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So now that we've talked about working with clips and time selections in the timeline,
let's talk about working with curves. To do this, we're going to use a mode of the timeline called the Graph Editor.
This is the editor that allows us to have precise, curve-by-curve control over any parameter in the animation set,
whether it's the X translation on the path of the camera, or the y translation on a joint on a character.
To enter into the Graph Editor, click the Graph Editor icon on the top left of the timeline.
You'll note that we have entered a new mode of the timeline, similar to the Motion Editor.
Note that by default, when you hit the Tab key, you toggle between the Clip Editor and the Motion Editor.
You can reprogram this Tab-key behavior by pressing either of the Motion Editor or the Graph Editor buttons,
and when you hit Tab, whichever button was last pressed, that editor will become active whenever you hit the Tab key.
Experiment with this a bit, until it makes sense. We find that we use both in practice,
so get comfortable jumping back and forth between the two edit modes.
Now, let's keyframe some curves to create some camera motion.
Before we start, let's go ahead and select our shot, and make sure that the camera frustum and the work camera are being shown.
If there's no animation set for the active camera, go ahead and create one.
Go ahead and hit Tab to enter into the Graph Editor, and let's begin.
First, select the animation set for the camera. Notice that we get a list of all the available channel controls on the object.
If you've ever keyframed in a 3D animation system, this should feel very familiar.
There's one fundamental difference, however. Even though it looks like a curve editor, we're actually still working with dense sample data.
This is how we can work back and forth between working with time selections and working with curves.
It makes working with capture data very easy. We'll talk more about this later.
So let's create some curve motion. In the Graph Editor, select Position X, under the camera's transform.
Drag the playhead to the start of the shot, and hit the M key to create a bookmark.
Note that this creates a keyframe on the X translation channel for the camera.
Drag the playhead to the end of the shot, and instead of hitting the M key, just click on one of the manipulators and move the camera.
Notice that as soon as we clicked on the manipulator handle, a new keyframe was created.
This is similar to auto-key in a normal keyframer. Now, let's frame the curve by hitting the F hotkey.
Go ahead and left-drag in the Graph Editor to select this keyframe, and middle-drag up and down.
Notice that it does the exact same thing as dragging on that particular control of the 3D manipulator.
You can see that the viewport is updating as we drag. Just like in the Motion Editor, we can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel,
or we can hold down Shift+mouse-wheel to zoom vertically. You can also pan the view by holding down the Alt key and middle-dragging.
If you would like to step between the keyframes, go ahead and use the square brackets on the keyboard.
This will jump time to the previous and next bookmark. You can also set the value of the currently selected keyframes
by typing the value into the number field on the top of the timeline.
You can also type in mathematical expressions if you'd like to just offset them.
So, for example, typing "+=3" would add 3 to the selected keyframes, whereas typing only "3" would set the value to 3.
So let's go ahead and show you an example of this. Select Rotation Z on the camera;
set a bookmark on the first frame, using the M key; and go to the last frame, and create another bookmark with the M key.
Select it, and type in "113". Now, when we play back time, the camera is rotating 113 degrees around Z.
If you want to scale the selected keyframes, hold down the Ctrl key and drag with the right mouse button.
The keyframes will scale around the current cursor position.
Now, let's show you how you can still use the Motion Editor in tandem with the Graph Editor.
Enter the Motion Editor by hitting the Motion Editor button.
Open up the camera animation set, and then open up the transform and position control groups.
Select the parameter for X translation. Look for the procedural preset Jitter, and drag it to the right.
Go ahead and hit the Graph Editor button to return to the curve mode, and activate offset mode.
Note that you can still adjust the curve, but you can see that the jitter motion is still on the channel.
If you don't want this, deactivate offset mode and adjust one of the tangent handles.
This will vaporize all of the jitter motion in the affected region, creating a pure spline curve again.
Congratulations. You've created your first curve in the Graph Editor.
[game sounds]