About Keyframing

A keyframe is a point in time that records any change to a layer, light, camera, or Paint object. All these elements of your workspace can be broken down into categories, which are specific parameters that define the appearance of the layers or objects (such as size, position, or color). Layers and objects can have many different categories. In some cases, there are subsets of categories. These are called channels.

Note: In the Timeline, the word channel is used to refer to subsets of categories that you can animate. However, a channel also refers to the alpha channel or the RGB channels of an image.

When you animate the position of a layer or object, you do not simply animate the layer's position—you animate its position along the X-axis, the Y-axis, and the Z-axis. Position is a category; X position is a channel.

To make a layer or Paint object appear gradually over a span of two seconds, you have to make it fully transparent on the first frame, then move ahead two seconds into the video and make the layer fully opaque. Frames at which you set the opacity become keyframes. The opacity values for the frames between the keyframes are calculated automatically using interpolation, which creates smooth motion. To change the animation, go to the first or last keyframe and change the opacity for the layer. All in-between frames are recalculated automatically.