# Is there a way to make smooth interpolated motion with the graph editor?

I do animating entirely manually, sometimes 1 frame by 1 frame. Then, I discovered the graph editor and thought it might possibly have some use, though I have yet to see how.

Suppose I make a basic animation of a cube moving in a diamond-like shape. Is there an easy way to use the graph editor to turn that diamond motion into circular motion so that the cube now looks like it is orbiting something? Because otherwise, even if you add extra frames manually, it will still look jagged, just a little bit less so.

• maybe it's possible but why wouldn't you use a Follow Path constraint to make your object follow a bezier circle? – moonboots Jan 25 at 8:22
• or parent to a Circle and animate that. – rob Jan 25 at 11:02
• I don't think any of you read the post. Firstly I asked about the graph editor. Secondly, this is about more than a basic circle, this is about a technique that can be applied to any animation using a circle only as a basic goal to illustrate the technique clearly. – Vane Voe Jan 25 at 16:40
• I often find it more effective to manually keyframe animation or emulate physics than use built in features, particularly when modifiers or physics are going to interfere with possible future additions. The Graph editor is ideal for this. It is arguably one of Blender's most powerful animation features. The behavior such as speed, location, central animation origin points, and interpolation between keyframes is easily manipulated and can end up precisely to your liking. Playing with curves and their shapes give you power over how objects behave which can be most useful for comedy. – Edgel3D Jan 25 at 23:03
• A couple of examples - blender.stackexchange.com/questions/109883/… blender.stackexchange.com/questions/99821/… – Edgel3D Jan 25 at 23:10

Here I've set a sine modifier on both the X and Y channels with Phase Offset on the X channel of $$\frac{\pi}{2}$$ (or 90°). The Amplitude and Phase Multiplier are only set in order to match the example from above.