6.2 | Keyframes: Motion & Opacity

Key Terms

Keyframe: A marker that sets a property’s value (position, opacity, scale) at a specific point in time. Premiere animates smoothly between two or more keyframes.
Temporal Interpolation: How a value changes over TIME between keyframes. Linear (constant speed) vs. eased (gradual speed changes).
Spatial Interpolation: How a value changes through SPACE between keyframes. A straight-line path vs. a smooth curved path.
Ease In / Ease Out: A keyframe interpolation style that gradually speeds up or slows down motion, instead of starting and stopping abruptly.
Opacity: How transparent or solid a layer is, animatable with keyframes to create fades or reveals.

A static title just appears and disappears. A keyframed title moves in, holds, and moves out. And that difference is entirely about time, not new tools.

Direct Instruction (~10 min)

6.2 Guided Notes: Keyframes: Motion & Opacity

Complete the handout, three hole punch it, and keep it in your class binder.

⬇ Download Worksheet (PDF)

“Every keyframe animation is the same idea: set a value here, set a different value there, Premiere fills in everything in between. Position, opacity, scale. It’s always the same mechanic underneath.”

Walk through: setting keyframes in the Effect Controls panel, temporal interpolation (speed over time) vs. spatial interpolation (path through space), ease in/ease out, and animating opacity for fades and reveals.

Scaffolded questions. Cold-call through all three:

Recall: “What’s the difference between temporal and spatial interpolation?”

Analysis: “Why does linear interpolation often look robotic compared to eased interpolation?”

Synthesis/Extension: “If you wanted a title to feel urgent and sudden vs. calm and gentle, how would your keyframe interpolation choices differ?”

Guided Practice | Animate a Title (~23 min)

Add a title graphic to your sequence.
Set 2 position keyframes to animate it moving on screen.
Set 2 opacity keyframes so it fades in rather than hard-cutting into view.
Apply ease in/ease out to at least one keyframe pair and compare it to linear.
Partner critique: compare your eased vs. linear animation with a partner. Describe the difference in one sentence each.

If your animation still looks robotic after adding ease in/out, check that you actually applied it to BOTH keyframes in the pair, not just one.

Cold call check: a classmate’s title animates instantly from 0% to 100% opacity with no in-between. What’s missing from their keyframe setup?

GMetrix/BrainBuffet (~30 min)

Continue Module 4: today’s sections extend directly into speed ramping and motion.

Exit Ticket / Wrap-Up (~5 min)

🗂 Organize: Save your keyframed title animation sequence in the Project Files folder of your Digital Design project folder on Google Drive.

📤 Exit Ticket: Glow & Grow. On a scrap of paper, write about today’s work in at least 3 sentences (aim for 5): describe one Glow (something that went well) and one Grow (one thing you’d do differently or improve next time), explaining each with real detail, not just a phrase.

Stuck on how to start? Try: “My Glow today was ___, because ___. My Grow is ___. Next time I’ll try ___.”