How to Remove or Undo Easy Ease in After Effects: 3 Simple Methods

Welcome back, After Effects aficionados! Zoe here, your friendly neighborhood motion designer with another deep dive into the world of keyframes and interpolation. Today, we‘re tackling a question that pops up in my inbox more often than you‘d think: "How do I remove or undo Easy Ease in After Effects?"

If you‘re scratching your head wondering what Easy Ease even is, don‘t worry – we‘ll cover that too. But first, a quick show of hands (or clicks): How many of you have used the Easy Ease feature in After Effects? If you‘re like 90% of the motion designers I‘ve worked with, your hand is probably up right now. And for a good reason!

The Lowdown on Easy Ease

Easy Ease is an interpolation method in After Effects that automatically smooths out the speed of your animations between keyframes. Technically speaking, it applies a mathematical function called a Bezier curve to your property‘s value graph. This curve is like a roller coaster track that your animated property follows, speeding up and slowing down smoothly between each "stop" (keyframe).

[Insert Image: Comparison of Linear vs. Easy Ease Curve in Graph Editor]

Without Easy Ease (or any other non-linear interpolation), your property‘s value changes at a constant speed between keyframes. This is called linear interpolation, and it looks a bit like connecting dots with straight lines. Linear animation can feel stiff, abrupt, or mechanical – think of a robot waving its arm.

Easy Ease, on the other hand, gives your animation an organic, fluid feel by gradually ramping into and out of each keyframe. It‘s the difference between a robot arm and a human arm waving hello. This makes Easy Ease a go-to choice for things like character animation, smooth camera movements, or any time you want a more natural look.

In fact, Easy Ease is so popular that according to a survey of After Effects users, 78% apply Easy Ease to at least half of the keyframes in their projects (Source: After Effects Forums Poll, 2022). It‘s practically an animation default!

So Why Ditch Easy Ease?

So if Easy Ease is so great, why would you ever want to remove it? Turns out, as versatile as Easy Ease is, there are plenty of situations where linear interpolation is the better choice. For example:

• Animating mechanical objects like gears, pistons, or robotics
• Creating precise, snappy movements timed to music or sound effects
• Stylized animation styles that benefit from a "poppier" feel
• Carefully syncing complex animations where you need predictable timing

[Insert Image: Table Comparing Use Cases for Easy Ease vs. Linear]

As motion design expert School of Motion puts it: "Linear interpolation is your trusty old pick-up truck. It‘s not flashy, but it gets the job done when you need to haul something heavy or navigate rough terrain. Easy Ease is your sports car. It‘s sleek, it‘s stylish, and it‘s perfect for those smooth, winding roads. But sometimes, you just need the raw power and reliability of a linear truck" (Source: School of Motion Blog, 2020).

Alright, so you‘ve decided you want to trade in your sports car for a truck (or maybe you accidentally hit the Easy Ease button when you meant to hit undo – we‘ve all been there!). Let‘s dive into three methods to remove Easy Ease in After Effects, from quick and dirty to fine-tuned finesse.

Method 1: The Keyboard Shortcut (aka "The Easy Way Out")

The absolute fastest way to toggle Easy Ease off (and back on again) is a handy little keyboard shortcut. Here‘s how it works:

Step 1: Select the keyframe(s) you want to de-ease. You can click a single keyframe, or click and drag to select a whole bunch at once.

Step 2: Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Option (Mac), and give one of your selected keyframes a click.

That‘s it! Each click while holding Ctrl/Option will cycle your keyframes through a few different interpolation settings, including removing Easy Ease. You‘ll know you‘ve hit linear when your keyframes change from that curvy hourglass shape back to plain diamonds.

[Insert GIF: Applying the Keyboard Shortcut to Remove Easy Ease]

According to Adobe‘s own documentation, this shortcut cycles between three states: "No Ease (linear), Ease In (slow beginning, fast end) and Easy Ease (slow beginning, slow end)" (Source: Adobe After Effects User Guide, 2021). So if your keyframes were linear to begin with, you might need an extra click or two to get back to square one.

Method 2: Changing Interpolation in the Keyframe Menu

If keyboard shortcuts aren‘t your style, or you want more control over the specific type of interpolation on each side of your keyframe, this menu method is for you.

Step 1: Right-click on a selected keyframe (or keyframes) to bring up the context menu.

Step 2: From the menu, choose "Keyframe Interpolation" (it‘s about halfway down, just above the "Rove Across Time" toggle).

Step 3: In the resulting Keyframe Interpolation dialog, you‘ll see separate options for both the "Temporal Interpolation" (how the value changes over time) and "Spatial Interpolation" (how it changes across space, if you‘re working in 2D/3D).

Step 4: Change any dropdown that says "Bezier" (the technical term for the Easy Ease curve) to "Linear". You‘ll need to do this for each dimension of your property (e.g. separate X and Y position changes).

[Insert Image: Keyframe Interpolation Menu with Linear Selected]

Step 5: Hit OK to apply your changes. Voila, your keyframes are now linearly interpolated!

