keyframe

English

Alternative forms

• key frame

Etymology

From key +‎ frame.

Noun

keyframe (plural keyframes)

1. A single frame in an animation sequence drawn by an artist, between which others are tweened.
   • 2013, Chris Georgenes, How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS6: The Art of Design and Animation:

     Lightning is a very quick and simple animation technique that can easily be overanimated. Don't try and animate the lightning bolt into the frame by building it up over a sequence of keyframes.

2. (computer graphics) A complete video frame, used as a reference for subsequent interframes in video compression.

Synonyms

• (complete video frame): reference frame, intraframe

Related terms

• interframe
• I-frame
• B-frame
• P-frame

Translations

a single frame in an animation

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 鍵架 / 键架 (zh) (jiànjià)

• Finnish: avainpiirros (fi)
• French: image clé (fr)
• Portuguese: quadro-chave m, fotograma-chave m

complete frame used as a reference for interframes

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 關鍵格 / 关键格 (guānjiàngé), 鍵架 / 键架 (zh) (jiànjià)

• Finnish: avainkuva, avainruutu
• French: image clé (fr) f
• Portuguese: quadro-chave m

Verb

keyframe (third-person singular simple present keyframes, present participle keyframing, simple past and past participle keyframed)

1. To animate by interpolation between successive keyframes.