Curve editor

Overview

The Curve editor is a small editor displayed inside the Nodegraph panel of the particle editor.
It is used to edit curves from the curve node:
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Interface

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  1. Freeze/Unfreeze 'X' curve

  2. Freeze/Unfreeze 'Y' curve if curve dimension >= 2

  3. Freeze/Unfreeze 'Z' curve if curve dimension >= 3

  4. Freeze/Unfreeze 'W' curve if curve dimension >= 4

  5. Selected keyframe time, can be edited directly

  6. Selected control-point position, can be edited directly

  7. Selected left tangent value, can be edited directly

  8. Selected right tangent value, can be edited directly

  9. Loop mode. synchronizes the begin/end control-points of the curve (positions+tangents)

  10. Toggle extended curve infos display ( #29 )

  11. Open color-picker if spline dimension >= 3

  12. Cursor X coordinates (time)

  13. Cursor Y coordinates (value)

  14. Frame the entire curve in the current view

  15. Show curve derivative

  16. Show curve integral

  17. Open settings

  18. Horizontal axis (time), at value = 0

  19. Vertical axis (control-point value), at time = 0

  20. Time axis at value = 1.0

  21. Value axis at time = 1.0

  22. 'X' Curve.

  23. 'Y' Curve. (only appears if spline dimension >= 2)

  24. 'Z' Curve. (only appears if spline dimension >= 3) (frozen in the screenshot)

  25. 'W' Curve. (only appears if spline dimension >= 4)

  26. Left tangent handle

  27. Selected control-point

  28. Right tangent handle

  29. Extended curve infos

  30. RGB color, if spline dimension >= 3

  31. Pure RGB color tint, without intensity, if spline dimension >= 3.

  32. Alpha color

Context menu (right click)

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  1. Change curve interpolation (Spline / Linear)

  2. Change curve dimension: Switches between 1D, 2D, 3D, or 4D curves.

  3. Swap curve channels (ex: swap X and Z channels)

  4. Delete selected points

  5. Subdivide curve: adds a new control point between each existing control points

  6. Decimate curve: removes all unnecessary control points

  7. Reset tangents of selected control points

  8. Snap selected control points of each curve dimensions

  9. Open color-picker if curve dimension >= 3

Controls Basics

Select and move curve nodes.
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You can select nodes by clicking on with left mouse button, or with a rectangle selection. Then move the selected nodes by drag and drop them

Adjust tangents.
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You can adjust tangents by dragging the tangent handle.
Note that when moving one of the two tangents, it will adjust the other one to keep the curve smooth. If you want to break the curve and edit then freely, you’ll need press the 'Ctrl' key.

Controls (defaults)

Keys

Action

[Alt] + [LeftMouseButton]

subdivide curve under the mouse cursor. Move the cursor while clicked to immediately move the control-point(s)

[Alt] + [Shift] + [LeftMouseButton]

create control-point under the mouse cursor. Move the cursor while clicked to immediately move the control-point(s)

[c]

open color-picker for selected keyframes

[Ctrl] + [e]

frames all curves

[del] / [suppr]

remove selected keyframe

[MouseScrollWheel]

zoom in/out

[Ctrl] + [MouseScrollWheel]

faster zoom in/out

[MiddleMouseButton] + drag mouse

pan view

[Ctrl] + [MiddleMouseButton] + drag mouse

nonuniform scale view

[x]

toggle 'X' curve

[y]

toggle 'Y' curve

[z]

toggle 'Z' curve

[w]

toggle 'W' curve

[Shift] + move keyframe

lock to an axis while moving keyframe