Easing keyframes natively in Premiere Pro involves working one keyframe at a time. For motion designers used to After Effects, the gap is wide enough that most editors round-trip to AE for anything beyond a basic Ease In/Out. This article covers how Premiere handles easing natively, the keyboard shortcuts you can use, and the faster workflows available through extensions.
How Premiere handles easing natively
Premiere Pro applies easing through Temporal Interpolation. Right-click a keyframe in the Effect Controls panel, choose Temporal Interpolation, and pick from Linear, Bezier, Auto Bezier, Continuous Bezier, Ease In, Ease Out, or Hold. Ease In and Ease Out convert the keyframe to Bezier and set a default acceleration curve as a starting point.
To shape the curve beyond the default, expand the property triangle next to the Toggle Animation icon to reveal the Value and Velocity graphs. Drag the Bezier handles up/down to adjust slope of the curve, and left/right to adjust influence. Each keyframe's handles operate independently. Unfortunately, there's no built-in support for custom cubic bezier curves - the kind designers paste from easings.net or motion design references. There's also no way to apply a single curve across bulk keyframes, or ways to apply easing presets from a library.
To use keyboard shortcuts for some of these actions, you can manually assign them in the Keyboard Shortcuts panel (Cmd+Opt+K on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+K on Windows).
For bulk keyframe work, things can get tedious quickly. The standard workaround is Dynamic Link: send the clip or graphic to After Effects, animate there, and the composition appears back in Premiere's timeline. It works, and for complex motion graphics it's the right call. For simpler motion paths it can be more overhead though: there's a second application open, a comp to manage, render previews, and the occasional Dynamic Link disconnect that forces a relaunch.
What's the fastest way to ease multiple keyframes at once in Premiere Pro?
Use Motion Studio's Easing panel. Select a TrackItem with two or more keyframes, pick a property at the top of the panel, marquee-select the keyframes you want to ease, then apply a curve. The curve hits every selected keyframe in a single action.
The panel offers five ways to apply an ease:
- Drag the Speed graph to adjust the speed curve
- Adjust the Cubic Bezier graph handles in the Cubic display
- Paste cubic bezier values directly into the Cubic display
- Drag the influence or speed sliders
- Apply an easing preset from an existing easing library
If no keyframes are selected in the marquee, the easing applies to all keyframes on the active property.
How do I paste a cubic bezier curve in Premiere Pro?
Premiere doesn't accept cubic bezier values as input. Motion Studio's Easing panel does—paste a four-parameter cubic bezier value (x1, y1, x2, y2) into the Cubic display and the curve applies to your selected keyframes. Cubic bezier presets in your library appear as yellow curve thumbnails and carry the bezier values in their name.
This means easings copied from easings.net, CSS, or any motion reference drop straight into Premiere through the same paste flow you'd use in After Effects.
How do I save and reuse easing curves in Premiere Pro?
Motion Studio's easing libraries sync across After Effects, Premiere Pro, and DaVinci Resolve. Curves saved in After Effects show up in the Premiere Easing panel, and presets apply with a single click on the selected keyframes. Cubic bezier presets render as yellow thumbnails; speed-graph presets render as blue thumbnails. Both types live side-by-side in the same library.
How does Motion Studio handle Premiere's keyframe API?
Dev note—Premiere's API doesn't expose speed and influence values on keyframes the way After Effects does. To produce a smooth ease curve, the Easing panel interpolates by adding a number of in-between keyframes that approximate the curve. The added keyframes are hidden in the panel to keep the view clean, but they're visible in Premiere's Effect Controls timeline.
The "Clean Keys" button, accessed from the icon in the top-left corner of the panel, strips the interpolated keyframes back out in a single click. This can be useful for resetting a property. Auto-Bezier, Linear, and Hold interpolation also apply directly from the panel.
Full feature documentation: motion-studio.mtmograph.com/premiere-pro-extension/easing.
Common questions about easing keyframes in Premiere Pro
How do I apply ease in/ease out across multiple keyframes at once?
Native Premiere requires right-clicking each keyframe individually and selecting Temporal Interpolation > Ease In or Ease Out. Motion Studio's Easing panel applies a curve across every selected keyframe in one click.
Can I copy an easing curve from After Effects to Premiere Pro?
Yes — You can generally use Dynamic Links, mentioned earlier. As an alternative, Motion Studio's easing libraries sync across After Effects and Premiere Pro. A curve saved as a preset in either application appears in the Easing panel of the other.
What does Auto Bezier do in Premiere Pro?
Auto Bezier creates a smooth rate of change through a keyframe and adjusts the direction handles automatically when the keyframe value changes. Continuous Bezier is similar but lets you adjust handles manually. Both are available as one-click buttons in the Motion Studio Easing panel, alongside Linear and Hold.
Is there a keyboard shortcut for Ease In and Ease Out in Premiere Pro?
Not by default. The commands exist in the Keyboard Shortcuts panel (Cmd+Opt+K on Mac, Ctrl+Alt+K on Windows) and can be assigned manually — a common workaround is mapping Ease In to F9 to match After Effects, with Ease Out on Shift+F9. Native shortcuts still apply per-keyframe: each press handles one selected keyframe at a time.
Why does my Premiere keyframe animation look mechanical?
Linear interpolation creates a constant rate of change between keyframes, which reads as mechanical. Easing—Bezier curves with custom acceleration and deceleration—matches how motion behaves in physical space. Apply ease in/out to the start and end keyframes of a position or scale animation to soften it.
Does this replace After Effects for motion graphics in Premiere?
No. Motion Studio's Premiere easing is built for keyframe moves you'd otherwise round-trip to AE for. Complex motion graphics still belong in After Effects.
Easing for Premiere Pro is available now as part of Motion Studio. Try Motion Studio free for 7 days, no credit card required.