Key frame
|
In animation, a key frame is a frame in an animated sequence of frames that was drawn or otherwise constructed directly by the user. When all frames were drawn by animators, the senior artist would draw these frames, leaving the "in between" frames to an apprentice. Now, the animator creates only the first and last frames of a simple sequence; the computer fills in the gap. This is called tweening.
In video compression, a key frame is a frame encoded without reference to any images in another frame. It is often followed by one or more inter frames which are calculated from the preceding key frame.
In non-linear digital video editing, a key frame is a frame used to indicate the beginning or end of a change made to the signal. For instance, a key frame could be set to indicate the point at which audio will have faded up or down to a certain level.
- This article was originally based on material from the Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, which is licensed under the GFDL.