Setting keyframes for animation

Setting keyframes and editing curves are at the core of computer animation, but what are they?

What are keyframes and curves in computer animation?

You probably already know that traditional film animation is a series of drawings with small changes, but when you play it back in sequence fast enough, it creates the illusion that the things in the series of drawings are moving/animating.

In traditional animation, the animation artists had to draw every single frame. So, if the frame rate was 24 frames per second, the artists had to draw 24 pictures for every 1 second of animation.

Note

Animation frames are normally talked about in frames per second (fps). If an animation is 24 fps, it just means a second is divided into exactly 24 equal parts and when played back at regular speed, each consecutive frame is displayed for 1/24th of a second before displaying the next one. This (24 fps) is very much an old film frame rate since, at 24 fps,...