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Troubleshooting

Sometimes the motion wobbles or jerks unpleasantly and unexpectedly so it pays to understand what's going on and where to correct it.

Kinky Motion through Space. Look at your Layer Window and change the magnification to see your Anchor Point path up close. The line represents the path of the Anchor Point through space.

Problem: If you've been playing with the path or have added another keyframe (I inserted a 3rd keyframe to demonstrate), the motion may pick up an odd wobble, especially at the beginning or end. After Effects is trying to do the thinking for you and may have decided to pretty up your arc by adding a little back-curve to give you an S-shape. Enlarging the layer view will help you see it.

Solution: Select the Anchor Point, then (in the Layer Window) grab the end of the control handle and swing it in the opposite direction till the little spit-curl is gone and your curve is unkinked. The screenshots below show before and after. For more info, check Help for Keyframe Interpolation > Spatial Interpolation, as well as how to manage Bezier curves.

Jerky Motion over Time. Now look at your Timeline and twirl down the Anchor Point. The arc you see shows the speed of the motion through time. (If you twirl down Scale, the arc represents the velocity of the scaling process, also through time.) Timeline, time, get it?

Problem: If you start adding keyframes to do something artsy with the pacing, you can cause a herky-jerky mess. It pays to study up on your Temporal Interpolation methods if you want to get fancy. But say I can't leave well enough alone. I want the action faster at the outset, but lingering toward the end.

Solution: See those blue control handles at the beginning and end of your speed arc? Without pulling them up or down, make the first one shorter and the last one longer (see before and after below). Voila. This will get you far. The final movie uses the "after" configuration below.

Results

 Summary

In theory, panning and zooming are easy. Know what you want to say. Open a second window to mind your Anchor Point motion. Use a pair of keyframes (Anchor Point, Scale) to establish your beginning. Then add another pair to fix your stop. Add ease.

In practice, you can make a mess. Gaining some mastery over space and time curves is essential.

Feedback

Did you try this? Did it work for you? Let me know if you have any suggestions.

Resources

The best resource I've found on this topic is the Bonus Tutorial #2 in Creating Motion Graphics with After Effects by Trish and Chris Meyer.

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11.8.05 (revised 4.28.08)

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