Keyframe Animation
A keyframe is a value pinned to a frame. Set two of them and the editor animates everything in between. You can key transform, crop, text, effect, and audio values.
Where to work
| Surface | Keyframe workflow |
|---|---|
| Edit | Select a clip and press K to add a key for its active property. Open Animation in Properties for presets and applied status. |
| Motion | Expand a layer for property rows, keyframe diamonds, segment easing, and an inline value graph. |
In Motion, the playhead, selection, snapping, ruler, property lanes, and graph all share one time axis.
Add a keyframe
- Move the playhead to the frame you want to key.
- Type a value next to a parameter and press
Enter, or click the diamond on the parameter row. - Move to another frame and set a second value to create motion between them.
- Turn on auto-key with the timer icon, or press
A, to capture later changes automatically.
You cannot add a keyframe inside a transition region, or with the playhead outside the clip bounds. The diamond is disabled there.
What you can animate
| Clip type | Animatable values |
|---|---|
| All visual clips | X and Y position, width, height, rotation, opacity, corner radius |
| Video | Adds anchor point, the four crop edges, crop softness, and volume |
| Text | Adds preset scale, font size, line height, padding, background radius, shadow, and stroke |
| Audio | Volume in decibels |
Effects contribute their own animatable parameters. Look for the keyframe toggle beside each slider.
Shape the motion
- Click the connector between two keyframes to open the easing editor.
- Browse preset curves under Cubic Easing and Spring, filtered by All, In, Out, or In-Out.
- Choose Hold to keep the earlier value until the next key.
- Switch to Edit to shape the curve directly: drag the two control handles, or type exact values. Springs expose tension, friction, and mass, and preview their real bounce.
- Feel the timing on Position, Scale, Rotate, or Opacity in the live preview, and Pause the loop.
- Save a tweaked curve as a custom preset with Save As, Update it later, or Reset it back to the preset it came from. Custom presets are stored in your browser and appear in every project there.
- Copy, cut, paste, and delete keyframes, marquee-select groups, drag to retime, and
Alt-drag to duplicate.
Work in the value graph
- Pick a property from the dropdown to edit its curve, or leave it on all to see the others as faded overlays. The keyframe count for the active property shows beside it.
- The graph draws a labelled grid, frames or seconds across and values up, so you can read positions at a glance.
- Frame the curve with Fit to content, or nudge the view with Zoom in and Zoom out. Reset view returns to the default fit.
- Step through keys with the previous and next arrows, then type an exact frame (F) and value (V) for the selected keyframe.
- While dragging a keyframe, hold Shift to lock it to one axis, or Alt to fine-adjust.
Convert and clean generated motion
Live behaviors such as drift, breath, shake, and spin evaluate during playback without creating property keys.
- Choose Bake to keyframes to convert live layer behaviors into editable keys.
- Use Applied to jump to manual keys or to a generated preset's first frame.
- Use Trim animation when a clip trim leaves stored keys outside its visible duration.