Keyframes, motion presets and audio in Paint by Zaweba
Animate position, scale, rotation, colour and warp with keyframes and easing curves in Paint by Zaweba, add Pan and Zoom presets, audio and storyboard export.
Once you move beyond simple frame swaps, animation is about how things move over time. Keyframes in Paint by Zaweba record a property's value at a moment, and the app works out everything in between. Combined with easing curves, motion presets and audio, they turn a static design into a polished short video.
What you can keyframe
Keyframes can animate position, opacity, scale, rotation, text tracking, colour and warp. That covers most of what short motion graphics need: a title that slides in and fades, a logo that grows and turns, letters that spread apart as text tracking increases, a colour shift for a mood change, or a warp that makes a flag ripple or a shape bend.
Set a keyframe at the start with one value, move along the timeline, change the value, and a second keyframe appears. Playback moves smoothly from one to the other.
Animation curves
Animation Curves decide how that movement feels. Linear moves at a steady speed, which looks mechanical. Hold jumps straight to the next value with no in-between, useful for sudden changes. Ease starts or ends gently, which looks natural because real objects speed up and slow down. Custom Bezier curves let you shape the motion exactly, for a bounce, an overshoot or a slow drift.
A good rule is to ease almost everything that moves. Linear motion is right for steady scrolls and spinning wheels, but for objects arriving and leaving, easing looks far more professional.
Motion presets and transitions
Motion Presets offer Pan and Zoom, Zoom and Rotate ready-made. Pan and Zoom is the classic slow move across a still photo used in documentaries, perfect for turning a set of photos into a gentle slideshow.
Fade with Colour fades a clip to or from a colour, such as black or white. Cross-fade blends one clip into the next. Between them they cover the transitions most short videos need.
Video and audio
Place Video brings a video clip into the document as a layer, so you can put titles and graphics over real footage or combine clips. Add Audio places sound that is mixed into MP4 and WebM exports. Music under a slideshow or a voiceover under a product animation goes a long way to making a piece feel finished.
Storyboard export writes a storyboard of the animation as a PDF or PNG. It's useful for planning, for sending a client a quick overview before the full render, or for printing to review on paper.
Tips for good motion
Keep it brief. Short pieces are watched to the end. Let each element arrive, settle and be read before the next one moves.
Animate fewer things at once. Three moving elements with clean easing look more professional than ten all moving together.
Match motion to audio. If you have music, place key moments on beats.
Preview at full speed often. Motion that looks fine scrubbed slowly can feel rushed at real speed.
Bringing it together
Keyframes live in the video timeline of Paint by Zaweba, alongside frame animation, onion skins and filter animations. Export happens from the same place: animated GIF and WebP for loops, PNG sequences for other tools, and MP4 or WebM with audio when the suite's FFmpeg is installed. It brings simple motion design into an image editor you already know, offline and free.
