Quick Start: Your First Curve

This five-minute walkthrough applies a polished, fully procedural easing look to a simple animation using Marker-Driven mode — the recommended way to work.

Drop your first curve marker

1. Create a few keyframes on a property — say Position with two or three moves. Leave them as plain Linear keyframes.
2. In CurveConductor's Animate tab, pick a curve from the Curve: dropdown (start with Smooth Ease). Click the play button to preview its motion.
3. Confirm Velocity Match is set to Off (and that the Advanced section's Direct to Keys is unchecked, if you've expanded it).
4. Select the property (or its keyframes), then click Add Curve Marker.
5. CurveConductor builds the CurveConductor control layer automatically and drops a marker named after the curve. The curve now maps between every pair of keyframes.
6. RAM-preview. Your moves ease smoothly — driven by the curve, not the keyframe handles.

Iterate without re-keying

Select the control layer and press U to see the curve as a 0–100 slider. Open the ▼ Editor in the panel, reshape the curve, hit the check icon, and every animation referencing it re-times live — no need to touch your keyframes.

Change one segment's look

1. Move the playhead to (or just before) the segment you want to change.
2. Go to the Presets tab and confirm Marker Mode is on.
3. Click a different preset — for example Anticipate + Overshoot.
4. A new marker is added; from there forward, that segment (and the ones after it) use the new curve. The marker just needs to sit at or before the segment it should affect.

That's the whole loop: pick a curve → drop a marker → refine the curve. The next chapter unpacks Marker-Driven mode in full.