to deactivate the F-Curve modifier
on the selected curves or the entire channel
The Lock icon allows you to lock or unlock a curve or channel so it can or cannot be modified
If you have audio you will also see a Speaker icon
which allows you to deactivate audio for a curve or channel
There are multiple ways of making channel selections
To select a channel, you can click on the channel with the left-mouse-button
To select multiple channels, use SHIFT and your left-mouse button
You can select all the channels with “A” and deselect all channels with ALT + A
You can box select channels by holding down your left-mouse-button and dragging
To select all the keyframes in the channel, double-click on the channel with your left-mouse-button
There are also multiple ways to edit channels
To rename a channel, use CTRL + left-mouse-button
To delete a channel, select the channel and use the Delete key
The Tab key allows you to lock and unlock a selected channel
You can get to the Enable Channel Setting popover by using SHIFT + CTRL + W
To get to the Disable Channel Setting popover you use ALT + W
To get to the Toggle Channel Setting popover, use SHIFT + W
Under the View menu, you can choose “Show Sliders”
This allows you to see another column with sliders that allow you to change the value of the current keyframe
If you have a request for a tutorial or a question about Blender, feel free to leave a comment
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Thanks for watching
Have a good day