Choosing a Keyframing Method

As you learned earlier in this chapter, you can animate any effect using a process called keyframing. In general, there are two methods for keyframing an effect property: rubberbanding, and in the Effect Controls window. Although you can switch among keyframing methods freely, you’ll find that each is better suited for certain types of effects.

Opacity and volume in the property graph

Rubberbanding (adjusting keyframes in a clip’s property graph in the timeline) is ideal for making adjustments to opacity and volume values—not only because this approach is time-tested and familiar to many users, but because these values are easy to understand in graph form (Figure 10.8). When the graph goes up, the opacity or volume value increases; when the graph goes down, the value decreases. Properties like rotation, for instance, don’t translate well to a vertical graph (and others don’t translate at all). Moreover, adjusting opacity and volume requires only a single property graph, whereas motion effects and many filters include several parameters you need to adjust.