How to Add a Keyframe in After Effects

Adobe After Effects is one of the most advanced video editing tools, providing numerous features to support your experience and enhance your content. However, mastering your skills in this tool can be challenging, which is why we’re here to help.

If you’re searching for a guide on how to add keyframes in Adobe After Effects, you’re in the right place. We’ll present everything you need to know below and discuss an alternative solution that may be better if you want to save some time during the editing process.

What Does Adding a Keyframe in After Effects Do?

Adding keyframes during the video editing process in After Effects has numerous purposes. We’ll explain some of them below to give you insight into the keyframe capabilities on this platform.

• Marking — Keyframes can help you mark specific times and values in your video, allowing you to edit the recordings more easily. Once you apply these elements, you can fine-tune your effects and animations.
• Animations — Adding keyframes in After Effects is excellent for creating animations. Once you add two keyframes, the program will automatically calculate values between them, allowing you to create smooth transitions and animations for your content.
• Control — Keyframes will “separate” your content according to your preferences, allowing you to better control the editing, effects, and animation experience. It’ll also provide you with precision and accuracy you need for professional results.

Thus, when you add all of this up, keyframing impacts the creative video editing aspect significantly since you’ll have complete control over your experience.

Step-by-Step: How to Add a Keyframe in After Effects

The process of adding keyframes in Adobe After Effects is simple. You can follow this guide to learn how to do it in just a few minutes.

Step 1: Open your project in Adobe After Effects.

Step 2: Next, set a starting value and click on the Stopwatch icon, as presented in the image below.

Step 3: Move the play head to the desired position.

Step 4: The last step is to select the second keyframe. Choose the desired position in the video, and you’ll successfully place your keyframes.

As you can see, adding these elements to your Adobe After Effects video is simple, but the only thing you must learn is the different types of keyframes you can add to your video.

Move, Erase, and Perfect Keyframes in After Effects

If you don’t like how you set the aforementioned keyframes, don’t worry. You can easily manipulate your experience by practicing and using the following commands.

Step 1: Select an excessive keyframe you want to remove and click the Delete key on your keyboard to eliminate it from After Effects.

Step 2: To remove all keyframes from your project, click the Stopwatch icon, and all of the set values will be removed.

Step 3: You can move a specific keyframe by dragging it to the desired position in the timeline.

Step 4: Right-click on the keyframe and select Keyframe Assistant from the drop-down menu. Here, you can choose the transitions and make your video pop.

Step 5: Right-click on the keyframe and choose Keyframe Interpolation from the drop-down menu to select your preferences.

These are just some of the methods that will help you master your keyframe skills and start making your dreams come to life in Adobe After Effects.

Easier Way to Use Keyframes: Wondershare Filmora

Using Adobe After Effects for your keyframing journey may be more challenging than it sounds. Although setting keyframes is intuitive, managing and customizing your experience on the platform can be a pain in the neck. Thus, you’ll need time to adjust to the concept and develop your keyframing skills before you can create professional results.

If you don’t want to spend hours doing so and are searching for a more time-efficient solution, Wondershare Filmora may be a better option. This tool is powered by numerous advanced AI features that can also help you with the editing experience and make your content professional in no time.

The user interface significantly differs from Adobe After Effects; it’s far more intuitive and beginner-friendly, even though it provides dozens of editing features and tools.

Another thing that makes Filmora a better alternative is the fact that you can completely customize your experience without spending hours on the editing platform. It has everything Adobe After Effects provides, but easier to use.

Thus, head to the official Wondershare Filmora website, download the tool to your desktop device, and follow the steps below to start your efficient keyframing experience:

Step 1: Open the Wondershare Filmora platform on your device and select New Project from the main menu.

Step 2: Import your video by dragging and dropping the file to the Filmora platform.

Step 3: Drag the video to the timeline to start the editing process.

Step 4: In the right panel, select the Keyframe Panel option.

Step 5: Click on the diamonds that represent keyframes from this panel.

Step 6: Choose where to put your keyframes in the video.

Step 7: To delete a keyframe, click on it and press the Delete key.

Step 8: To delete all keyframes, click Reset in the Keyframe panel.

And just like that, you’ll master the art of keyframes and start producing high-quality and professional videos.

Conclusion

Keyframing is a crucial aspect of all video editing experiences, especially if you want to create exceptional transitions for your content. If you’re new to the industry and want to learn how to do it in Adobe After Effects, we’re here to help. We’ve discussed why you should add such elements to your editing experience and presented a step-by-step guide on adding keyframes in After Effects.

However, the Adobe After Effects platform can be overwhelming, especially if you’ve never used keyframes before. Thus, we present a better, more time-efficient alternative: Wondershare Filmora. This universal and easy-to-use solution will surely help you navigate your journey and get the desired results fast.