What are keyframes in video editing?
Last updated 2026-10-20
A keyframe is a value you set at one moment in a clip, such as its position, size or opacity. The editor works out every value in between, so two keyframes are enough to slide a logo in or slowly grow a photo. Easing decides whether the change runs at a steady rate or speeds up and slows down.
A value at a time
Think of a keyframe as a pin on the timeline. At 0 seconds you pin opacity at 0 percent. At 1 second you pin it at 100 percent. The editor fills in every frame between the pins, and the clip fades in. Apple describes Final Cut Pro as calculating the setting's value between keyframes to create smooth motion.
The word comes from animation, where only the key frames of a sequence were drawn first. Apple's guide says you need at least two keyframes in a clip to animate a setting: one where the change starts and one where it ends. Adobe calls keyframes anchor points that mark where an action starts and ends.
| Effect | First keyframe | Second keyframe |
|---|---|---|
| Fade in | 0 s, opacity 0% | 1 s, opacity 100% |
| Slide in | 0 s, off the left edge | 0.5 s, resting position |
| Slow zoom | 0 s, size 100% | 10 s, size 115% |
Easing: how the change is shaped
Without easing, a value changes at a constant rate. That is called linear, and it looks mechanical: the item starts at full speed and stops dead. Easing bends the rate so the change starts slowly, ends slowly, or both.
Adobe lists three interpolation types: linear, hold, and Bezier or ease. Final Cut Pro offers Linear, Ease, Ease In and Ease Out for its effect curves. Ease In starts slowly and accelerates toward the end value. Ease Out starts quickly and slows toward it.
As a rule of thumb, let things that arrive settle by slowing at the end, and let things that leave speed up as they go. For a slow zoom, a steady rate usually reads best. Woven names its five easings like this.
| Name | What it does |
|---|---|
| Smooth | Starts slowly and ends slowly. This is the default |
| Steady | A constant rate from one keyframe to the next |
| Speed up | Starts slowly and accelerates |
| Slow down | Starts quickly and slows toward the end |
| Jump | Holds the value, then switches at the next keyframe |
What you can animate
Any property with a value can carry keyframes. Adobe's examples are anchor point, position, scale, rotation and opacity: where an item sits, how big it is, how it is turned and how see-through it is.
Woven covers position, size, rotation and opacity, plus color, blur and mask, but not everything. Keyframes move with the clip, and they stay with it when you change its speed. Speed itself is one value per clip, so it cannot ramp.
| Item | Can be keyframed | Cannot be keyframed |
|---|---|---|
| Video and image clips | Position X, Position Y, Size, Rotation, Opacity, Color, Blur and Mask | Crop, aspect, fit, corners, border, shadow and speed |
| Text | Position, Size, Rotation and Opacity | Text color, font size and box width |
| Captions, audio and effects | Nothing | All of it |
Common uses
Most keyframe work comes down to four jobs.
- Slide in a logo or title. Set Position X so the item starts past the edge of the canvas and ends at its resting spot, and ease it so it settles. Woven lets pictures sit partly off the canvas.
- Slow zoom. Two Size keyframes, 100 percent at the start and a little more at the end, with Steady easing. This is the basis of the Ken Burns effect.
- Follow a subject. Keyframes do not track anything. You move the clip, or a mask, by hand and add a keyframe each time the subject has moved. Woven has no motion tracking, and a mask moves only with keyframes.
- Change color or blur over time. Bring Saturation down across a few seconds to drift into black and white, or animate Blur from heavy to none so a shot sharpens into focus.
Add keyframes in Woven
Keyframes belong to the clip and show on the timeline. A video clip's Animation tab shows only keyframes, because video has no In, Out or Loop presets. Image and text clips have presets as well. Easing is set per keyframe, and you can ask for the same motion in chat.
Ask in chat
- Slide the logo in from the left over half a second and slow down as it lands.
- Fade the second clip to black and white across three seconds.
- Zoom slowly into the photo for its whole length at a steady rate.
Or do it by hand
- 1Select and park. Click the video, image or text on the timeline and move the playhead to where the motion should start.
- 2Add the first keyframe. Press Add in the Animation tab, click Keyframe in the toolbar, or press ⌥K.
- 3Add the second. Move the playhead to where the motion ends and add another keyframe. Set the value you want there, for example by dragging the clip on the canvas or changing Size.
- 4Set the easing. Right-click the second keyframe on the timeline and choose Easing, then pick Smooth, Steady, Speed up, Slow down or Jump. Easing sets how the motion arrives at that keyframe, so it does nothing on the first one.
- 5Play it and tidy up. Press Space to watch it. Right-click a keyframe and choose Delete Keyframe, or right-click the clip and choose Remove Animation to start again.
Common questions
A keyframe is a value set at a chosen time in a clip, such as position, size or opacity. The editor calculates the values between keyframes.
It is animation made by setting keyframes at the start and end of a change and letting the editor fill the frames between them.
Two: one where the change starts and one where it ends. Apple's Final Cut Pro guide says you need at least two in a clip to animate a setting.
Linear changes at a constant rate. Easing makes the change start slowly, end slowly or both. In Woven, linear is called Steady.
Not on their own. You place each keyframe by hand. Woven has no motion tracking, so a mask or a clip follows a subject only as far as you keyframe it.
No. Speed is one value per clip, so there are no speed ramps. Split the clip if you want different parts at different speeds.
Sources
- Intro to video keyframing in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
- Adjust effect curves in Final Cut Pro for Mac - Apple Support, checked October 19, 2026
- Keyframing animation - Adobe, checked October 19, 2026
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