← Animation Glossary

Tweening

Tweening is a term used in animation to describe the process of creating smooth movements between two key poses. It involves drawing lots of pictures in between the beginning and end of a movement to make it look fluid and natural.

Please note that Tweening is not directly applicable to Brush Ninja.

The use of automatic tweening in animation has revolutionized the way animators create motion pictures. With the help of computer software, it’s now possible to generate more realistic and fluid movements in a fraction of the time it used to take.

One of the significant advantages of Tweening is that it allows animators to create complex animations with fewer keyframes. In traditional frame-by-frame animation, each frame needs to be drawn manually, which can take a lot of time and resources. However, with Tweening, the computer generates most of the frames automatically by interpolating between the two keyframes. This not only saves time but also makes it easier to make changes to an animation during the editing process.

There are several types of Tweening that animators use to create different types of movements. One such type is linear Tweening, where the computer generates frames by evenly spacing them between two keyframes. This creates a simple, straight-line motion that is useful for basic animations such as moving objects from one point to another.

Another type of Tweening is Bezier Tweening, which allows animators to create more organic and natural-looking movements. Unlike linear Tweening, Bezier curves enable animators to adjust the speed and direction of an object’s movement at any point during the animation. This technique is particularly useful for creating complex animations such as facial expressions or character movements.

Finally there is easing which uses mathematical formulae to create the curves between keyframes. This is useful for creating more realistic movements such as bouncing balls or swinging pendulums.

Despite its many advantages, there are some limitations to using Tweening in animation. For example, while it’s great for creating smooth and realistic movements, it can sometimes result in repetitive or predictable animations. Additionally, because most of the frames are generated automatically by the computer, there may be some loss of control over the final output.

To overcome these limitations, many animators use a combination of both traditional frame-by-frame animation and tweening techniques in their work. By carefully balancing these two approaches, they can create animations that are both efficient and visually appealing.

Tweening is an essential technique in modern digital animation. It allows animators to create complex and realistic movements in a fraction of the time it used to take. While it has its limitations, it remains a powerful tool that every animator should have in their toolkit.

Animation Terms

2

2D Animation

3

3D Animation

A

Alpha Channel

Ambient sound

Animation

Anti-Aliasing

Anticipation

Aspect Ratio

B

Bezier Curve

Bitmap

Blue Screen

Bone Animation

Bounce

Broadcast Standards

C

Camera Angle

Camera Shake

Casting

Cel Animation

Character Animation

Character Design Sheets

Cinematic lighting

Claymation

Clean-up

Close-up

Color Correction

Color Grading

Compositing

Composition

Concept Art

Continuity editing

Cross-cutting

Cut

Cutout nimation

D

Depth of Field

Dialogue

Dissolve

Distributed Rendering

Dolby Atmos

Dope Sheet

Dutch Angle

E

Easing

Emitter

Exaggeration

Eyedropper

F

Foley

Follow through

Forward Kinematics

Frame Rate

Frame

Framing

Freeze Frame

G

Ghosting

GIF File Format

Golden Ratio

Graph Editor

H

High key lighting

Hue and Saturation

I

Inertia

Infographic Animation

Inverse Kinematics

J

Joint

JPEG File Format

Jump cut

K

Keyframe Interpolation

Keyframe

Kinetic typography

L

Layers

Lens distortion

Level of Detail

Lighting

Line of action

Lip syncing

Low key lighting

M

Match cut

Matte painting

Montage

Morphing

Motion blur

Motion capture

Motion graphics

Motion path

Motion trail

Mouth shapes

MP3 File Format

MP4 File Format

N

Network rendering

Non-linear editing

O

Occlusion culling

Onion skinning

Overlapping action

P

Pan

Parallel rendering

Particle system

Persistance of Vision

Phonemes

Playback speed

Plot

PNG File Format

Pose-to-pose animation

Props

Puppet animation

R

Render farm

Rendering

Resolution

Rigging

Rotoscoping

Rule of thirds

Run cycle

S

Safe zone

Scene

Score

Screenplay

Script

Shot

Silhouette

Skeletal animation

Slow Motion

Smears

Sound Design

Sound effects

Soundtrack

Special Effects

Split screen

Squash and Stretch

Staging

Stop Motion Animation

Storyboard

Straight-ahead Animation

T

Time Remapping

Timeline

Timing

Title Card

Title Sequence

Tracking shot

Tweening

V

Vector graphics

Visemes

Voice acting

Voice-over Narration

W

Walk cycle

WebM File Format

Weighting

Wide shot

Z

Z-depth

Zoom

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