# keyframe animation Keyframing is the process of programming animation events in your [[layering and timeline|Layers and Timeline]]. It is how you make things happen over time. You will add keyframes where you want to program a step or action and the computer will animate the action from point to point for you. Every object and every layer in your timeline has a series of controls that can be revealed by unfolding the sections. Click on the little arrows to open things up. Anything that can be animated will have a little stopwatch icon. You will see that After Effects has a lot of things you can animate. ![[Pasted image 20221027104753.png]] ## the basic keyframing process The keyframing process is pretty straightforward… 1. In the Timeline at the top of the stack, there is a blue **Playhead** box a vertical line through spanning the stack. Grabbing and dragging that allows you to move across the frames. Set your Playhead at the place where you want a keyframe. 2. Find the effect or option in your Layers. Click the little **stopwatch** to let After Effects know you want to animate. 3. Notice that a little diamond has appeared in the grid indicating that there is a keyframe. To the left of the stopwatch there will now be a little diamond and some arrows. 4. Move the Playhead to a different point in the Timeline where you want to add another keyframe. 5. This is important: do **NOT** press the stopwatch again or you will remove all your keyframes. Instead, press the little diamond next to the stopwatch on the left side of layer/effect name. You will get a new keyframe on your Timeline. Adjust whatever changes you want to happen from the previous keyframe. 6. Repeat. ## adjust the timing and settings Press the **Spacebar** on your keyboard to preview your animation. Chances are, the actions will be close to what you want but the timing will be off. That’s OK. You can grab the keyframes in the Timeline and adjust them left or right to tweak when things happen. We call the first attempt a rough cut and it is meant to be tweaked. Build your first pass at the sequence and then spend time adjusting and refining. Keep going until your reach perfection or you run out of time or energy. When keyframing, you can get the basic actions programmed and then adjust timing. Simply click and drag the keyframe left or right as needed. In addition to adjusting timing, you can also tweak the settings however much you want. For example, if you are keyframing Scale and realize later on that something needs to be bigger or smaller, simply go to the keyframes and tweak the Scale numbers as needed. On the left side of the layer/option name is the keyframe diamond icon but also little arrows. Press those arrows to quickly jump from keyframe to keyframe. In this way you can quickly jump through your sequence and adjust settings. Once you have a basic keyframe sequence built, you can fine-tune your animation through [[graph animation]]. --- quick trick to retime an animation for when things are happening too fast or slow… 1. select all keyframes 2. hold **Alt** and **left-click-drag** end keyframe 3. rest of keyframes will scale --- Learn more… - <https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/after-effects-keyframe-types> - <https://www.schoolofmotion.com/blog/how-to-set-keyframes-after-effects> - <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYlzk7rfn0w> --- tags: #aftereffects #animation #resources home: [[! after effects]]