October 21

Video Editing Techniques- Keyframe Animation

MANUALLY ADDING KEY FRAMES IN VIDEO EDITING

Key frame animation is simple to do, and it will greatly enhance the quality of your finished videos. Done during the editing phase of video production, key frame animation allows you to do all kinds of effects, like making your video elements grow, move, or spin.

screen capture video editing key frame
In this screen capture image from Premiere Pro, you can see how key frames will display while you are editing. The key frame icon is the little white diamond shape that you can see to the right of the word “direction.”  The jagged line graph below that shows how the parameter of direction changes along with the key frame markings.  

 

Key frame animation is essentially a basic form of 2-D animation.  The key frame is simply a marked frame giving specific values for how the element should function and appear at that exact frame.  The values are different at every key frame, so the change happens in between each key frame.  Key framing can be done for a variety of metrics.

  • Virtually any aspect of your video that can be altered during editing can be key framed, which will make those values change over time. 

In other words, since size is an aspect of the video you can change, you can key frame size and make your video element grow (or shrink) from one size to another.  Key framing is a way to achieve 2-Dimensional movements and effect alterations. You can key frame changes in filters too.

To use a key frame, first add the key frame to the frame you wish.  This is where your change will begin.  Then add a second key frame where you want the change to be complete.  Put in the proper values at each key frame.  The program will do the rest and render the change.
Watch this brief tutorial for a video demonstration.

As simple as it is to do, key framing is considered an advanced technique. You need a fairly sophisticated program in order to do it. Not all video editing software will let you do manual key framing.

However, when those programs provide you with pre animated graphics, key frames have already been used.  It’s just that you have no manual control.

You don’t have manual control over key frames in free video editing programs like Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, but you can do it in a medium level program like Sony Vegas.

Once you get some practice with key framing, you will wonder how you ever got along without it. I use key framing all the time, much more often than wipes and other transitions.

For specific information on KEYFRAMES IN VIDEO EDITING in Premiere Pro

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula

lorraine grula drawing


Tags

how to do keyframe animation, how to manually add keyframes, keyframes video editing, keyframing, simple video animation, Video Editing, video editing techniques, video editing techniques keyframing


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