canvas
The frame you build on: its length, its size in pixels, its frame rate and its shape. Say the canvas first, so everything after is built to fit it.
Glossary
Lesson 1 · 8 min · Learn it
What the video said
- 1Use the words the agent knows: canvas, composition, timeline, frame, fps, resolution, shot, beat, bpm, scrub, the four cuts, push in, pan, tween, the ease family, opacity, crop, loop and hold.
- 2Say the canvas first: its length, its size in pixels, its fps and its shape, like 9:16 for Reels.
- 3Name the cut: a plain cut may come back softened into a dissolve, so say hard cut.
- 4Name the ease and how long it takes, and add a hold so a headline can be read.
Words to know
composition
One whole video project: its canvas, every element on it and when each one appears. In HyperFrames a composition is the piece you are making, and the Check reads it.
timeline
The row that lays the video out in time, left to right, with a playhead you drag to any moment. Everything you ask for sits at a time on it.
frame
One still picture. A video is a stack of frames played fast, one after another. You can ask for a change 'on frame 12', or for things 'one frame apart'.
fps
Frames per second: how many still pictures play each second. Film is 24 fps, most video is 30, and 60 is very smooth. At 24 fps one frame lasts about 0.04 seconds, so 'one frame apart' is a very small gap.
resolution
How many pixels wide and high the picture is, such as 1920 by 1080 (called 1080p). Sizes in a message are in pixels, written px, so '120 px' means the same thing every time.
aspect ratio
The shape of the picture, width to height. 16:9 is wide, for screens and YouTube. 9:16 is tall, for Reels, Shorts and TikTok. Say it up front: changing it later rearranges everything.
shot
One unbroken piece of picture with no cut inside it. A scene is a place and a moment, made of one or more shots, so 'the second scene' and 'the second shot' are different asks.
storyboard
The shot as still frames: one for each key moment, each held at a named time, with nothing moving yet.
layer
One message in a build that adds one kind of thing and leaves everything else alone. In an editor a layer can also mean one stacked element; here we say element for that.
beat
A change on screen that has a time: a word appears, a card leaves, a cut lands. A shot is a list of beats.
bpm
Beats per minute, the tempo of music. At 120 bpm one beat lasts half a second, so cuts on the beat land every half second.
scrub
Dragging the playhead along the timeline to a chosen time, to see the frame there. It is how you check a beat: scrub to 1.7 seconds and look.
hard cut
An instant switch from one scene to the next with no fade or dissolve between them.
dissolve
A cut that fades: the first scene melts into the next over a few frames. Say dissolve if you want it, and hard cut if you do not.
match cut
A cut where a move carries across it, so the next scene picks up the motion the last one was making.
zoom cut
A push in on something, cut at the peak, into a scene that starts zoomed in and pulls back.
push in
The camera moving closer, so the subject grows in the frame; the opposite is a pull out. A slow push in on a headline gives it weight.
pan
The camera sliding sideways across a scene without getting closer. A push in changes distance; a pan changes where you are looking.
tween
The frames between a start and an end value, such as scale from 0 to 1 over 0.4 seconds. Saying a start, an end, a time and an ease describes a tween.
ease out
A move that starts fast and slows into place.
ease in
A move that starts slowly and speeds up as it goes.
overshoot
Going slightly past the resting point, then settling back.
stagger
Items in a group enter one after another with a tiny fixed gap instead of all at once.
smear
A one-frame blur along the direction of a very fast move, so the eye reads it as speed.
opacity
How see-through something is: 100% is solid and 0% is invisible. A fade is opacity moving between the two.
crop
Cutting away the edges of a picture so only part of it shows. A panel that slides open by crop reveals itself with no fade.
loop
Playing again from the start, over and over. Ask for the last frame to match the first if it should repeat with no jump.
hold
Staying still on purpose after something lands, so the viewer can take it in. Half a second after a headline is often what makes it readable.
Question 1 of 12
You ask for tiles 'one frame apart' at 24 fps. About how big is that gap?
Pick an answer, then check it.
The prompt this lesson teaches
In Desktop, Framey builds this with you. Here it is, to read.
To FrameyRead-only
Make a 4 second, 1920x1080, 24 fps teaser for Orbit in two scenes: the first says 'One line.' and the second says 'One launch.' Switch from the first scene to the second at 2 seconds with a hard cut. The headline enters with an ease-out over 0.4 seconds, then holds for half a second before the end.
Free for Mac, Windows and Linux