What is tweening in animation?

Tweening, short for "inbetweening," is a technique used in animation to create smooth and fluid motion between two keyframes. Keyframes are the main poses or positions of an object or character in a sequence, while tweens are the frames in between the keyframes that help create the illusion of movement.

There are two main types of tweening: motion tweening and shape tweening. Motion tweening is used to animate the position, size, rotation, and transparency of objects or characters, while shape tweening is used to morph one shape into another.

Tweening can be done manually by animators, by creating each frame individually, or it can be automated using animation software. Automated tweening allows animators to set the keyframes and let the software generate the in-between frames automatically.

Tweening is a crucial technique in animation as it helps create smooth and realistic movement in characters and objects. It is commonly used in 2D animation, such as traditional hand-drawn animation and vector-based animation, as well as in 3D animation to create lifelike motion.