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Cookin' with Keyframes

Simple editing is like warming up a can of soup: just drop a couple shots on a timeline and voila! But a master chef uses the tricks of the trade to embellish a video.

The keyframe is both extremely simple and extremely complicated at the same time. Perhaps it is a bit like cooking. You take something edible, apply heat and it's cooked - simple. But then, when you realize the myriad ingredients and the uncountable variations in which you can join, prepare and cook them, the very thought of making a meal can seem overwhelming. Or perhaps boundless choices excite you as a cook or editor, your imagination being your only limitation. Let's take a can opener to keyframes and see what we can cook up.

Mixing It Up

Although maybe not the most appetizing way to begin, let's start with an explanation. In its simplest form, a keyframe is a set of exact values at a specific point in time. If I were "keyframed" right now, at 2:24pm on Saturday, I would be typing on my computer, both hands on the keyboard, sitting in a chair. If at 2:26pm I am in the same position, the exact values at that different time would be the same. But say at 2:26pm, two minutes later, I was standing five feet from my computer turning on the stereo. The "keyframe" or set of values for 2:26 is different from those at 2:24. I am now standing, I am five feet from my last location, and my body is engaged in a different action.

Let's look at another analogy that will help us later. You have just finished an epic cross-country bike ride from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. You left San Francisco and pedaled south to Death Valley, then across to Lake Powell, Utah; sweated your way over to Four Corners; crossed three more states to St. Louis; continued on to West Virginia, where you took a break from cycling for some whitewater rafting; and finally headed on to New York City. After the saddlesore pain wore off, you put a map of the USA on your wall and stuck a pushpin in each location you visited. Then you attached red yarn from your first pin in San Francisco to your second pin, third and so forth until you tied it off in New York City. The pins are a great representation of keyframes. The yarn represents something called rubber banding, which we will get to …