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What is a keyframe in animation

Keyframes are essential in animation as they serve as control points that define the start and end of movements, allowing animators to create smooth transitions without drawing every frame. There are four main types of keyframes: Linear, Auto Bezier, Continuous Bezier, and Hold, each offering different effects and levels of control over the animation. The use of keyframes enhances animation quality, speeds up the process, and simplifies editing, making it a crucial technique in modern animation practices.

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k.a.praneshprasath2005
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1 views

What is a keyframe in animation

Keyframes are essential in animation as they serve as control points that define the start and end of movements, allowing animators to create smooth transitions without drawing every frame. There are four main types of keyframes: Linear, Auto Bezier, Continuous Bezier, and Hold, each offering different effects and levels of control over the animation. The use of keyframes enhances animation quality, speeds up the process, and simplifies editing, making it a crucial technique in modern animation practices.

Uploaded by

k.a.praneshprasath2005
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is a keyframe in

animation?
The key to any animation is animated movement - the clue’s in the
name. And to achieve this, animators use keyframes to guide the
movement between two different images or illustrations.

Why are keyframes important?


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Animators use keyframes as their control points. Rather than creating the
movement themselves, drawing it out bit by bit, they break down their
planned animation in terms of a number of start and end points. For example,
rather than thinking that they want an animation of a cat (can you tell I’m a
cat person?) that moves around a room. They approach the animation process
with a series of start and end points in mind. It’s a completely different
approach to animation - you have to put a lot of trust in the computer! But,
the benefits of this modern, tech-aided approach are fantastic.
‍
The top 6 reasons why keyframes are important (and incredibly useful!) are:

1. They achieve a higher quality of animation. Keyframes produce sleek


animated movements, while minimising the risk of any clunkiness or
jolting movements (which can arise if the drawings used contain any
slight differences).
2. They make the process far quicker. Rather than having to draw
hundreds or thousands of individual frames, the animator only has to
create a handful of keyframes - their workload is just a fraction of the
amount!
3. It’s far easier for the animator to keep track of the animation. When the
animator overviews the keyframes, this allows them to immediately see
where they are currently at in the animating process (rather than having
to follow individual drawings one by one, and calculate what needs to
be drawn next).
4. They provide the best of both worlds for hand-drawn animations. This
process maximises speed, without losing the charming, personal effect
that makes hand-drawn animations so popular.
5. They facilitate a huge range of animated movements. Keyframes and
animation software can be used to create a vast array of different
movements, bringing any idea to life quickly, to a highly professional
finish.
6. Changes are a lot easier to make. If you want to change a movement,
give the animation a different change of course, or another feature, this
editing stage is infinitely easier, as you only need to tweak a couple of
keyframes (rather than 100 individual frames, one by one).

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4 different kinds of keyframes in animation


There are 4 main types of keyframes used in animation. The main differences
between each of these keyframe interpolations are the appearance and effect
of the movement that they create. Below, we’ll name these 4 different kinds
of keyframe animation, and explain the specific effects that each one
achieves.
‍

Linear
Linear keyframes are the most basic form of keyframe animation. They
create a very simple, straight movement between two keyframes. The change
between the two keyframes occurs at a uniform speed, in one single
direction. An example of a linear keyframe would be moving a word across a
screen. The word could move (for example) from the right to the left of the
page, at an even speed, following a straight line, without the word changing
in style or pace. As you can imagine, this kind of animation isn’t very
attention-grabbing. So, it’s not often seen in animations created by
professional animators (they tend to exhibit their skills in more dynamic
animation styles).

Auto Bezier
While linear keyframes are known for their more uniform, mechanical
movements, Auto Bezier keyframes allow for a far smoother transition
between two keyframes. With a few clicks, animators can convert a linear
keyframe into an Auto Bezier keyframe. When this is requested, the software
will generate and introduce curves to the keyframe transition. These curves
give the moving image a smoother movement, making it a lot more pleasing
to watch.
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Continuous Bezier
As you can see, there are two types of bezier keyframes - Auto Bezier and
Continuous Bezier. ‘Bezier’ indicates that the animator has control of the
movement curve between the two keyframes. They can adjust both the value
graphs and the motion path of the moving image.
While Auto Bezier keyframing is created automatically, Continuous Bezier
keyframes give animators full manual control. Using this keyframe
technique, the animator will be able to give the animation a far softer, more
natural movement. The animator can also vary the movement throughout the
transition, making the movement far more realistic. For example, if the
animation was of a frog snapping its tongue forward, then the animator can
make the first part of the movement faster than the second half, as the frog’s
tongue lands on its target.
‍

Hold
Basically, a hold keyframe keeps the illustration on hold. It freezes the
chosen illustration in place, until the end of that keyframe sequence. Then,
movement resumes when the next transition starts. This animation technique
can be used to create a number of effects, including freezing the animation,
giving the reader a moment to read a piece of text, or giving a more jumpy
style to the animation.
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