‘Animatic’: A filmed, taped or computer-animated version of the storyboard that runs the same length as the finished animation.
‘Animation field size’: Sometimes known as a “graticule”, a field size is comprised of a series of standardized graded templates printed on paper or acetate. Each template holds the same ratio value (usually 16:9), and describes the shape of an animation frame in relation to the shape of the intended playback device such as a television screen.
‘Animatronic’: A puppet or character with a robot skeleton usually controlled by a remote control.
‘Anime’: A Japanese-style animation. Sometimes call Japanimation or Manga, it is characterised by people with large, exaggerated round eyes.
‘Antialiasing’: The process of resampling pixels to make hard, jagged edges look soft and smooth.
‘Armature’: is a skeleton available in stop-action, 3D (and some 2D, such as Flash) animation puppets/ software, this is an arrangement of links called “bones” (which can be rigid or flexible) that make up the equivalent of a skeleton. Each bone influences, through weight painting, the way its movement moves nearby vertices. The complex process of making and adjusting an armature to animate a mesh is known as rigging and is a distinct specialism in the animation industry.
The “skeleton” inside the stop-action puppets. Its allows the puppet to bend and move, while supporting the figure. Beginners will use twisted aluminium wire, but in the industry expensive ball-and-socket structures are often designed and built. An armature can also be a jointed metal core used by stop motion animators such as the one shown on the below.
‘Aspect ratio’: The proportion of width to height of an image or video/animation. There is an excellent history of aspect ratio in the cinema and television at Filmmaker IQ of a video: The Changing Shape of Cinema: The History of Aspect Ratio. The whole Filmmaker IQ YouTube channel is worth seeing if you’re interested in learning about cinema history, technology, and technique.
‘Background artist’: The person who paints the background scenery of an animation.
‘Batch process’: Setting the computer to perform a repetitive task to a large number of files; e.g., reducing all images to the same size.
‘Bitmap’: A text character or graphic image comprised of dots or pixels in a grid. Together, these pixels make up the image. LP
‘Blue screen’: A background of pure blue (or green) that can be removed with compositing software and replaced with another image. Also known as Chroma-Key.
‘Boil’: Where a pause in the action can suspend the lively, hand-drawn look of a 2D sequence , a “boiling” look is achieved by cycling a number of nonmoving drawings. This boil keeps the line lively and is more in keeping with the type of line used when the subject is moving.
‘Bones’: Wireframe objects in animation software that are joined together to make a skeleton. The skeleton is attached to a character model; once this is done, the character model becomes the skin.
‘Broadband’: A fast connection. For home computer users, this is usually either DSL or cable.
‘Camera stand’: A support for a skill or video camera. This can be a tripod, a copy stand or a more sophisticated professional rig.
‘Capture’: To record a frame of animation and transfer it into a computer. In stop-action animation, capturing is done through the camera and transferred via a USB or firewire cable.
‘CD, CD-R, CD-RW’: Compact Disc, Compact Disc Recordable, Compact Disc Rewritable.
‘Cel’: A sheet of transparent cellulose acetate used as a medium for painting animation frames. It is transparent so that it can be laid over other cels and/or a painted background, then photographed. There is an excellent history of cel animation video in Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs called How Walt Disney Cartoons are made?.
‘CGI (Computer Generated Imagery)': Animated graphics produced by a computer. Also referred to as CG in the context of animation.
‘Character designer’: Artist who creates the look of the individual characters.
‘Claymation’: Stop-action animation using clay models. A proprietary name for stop-action animation using clay models.
‘Clean-up’: Retracing an animator’s sketches into single, clearly defined lines.
‘CMYK’: Cyan, magenta, yellow, and black – the standard inks used in four-colour printing.
‘Compositing (also Comping)': Joining together the various layers and elements of an animation or special effect.
‘Conditioning the clay’: The process of kneading a lump of clay between your hands to warm the material and mix the oil that makes the clay both soft and plastic.
‘Copystand’: A piece of studio furniture used for shooting flat artwork made of a flat heavy base, vertical centre column and camera mount.
‘Core’: In a stop-motion puppet, the central supporting and structural material, usually lightweight and secured to the armature – for example foam and polymorph.
‘Cycle’: A number of animated frames that are edited together several times in a seamless loop to extend a specific action. Cycling frames work best with a repeated consistent action, such as a bird flapping its wings.
‘Digital ink and paint’: The process of tracing and colouring an animator’s drawings using a computer.
‘Director’: Creative supervisor for an entire animation who decides everything from camera angles to the musical score.
‘Dope sheet’: see Exposure sheet.
‘Doubles’: Shooting on doubles or twos is the process of photographing two frames of a single image, either as a cel or 3D model.
‘Drag’: The movement of a secondary element in an animation sequence – for example, clothing and hair. The primary element (the head, for instance) will move from X to Y, and the hair will “drag” behind, taking a little time to accompany the head.
‘DV’: Digital Video.
‘DV Camera’: Digital Video Camera.
‘DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)': A disc capable of holding a large amount of data. Principally used for films.
‘Exposure sheet’: A form onto which all the shooting and drawing information for an animation is entered, one frame at a time.
‘Field guide’: A punched sheet of heavy acetate printed to indicate the sizes of all standard fields. When placed over an artwork, it indicates the area in which the animation takes place.
‘FireWire’: A high-speed connector used to download digital data at extremely high speeds from peripherals (such as DV cameras, hard drives and audio hardware) to a computer. Also known as IEEE1394 and i-Link.
‘Flash (or Animate)': A computer program by Macromedia for creating vector-based animation for the internet. Its .swf format is the defaut standard.