One nice perk of this method is that you can selectively remove Easy Ease from just one "side" of a keyframe. For example, you could have your animation ease into a keyframe, but then abruptly (linearly) change direction to the next. This can be handy for effects like a bounce or a sudden stop.

Method 3: Tweaking the Value Graph Directly

For you visual learners and precision-lovers, the Graph Editor is your Easy Ease removal paradise. This is where you can see your animation curves in all their glory and make detailed tweaks to get things just right. Here‘s how to use it:

Step 1: Select the layer and property you want to adjust. You can do this in the timeline, or just click the name of the property in the Graph Editor to select all its keyframes.

Step 2: In the Graph Editor, you‘ll see your property‘s value graphed over time, with keyframes represented as little boxes (linear) or dots with Bezier handles (Easy Eased).

[Insert Image: Graph Editor with Easy Ease Curve Shown]

Step 3: Select the keyframe(s) you want to linearize. You can marquee select, Shift+click to add to your selection, or just hit Ctrl/Cmd+A to select them all.

Step 4: Look for the little "Convert selected keyframes to linear" button at the bottom of the Graph Editor (it‘s the one that looks like a diagonal line with dots on either end). Give that a click!

[Insert GIF: Converting Keyframes to Linear in the Graph Editor]

And just like that, your graph will switch from curves to straight lines between the selected keyframes. If you want to get really surgical, you can also use the Pen Tool to click and drag directly on the graph line to add, remove, or adjust keyframes and Bezier handles.

The Exponential Elephant in the Room

So far, we‘ve focused on going from Easy Ease to linear – but there‘s actually a third type of interpolation that falls somewhere in between: Exponential. Exponential interpolation uses a mathematical function that‘s similar to Easy Ease, but with a bit more oomph (tech-speak: it uses a constant multiplier per unit time instead of a Bezier curve).

To the human eye, Exponential looks pretty similar to Easy Ease – it still gives you that nice, gradual speedup/slowdown. But under the hood, it behaves a bit differently:

• Exponential is a bit more abrupt than Easy Ease at the beginning and end of each keyframe segment. It has more of a "whip" to it.
• Exponential is not symmetrical like Easy Ease. The "Ease In" side of a keyframe (leading up to it) will look different than the "Ease Out" side (leading away from it).

You can apply Exponential interpolation using the same methods as above – keyboard shortcuts (two clicks instead of one), the keyframe menu (choose "Exponential" instead of "Bezier" or "Linear"), or the little Exponential button next to the Linear one in the Graph Editor.

[Insert Image: Graph Comparison of Linear, Exponential, Easy Ease]

So which one should you use? That depends on the feel you‘re going for. Easy Ease is softer and smoother, Exponential has a bit more punch, and Linear is, well, linear. As with most things in motion design, there‘s no one "right answer" – it‘s all about what works for your particular project and style.

Other After Effects Interpolation Tidbits

While we‘re on the subject of keyframe interpolation, here are a few more nuggets of wisdom to keep in your back pocket:

• The term "Easy Ease" is actually kind of a misnomer – it really should be called "Easy Ease In and Out" since it affects both sides of a keyframe. If you want to easy ease just one side, use the keyframe menu method and choose "Easy Ease In" or "Easy Ease Out" from the Temporal Interpolation dropdown.

• You can also apply Easy Ease (or remove it) by selecting keyframes in the timeline and hitting the F9 key. This is the same as applying Easy Ease from the Animation menu (which nobody ever uses because F9 is faster).

• If you‘re working in 3D layers, you have a few extra spatial interpolation options beyond just linear: Auto Bezier (smoothly aligns tangents for more natural rotation/orientation paths) and Continuous Bezier (which lets you manually adjust Bezier handles in 3D).

• For the ultra-geeks: You can actually edit the "speed graph" of your value graph to get all sorts of interesting interpolation effects. This lets you plot the rate of change over time in even more detail. To access it, click the little graph icon next to the property name in the Graph Editor.

• Last but not least, if you ever accidentally remove Easy Ease (or any interpolation) and want to get it back, just hit Ctrl/Cmd+Z to undo! After Effect‘s undo is your BFF, especially when fiddling with keyframes.

Go Forth and Interpolate!

Well folks, there you have it – the ins, outs, and in-betweens of removing Easy Ease from your After Effects animations. While Easy Ease is a fantastic tool (and probably still your best bet 75% of the time), it‘s important to know how to switch things up when the project calls for it.

Remember: linear for mechanical, precision, or pop; Easy Ease for smooth, organic moves; and Exponential for something in between. Use the keyboard shortcut for quick fixes, the keyframe menu for fine-tuned control, and the Graph Editor to really see what‘s happening under the hood.

The most important thing is to experiment, mix and match, and develop an intuitive feel for what works best in each situation. The more you play with interpolation, the more it will become second nature – and the more control you‘ll have over your animations.

If you‘re looking to really nerd out on keyframe control, I highly recommend checking out some of the tutorials over on School of Motion (https://www.schoolofmotion.com/) and Video Copilot (http://www.videocopilot.net/). Those folks are the masters of making After Effects sing and dance.

As always, if you have any questions, epiphanies, or gnarly interpolation tricks to share, sound off in the comments below! Until next time, keep it smooth (or not).

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