A frame is another name for one picture of an animation. The term comes from the old style movie film which had a series of pictures, each one in a 'frame'.

Frames are now represented in 'timelines' in most modern animation software. The pictures are in the order they are going to be shown, labelled with the time they are going to be shown. The number of frames per second (fps) in animation can be used to change the speed of movement. For example, 20 frames per second runs twice as fast as 10 frames per second. However the standard for films is either 24, 25 or 30 fps. Some adjustment of movement speed can be achieved by shooting in 'ones', 'twos' etc. A different picture in each frame (ones) gives rapid movement. Two identical pictures (twos) slows the movement slightly but still looks smooth and reduces the amount of effort in the animation process. Shooting in larger multiples of the same frame continues to slow the movement but it can become jerky and unnatural looking.