Definition of Tweening and Animation Tutorial

We are very spoiled when it comes to great animation. For over a hundred years, we have been presented with some of the most talented artists and most impressive works of animation in our history.

What makes them so remarkable? Some would say it's the artists' drawing skills. Others say it's the top-notch voice acting. But what if I told you it's none of the above? What if we said that it's tweening that made animation so iconic?

What Does "In-Between Frame" Mean?

In-between frames are frames used to animate individual parts of a scene. Frames that do the heavy lifting of transitioning are called keyframes. These keyframes, when properly used and implemented, create the illusion of smooth and fluid motion.

Animation Using In-Between Frames

In-between frame animation, rightfully, has a long and famous history in animation. Any animation you see has tweening, whether it's 'The Lion King' or your favorite cartoon on the Internet.

Let's look at some of the most important aspects of animation that make it a cornerstone of art.

Traditional Animation

Traditional, hand-drawn animation of the good old days had a fairly robust system to make animation a bit easier.

Key animators drew the keyframes, and then passed the finished frames to another person called an 'inbetweener'. That person pieces everything together, smooths out the rough edges and animation, and makes their own adjustments.

This makes the animator's workflow smoother and less of a headache. Obviously, not every team or individual has the resources or manpower to hire an inbetweener.

Frame Rate

Frame rate is the frequency at which frames change, or how often certain frames appear. Something with a low frame rate looks jerky, while something with a high frame rate appears smoother. Therefore, if your animation has many keyframes, it appears smoother and creates the illusion of movement.

However, if you don't pay proper attention to keyframes, your work will look messy and unskilled. It might even seem like it's not animation at all.

Digital Animation

Digital animation is where the term 'keyframes' fades into the past, replaced by 'tweens'.

The beauty of digital animation, innovation, and the artist's vast possibilities lie in the automated or simpler process of creating tweens and implementing them.

Let's look at how to create a reliable tweening animation.

Steps to Perfect Tweening with Adobe Animate

Before you start, you need to know some aspects, such as terminology and rules for creating animation.

• Timeline

This is where all your animations reside. It is the overall timeline of your project.

• Tween span

A tween span is the period of time during which objects in the scene change. For example, a tween span consists of frames in which a character's legs move.

Step 1: Create

Once you have two separate frames (without a keyframe), the next step is to create that keyframe. To do this in Adobe Animate, simply click on the asset or graphic, right-click, and select Create Motion Tween.

Step 2: Edit

After you have chosen where and which keyframes to insert, you need to perform a small operation on the animation timeline. Check the 'scene' by ensuring the desired animation duration is correct, as well as the object or graphic you are inserting.

Step 3: Check and Finalize

After you have finished editing and discussing, check whether the tweening animation turned out as intended. This can be done using the 'onion skin' feature, which allows you to view multiple frames at once. This is perfect for ensuring that the base animation and keyframes are perfectly synchronized.

Adobe Animate is just one option at your disposal. There are quite a few fantastic animation programs with similar animation creation modes:

• Blender
• Pencil2D
• Krita
• Cinema 4D
• Synfig
• Toonz

Conclusion

That's it. That's why tweening animation is one of the most important aspects of any kind of animation.

Without them, you'd be looking at a jerky, unintelligible mess. In one scene, Bugs Bunny was about to take a bite of a carrot, and in the next, it was gone. The lack of continuity would completely ruin the animation.

Fortunately for us, there are easy ways to use tweening animation to bring a little life into your work.