Ease functions are important for interpolation of just about anything. Popular functions are “smoothstep” or “ease in” and “ease out”. This images shows what they look like for x[0,1] and y[0,1]:
(Plotted using Fooplot)
There are other popular functions for ease in and ease out, e.g. y=sin(x*PI/2) resp. y=1-cos(x*PI/2).
What is important about those functions is if they’re C1– and/or C2-continuous when you want to combine functions. C1-continuity means that the first derivative or the tangent of the function is the same for x=0 and x=1, meaning you can piece together two of the curves and there are no sudden changes or jumps for y. C2-continuity means that the second derivative or how the tangent changes is the same.
y=sin(x*PI/2) and y=1-cos(x*PI/2) are not C1-continuous, but you can use them to start/end a linear interpolation for example.
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