(Last Updated On: February 3, 2021)

Keyframes play a key role in building HTML5 animation. This tutorial explains the Auto-Keyframe mode – an automatic keyframing feature letting you generate keyframes in a flash.

You’re a keyframe artist when animating with Saola Animate. You insert keyframes to tell Saola Animate where you want to start and finish your animation. Each keyframe marks a point of time and specifies a property value. Then, Saola Animate creates a smooth change of that property over time. But Saola Animate offers more than that with the Auto-Keyframe mode. This mode enables you to generate keyframes automatically, thus speeding up your work.

An animation segment contains two keyframes.

For more details about keyframes and HTML5 animation, see the tutorials below:

Automatic Keyframing with Auto-Keyframe Mode

The Auto-Keyframe mode allows automatically recording keyframes when building animations. Simply enable the Auto-Keyframe mode, move the Playhead, and make an edit. Saola Animate itself will insert keyframes for any changed properties.

In the Timeline pane, click the Auto-Keyframe Mode button or press the K key to turn the mode on. From now on, Saola Animate will record any property changes as keyframes.

Click the button to turn the Auto-Keyframe mode on.

Suppose you want an image to fade out a scene using automatic keyframing. Select the image and perform the following steps:

Step 1: Click the Auto-Keyframe Mode button or press the K key to turn on automatic keyframing.

Step 2: Move the Playhead to the 0:00:02 seconds (the end of the animation).

Move the Playhead to the 0:00:02 seconds (the end of the animation).

Step 3: In the Properties pane, drag the Opacity slider to 0% to make the image invisible. This immediately records 2 keyframes, indicating the Opacity property animation. One keyframe is [Opacity, time: 0s, value: 100%] (1). Another is [Opacity, time: 2s, value: 0%] (2) at the Playhead position.

This immediately records 2 keyframes, indicating the Opacity property animation.

Step 4: Preview animation.

When automatic keyframing is enabled, take note of the cases:

(1) When you make a change for an element property, and there is no keyframe of that property, Saola Animate will create two keyframes to make an animation. One keyframe will be inserted at 00:00 (3) and another be inserted at the current time (Playhead position) (4). In case you want to add a new animation, consider two cases that may happen:

  • If the ending time of the existing animation is smaller than the current time, a starting keyframe of that new animation will be at that ending time (5).
  • If the ending time of the existing animation is greater than the current time, a starting keyframe of that new animation will be at 00:00.

(2) When you edit an element property, if there is not any keyframe of that property at the current time, a new keyframe will be created for the property that you change.

If there is not any keyframe of that property at the current time, a new keyframe will be created for the property that you change.

(3) If there exists a keyframe of that property at the current time and that property is modified, its value will be updated to the current value.

If there exists a keyframe of that property at the current time and that property is modified, its value will be updated to the current value.

It’s a breeze to create animation using the Auto-Keyframe mode. Why don’t you try this feature right now? Download Saola Animate, create a document, import resources, and explore your infinite possibilities.