Keyframe Animation Basics

Keyframe animation changes object properties over time by placing keyframes on the Timeline. At each keyframe, Foxel stores a value for a specific property. Between keyframes, Foxel interpolates those values to create motion or other animated changes.

Why This Matters

Keyframe animation becomes much easier once you stop thinking of it as drawing motion frame by frame. Instead, you define important values at specific frames and let Foxel calculate the change between them.

What keyframe animation is

Keyframe animation changes object properties over time by placing keyframes on the Timeline.

At each keyframe, Foxel stores a value for a specific property.

Between those keyframes, Foxel interpolates the values to create motion or other animated changes.

Key concepts

Keyframes

Keyframes define values at specific frames.

For example, you can set one keyframe for an object's starting position and another for its ending position.

Channels

Each animatable property is represented by a channel.

Common examples include:

• position
• rotation
• scale

A channel holds the keyframes for that one property.

Interpolation

Interpolation defines how Foxel transitions between keyframes.

This is what turns two stored values into visible motion or gradual change over time.

Why use keyframe animation

Keyframe animation is useful when you want to animate motion or property changes without editing every frame manually.

It works especially well for:

• moving objects
• rotating parts
• camera animation
• changing render settings over time
• similar property-based animation tasks

How to think about it

A simple way to think about keyframe animation is:

• choose the property you want to animate
• define important values at important frames
• let Foxel handle the transition between them

That is the core idea behind the whole workflow.

What To Remember

• keyframe animation changes object properties over time
• keyframes store values at specific frames
• channels belong to individual animatable properties
• interpolation controls the transition between keyframes
• keyframe animation is useful when you do not want to edit every frame manually