6 Keyframe Design Tips You Need To Learn Now

Keyframe design is very important in both film and animation. It is a conceptual illustration of a “key scene” in a script that conveys the feel, style, or appearance of a particular scene. Keyframes are seen as important moments in a story, usually drawn by storyboard artists. Because of their importance, they are further developed into concept illustrations that set the tone for animation and film.

If you want to do a good job of keyframing, you need to pay attention to the following points.

1. Studying more other films and animations

If you want to do a good keyframe design, you’d better study the film composition as well as the visual representation. This gives you a better understanding of how to serve the overall story in the film and animation.

2. Elements and principles of composition

In order to design keyframes and show them in the best possible way, we need to understand the composition elements of keyframe design. For more information on this part, you can refer to 4 Art Composition Design Tips.

3. Knowing the Aspect Ratio

You need to know the size of each composition. Then put your concept settings into this planar range. The width and height of the frame are called the aspect ratio. Some of the more commonly used aspect ratios are

⦁ 1:85:1 ( Flat)

⦁ 2:39:1 ( Scope)

⦁ 16:9 ( Quad HD)

4. The balance of the key frames

This depends largely on how you place the light and how you resize the objects in the frame. The sense of balance in key frames affects the viewer’s perception of the subject. When objects in the frame are placed evenly, it makes the composition feel balanced. For example, an unbalanced composition may be one in which the focal point points to only one area of the frame, accompanied by confusion, chaos and tension.

5. The focal point of the frame

The focal point of the frame or the center of interest in the composition is the easiest for the viewer to notice. So, you have to focus on the design. The focal point can include one or more subjects.

6. Adding Depth to Keyframes

By adding depth-of-field and depth cues, you can increase interest in the two-dimensionality of the frame to produce a believable three-dimensional space. The relative size it cues is based on the idea that two objects are the same size, and by seeing the smaller object, this will be perceived as farther away, thus creating the illusion of depth.

Of course, if you are not proficient enough in keyframe design, I suggest you’d better find a teacher to learn.

Wingfox is a learning platform for many artists and art lovers. You can learn many practical and interesting skills here. For example, today we talked about keyframing skills, and you can learn this tutorial to improve your keyframe design skills.

In this tutorial: Advanced Environment and Keyframe Design_Blender+Photoshop, the concept artist/art director Hristo Dimitrov Chukov will teach you techniques for creating environments, keyframes and illustrations for the entertainment industry, in film and games.

We’ll start by learning basic but very important concepts of value, color, light, and composition that are often overlooked even by professionals.

We will then move on to the sketching process, value, and color. Next, we build the foundation of our scene in Blender and even do a set simulation.

Last but not least, the instructor will show you the techniques and painting process in Photoshop that bring the image to its final quality.

Through this course, you will learn how to use values, colors, and shapes correctly to benefit your compositions. And, you will also perform very fast and optimal modeling and mapping processes in Blender, as well as advanced painting and image building techniques in Photoshop.

We are not satisfied with our current level of art. We are always trying to find ways to improve ourselves to make our work more popular. Wingfox is a learning platform that allows you to improve your drawing. If you want to continue learning effective keyframe design skills, welcome to join the course.