Animating with the Channel Editor > Animation > Editing Keyframes >

# Modifying the Shape of an Animation Curve

You can modify the shape of an animation curve by rotating its keyframe tangent handles to control the smoothness and speed of the animation.

To rotate a keyframe's tangent handles:

1. Select a channel or group of keyframes.
2. From the Curve Functions box in the Keyframe tab, select Tangent R to rotate each right tangent handle or Tangent L to rotate each left handle.
   NoteTangent R and Tangent L only work on curves and keyframes that use Bézier, Hermite, or Natural interpolation. See Setting Interpolation.
3. Enter a value in the Curve Value field.

   A negative value rotates each tangent counter-clockwise. A positive value rotates each tangent clockwise.

   The tangent handle first breaks into two and then the handles are rotated.

   The following example shows the results of applying Tangent L with a rotation value of 36 to the keyframes of an entire curve. No keyframes were broken before Tangent L was applied.

   (a) The Hermite curve before applying Tangent L. Note that none of the keyframes are broken.

   (a) The same Hermite curve after applying Tangent L of 36. A break is applied to all keyframes before the tangents are rotated.