Animation 101

Before we jump into the deep end, let’s take a few steps back and talk about what an animation is. At its most basic level, an animation is nothing more than a visualization of change - a change that occurs over a period of time.

Let’s look at that in more detail.

The Start and End States

If visualizing change is an important part of an animation, we need to create some reference points so that we can compare what has changed. Let’s call these reference points the start state and the end state. To better explain what is going on, let’s come up with an easy-to-understand example as well.

Let’s say our start state looks as follows: