Keyframe Is Now FrameSide: Why We Renamed Our Animation Review Tool (Plus the New Animworks)

Keyframe is now FrameSide. Same animation review tool, same beta, same price (none), new name. This post covers why, plus the rebuilt Animworks homepage that went live the same week.

Why Keyframe became FrameSide

When we started building the software, Keyframe had a good ring to it. Animworks Keyframe made sense, the name stuck, and we went into beta with it.

There is already a review tool called Keyframe Pro, made by Chris Zurbrigg (LinkedIn). I used it years ago. It is brilliant. Two animation review tools called Keyframe is a confusion nobody needs, and the whole point of Animworks is to push other people forward, not to sit on their name.

So we spoke to Chris and renamed the software.

If you are a beta tester, the next time you open it you will see a note saying Keyframe is now FrameSide. Nothing else changes. It is still free, still in beta, still browser based. If you are talking about Keyframe Pro, you are talking about Chris's desktop tool. If you are talking about FrameSide, you are talking about ours. They do different things, and now they have different names. If you want the long version of what FrameSide does differently from general video review tools, the SyncSketch alternative and Frame.io alternative pages cover it.

I like the new name more than the old one.

The new Animworks homepage

The second change is the website. Since we opened about eight months ago it has had the same layout, and eight months of you clicking on things has taught me what people use and what they scroll past. You build a site around everything a visitor might want. Then you find out what they want.

The old homepage was too long, and the sections towards the bottom got almost no clicks. So here is what changed.

The banner is simpler. Updating it every week was the hardest part of every drop, so it now shows the current products, about four at a time, and trailers play right there on the banner without leaving the page. FrameSide has a permanent spot beside it, and hovering the logo at the top gets you to FrameSide in one click.

There is a progress bar under the banner, and putting the numbers side by side was the moment I realised how much has happened since we opened. As of today: 102 rigs and tools, 1,580 animators signed up, 33 creators publishing on the site, 312 students enrolled across the courses, and 8 mentors, with another joining shortly. Every one of those numbers is live and updates itself.

The seven category tiles are gone. They are three doors now: courses, rigs (free and paid in one place), and mentorship. Those are the three things people come for.

Courses have their own band with the most popular ones up front, Unreal Animation Unlocked and Motion Capture for Games among them, because there are more on the way. Two or three are in production right now.

Search at the top has been rebuilt. It now returns categories, rigs and articles, not just products.

Best sellers are real. The top five is driven by what people bought in the last sixty days, not by me picking favourites, and it updates as orders come in. If you are deciding where to spend your money, that list is the honest answer to what other animators chose. The full monthly list is one click further.

There is a page for studios and companies. If you are buying a rig, a course or mentorship on behalf of a team, it has the tax and invoicing details you need and a plain explanation of how every licence works. We are a registered company. We are new, but we are here to stay.

Mentors, latest articles and the newsletter sign-up are still there, further down.

This is the first pass. Product and rig pages get the same treatment over the next couple of weeks.

Creators: we need your rigs and plugins

Summer was slow. Apart from Nubian, which we made ourselves, few new rigs came to market over the last three months, and we have been looking.

If you have a production-ready rig or a plugin, use the Submit Your Work form at the top right of the site. Everything is tested by a real person before it goes live, and if it passes, it goes on the site and into the weekly email to 1,580 animators.

Coming up

Brad Faucheux joins the mentors this month. He is a Senior Cinematic Animator at NetherRealm Studios, with fifteen years across Blizzard cinematics and Reel FX, and he has a YouTube channel worth your time. There is an interview with him on the way on the Animworks channel. One or two more mentors are close behind, and one of them I am particularly excited about. More when it is signed.

FrameSide questions, answered

Is FrameSide the same software as Animworks Keyframe? Yes. Only the name changed. Your projects, shots and notes are where you left them.

Is FrameSide still free? Yes. It is in beta and free for everyone while it is. Sign up on the FrameSide page.

What is the difference between FrameSide and Keyframe Pro? Keyframe Pro is Chris Zurbrigg's desktop playback and review tool. FrameSide is our browser-based review tool for leaving frame-accurate notes on animation. Different tools, different makers, and from this week, different names.

Watch this week's drop

The video version of this post, with the new homepage walked through on screen. Watch it on YouTube if the player does not load.