General -
Animation is a series of frames.
The frames run past your eyes at a certain framerate to fool the brain into thinking that motion is taking place (persistence of vision)
Therefore an animation has to have a number of frames that run at a certain framerate.
In Flash, frames are the little squares in the Timeline. Clicking on one of the squares positions the stage at a certain point in time. Once you have extended your animation, clicking on the frame positions the red "current frame marker" so you know where you are in time.
Framerate is measured in frames per second (fps). Framerate is chosen to provide a realistic simulation of motion at the same time taking into consideration the capabilities of the machines that might be viewing your presentation and the file size that will be created. Framerate is set for the entire movie. Apparent speed changes are then made by how items are placed within the timeline. Items placed closer together in the timeline appear to be going faster.
Framerate is set in "Modify", "Movie".
Keyframes - Simply the point at which you establish that something is to be displayed on-screen. This can be an image or it can be blank.
A keyframe needs to be established whenever you wish to change the display of the contents on the screen.
"Insert", "Keyframe" (or F6) says to Flash..."put this stuff on the stage and leave it there until there is another keyframe." This allows you to say when something will occur and what it will do when it occurs.
"Tweening" is the process that Flash uses to smooth out action between keyframes (interpolation).
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