reference materialAfter Effects Motion Sketch and Smoother by Eric Bintner
These techniques together produce a more organic motion in After Effects with the fewest keyframes. Motion Sketch works in real-time by placing a sequence of keyframes in the work area of the composition via input from the mouse (in other words - Drag the object around and AE will remember the motion.) Smoother simply removes redundant keyframes.
First, open an image in the composition and set the work area to the area that you want motion sketch to affect. (illustration 1)	illustration 1
Then, from the window menu, open Motion Sketch. (illustration 2) Select an property from the timeline to be affected (such as position, opacity, etc...) and click "Start Capture" button on the Motion Sketch window (illustration 3). Motion Capture will begin capturing when you begin moving the layer. Move the layer using your mouse in the way you wish the motion to be recreated. Capturing at 100% works for most uses, but 50% works great a for slow motion type effect, and likewise 200% creates a faster, less fluid motion.	illustration 2	illustration 3
Afterwards, you may notice, there is a series of key frames across the work area (illustration 4). Many of these are unnecessary. Open The Smoother from the window menu and highlight the series of keyframes. illustration 4
With all the keyframes highlighted (illustration 5), simply click apply (the preset is usually ok, but you can play around with the tolerance to fine tune the number of keyframes eliminated). This removes the excess keyframes. illustration 5
After using the smoother, the number of keyframes should be reduced. illustration 6 illustration 6
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