Graph Editor (overview)

An introduction and broad overview of the key components of the Graph Editor.

The graph editor is an animator's best friend. Maya takes all attributes that you set keys for and plots this information into curves. These curves are a graphical representation of the interpolation (movement) between animation keys that you see in the Viewport.

Inside the graph editor you can manually modify and reshape the curves to achieve the result you want in your animation. The curves provide another way to finitely control and influence your animation.

The shape of the curves, the curve type, and tangent type all affect how your animation moves. (More on reading curves and selecting tangent types in another post). In this post I will only be covering the integral parts of the graph editor and what they are used for.

Opening the Graph Editor

Windows > Animation Editors > Graph Editor

When you open the graph editor, if you have nothing selected or no keys in your scene, the graph will be empty (see image above). To see the function curves (f curves) in the graph editor you need to select an object(s) or controller(s) and then the curves and the keyed attributes will appear.

Graph Editor Interface

The Graph Editor Outliner is the column on the left. Here the object or controllers you have selected will be listed, along with all the attributes that currently have keys. If you have the name of the controller/object selected the curves for all the keyed attributes will appear on the right. If you select one of the attributes, for example Translate X, then only the curve for Translate X will be displayed.

The area defined by the box is the Graph View where all the animation curves will be displayed.

The yellow marker, is the time marker and its location will match the location of the time marker in the Time Slider. Just like in the time slider you can use the marker to scrub through your animation and see it play in the viewport.

The vertical lines in the graph represent frames, therefore they represent the animation over time. These are the same frames in the Time Slider. Keys for an attribute will be plotted on the same frame as they are in the Time Slider.

This is the time ruler. The numbers are frames and match the frames in the Time Slider.

The horizontal lines represent a change in value. The Graph's center is zero, the lines above zero are positive values, while the lines below zero are negative. These show the changes in an attribute's value over time, either increasing or decreasing. The graph will plot a key matching the same value you keyed the attribute to in the Channel box (this is the controller(s) or object(s) location in world space in the viewport.

Important Graph Editor Tools

Stats

By selecting keys you can input formulas into the stats bars to alter the position of the keys.

Tangent Types

You can set the curve's tangents (the handles on either side of a key) to different types. You can set a particular key's tangents or change all the tangent's type in the curve.

In order from left to right they are as follows:

(the names in purple are the ones I personally tend to use the most, the others I rarely use)

1. Auto Span (Legacy)- The first and last keys on the curve will have flat tangents. The curves of the keyframes in between will be in spline mode, but will not overshoot.

2. Auto Ease- uses neighboring keys to determine and blend the curve's shape.

3. Auto Mix- Applies a linear blend of the two slopes to the tangent.

4. Auto Custom- you can select two tangents types and it will blend them together to determine the slopes of the curves.

5. Spline- creates a rounded curve before and after the key. Tends to create a lot of overshoots that need to be manually cleaned up. Good for smooth, fluid movement.

6. Clamped- a combination of spline and linear tangents. The curve after a key will be rounded, unless the next key is very close and then the curve will be linear.

7. Linear- This creates straight lines between keys. The movement will be direct and the speed consistent over time, with no ease in or out.

8. Flat- A flat tangent type sets the tangents after the key to be horizontal with a slope of 0 degrees (flat). Good for hold/bookend keys (section of animation that does not change over a span of time). Also good for creating equal ease in and out on either side of a tangent without overshooting.

9. Stepped- Forces the animation curve to hold its value from the one key to the next. In stepped mode, when the animation plays in the viewport it will only show the poses that have been keyed without any interpolation (movement) in between them. Commonly used by animators who use the pose to pose method.

10. Plateau- eases animation curves in and out of their keys. It flattens curve segments that occur between equal-valued keyframes, flattens keyframes at the points in their curves where hills and valleys occur, and flattens the first and last keyframes on their curves.

Default Tangent In and Out

These are shortcut buttons created to be an alternative to setting them in the preferences window. These settings will only be in effect for any future keys you set, it will not change any of the existing curves/tangents in the graph, those you need to change manually. Clicking on the first button you can set the default in tangent type, a dropdown menu will appear listing all the tangent types for you to choose from. Click the second button to set the default out tangent type.

Tangent Options

1. Break Tangents- breaks the tangent handle for a key in half and allows an animator to change and alter the shape of the curve on either side independently. You can also set the two halves to be different tangent types.

2. Unify Tangent- reunifies broken tangents, so that moving one side of the handle also moves the other.

3. Free tangent Weights (2023 and prior) Free Tangent Length (2024)- by default tangent handles are non-weighted, which means the length of the handle is the exact same size on either side of the key and each handle has the same amount influence along the length of the curve. In order to free the tangent length, you have to change the tangents to Weighted, then you can free their length. Weighted tangent handles vary in size based upon the length of the curve. Freeing the length allows you to manually change the size of the tangent handles and therefore the amount of influence they have along the length of the curve.

4. Lock Tangent Weights (2023 and prior) Lock Tangent Length (2024)- re-locks the lengths of the tangents so they cannot be altered.

Graph Display Type

Absolute View- the default display for the curves in the graph editor. The curves overlap each other. Allows you to see the true reflection the the change of value over time. On the downside when all the curves for keyed attributes are displayed, it can be had to see the true shape of the curve when some have much higher changes in the value than others.
2. Stacked View- Displays the curves stacked in a list, they do not overlap each other. However, it is difficult to accurately see the shape of the curves and you cannot see the changes in value.
3. Normalized View- Scales the curves and overlaps them, accurately depicts the shapes of the curves over time. However, you cannot see the the changes in values.

Cycles

A cycle repeats the animation curve as a copy infinitely.

1. Pre Infinity Cycle- from first key on the curve repeats the animation curve as a copy infinitely backwards in time.

2. Pre Infinity Cycle with Offset-from first key on the curve repeats the animation curve as a copy infinitely backwards in time, but with an offset.

3. Post Infinity Cycle- from last key on the curve repeats the animation curve as a copy infinitely forwards in time.

4. Post Infinity Cycle with Offset- from last key on the curve repeats the animation curve as a copy infinitely forwards in time, but with an offset.