‘Flip book’: Simple animation made by drawing a series of images on the pages of a book, and flipping through pages with one’s thumb to make the characters or design move.
‘Frame’: An individual photograph on a strip of film. When the film is projected, each film is normally seen for one twenty-forth of a second, or at a frame rate of 24fps (frames per second). However, the fps varies according to final format; e.g., Film – 24fps, PAL video – 25fps, NTSC video – 29.97 or 30 fps.
‘Frame rate’: The number of frames per second at which a film is intended to be viewed. The speed at which frames progress in an animation. Measures usually as frames per second (fps). – In animation for film the typical frame rate is 24 frames per second. Since, most traditional animation is typically done on “twos” (e.g. each drawing is shown for TWO frames) a typical second of animation will consist of 12 unique drawings. There is an excellent history of Frame rate in the cinema and television at Filmmaker IQ of a video: The History of Frame Rate for Film.
‘Game play‘: The storyline and interactive parts of a computer game.
‘GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)': A computer image form used on the World Wide Web for images with fewer than 256 colours. Good for bold graphics.
‘Graphic tablet‘: A computer peripheral that allows you to draw or write using a pen-like instrument as if you were working on paper.
‘Graticule‘: see Field guide.
‘Gray scale‘: Black-and-white image with full tonal range of greys.
‘Inking‘: Tracing a cleaned-up drawing onto the front of a cel for painting.
‘Jaggies‘: Hard-edged pixels that appear on computer-generated lines whey they are not antialiased.
‘JavaScript‘: Platform-independent computer language developed by Sun Microsystems. Mostly used for adding interactive effects to web pages.
‘JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)': A universal format for storing digital image files so that they take up less space.
‘Key frame’: A frame in a timeline at which a change will occur. Frame that shows the extreme of an action or a principal movement in an animation.
‘Layers‘: Cels comprising different elements of a single frame and mounted one on top of the other. Also simulated in software programs.
‘Layout artist‘: The person who designs the composition of the shots.
‘Lead animator‘: Person in charge of the animation team. Usually draws Key frame action.
‘Lightbox’: A glass-topped box with a powerful light source in it. Animators use the light behind several sheets of paper in order to see several drawing layers at once to trace the artwork.
‘Line animation‘: Animation created with drawings.
‘Line test’: A process whereby a rough or unfinished series of drawings is recorded and played back to check the action before completing the sequence.
‘Lip synch‘: The matching of characters’ mouth shapes in time with recorded dialogue.
‘Live action‘: Film made using real people or actors.
‘Live-capture window’: A facility built into most animation capture programmes, it is a live version of the camera view incorporated into the software interface.
‘Loop’: Playing a sequence over and over with the last frame followed each time by the first.
‘Maquette‘: A small statue of a character used as a drawing or 3D modelling aid.
‘Megapixel‘: 1,000 pixels. Used to describe the resolution of digital cameras.
‘MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface)': An industry standard for connecting synthesizers to computers in order to sequence and record them.
‘MoCap (Motion Capture)': A way of capturing accurate human movement for use in 3D software by attaching sensors to an actor and mapping the co-ordinates in a computer program.
‘Modelling paste‘: Modelling clay used by animators to make models for claymation.
‘Model making‘: Creating puppets and scenery for use in 3D stop-motion animation.
‘Model sheet‘: A reference sheet for the use of animators to ensure that a character has a consistent appearance throughout a film. It consists of a series of drawing s showing how a character appears in relation to other characters and objects, with details of how it appears from various angles and with different expressions.
‘NTSC‘: Television and video format used in US and Canada.
‘Onion Skin tool (Onion skinning)': A tool commonly found in the capture software that allows the animator to see a faint overlay of the previous frame superimposed on the live image. It assists in positioning the subject, and in pacing the action while shooting. The ability to see through to underlying layers of drawings for tracing and comparing images when tweening.
‘OS (Operating System)': The part of the computer that enables software to interface with computer hardware. Two commonly used operating systems are Microsoft Windows and MacOS. Others include UNIX, Linux, and IRIX.
‘PAL‘: Television and video format used in Europe, Australia and Asia.
‘Panning shot‘: A shot that is achieved by following an action or scene with a moving camera from a fixed position.
‘Peg bar’: A small, flat strip of plastic or metal with two or three upright pegs. It is used to hold hole punched paper and cels when drawing and recording traditional 2D animation so that they remain in register.
‘Peg bar punch’: A professional paper punch, used to create a series of holes that slot over the holes in the peg bar.
‘Persistence of vision’: The phenomenon which causes animation (and all film and video presentations) to “fool” the eye into seeing a series of images, shown successively, as real, live motion. Any film or video is just a series of images shot and shown in order (usually at 24 or 30 frames per second in the U.S.A.). When an image “hits” the retina, it “holds” there for a 10th or more of s second. This allows a film projector to blank the screen, move to and then project the next image, without the viewer noticing this blanking. The previous image “persists” in the viewers eye or mind until the next image takes over for it, completing the motion. What is it?
‘Phoneme‘: Phonetic sounds used in speech to help the animator make the correct mouth shapes (visemes) for lip synching.
‘Pixel (from PICture ELement)': The smallest unit of a digital image. Mainly square in shape, a pixel is one of a multitude of squares of coloured light that together form a photographic image.
‘Pixilation‘: A stop-motion technique in which objects and live actors are photographed frame by frame to achieve unusual motion effects.
‘Plexiglas‘: Proprietary name for a type of transparent plastic that is lighter and more impact resistant than glass; it is used as a replacement for glass in many applications.
‘Plug-in‘: A piece of software that adds extra features or functions to another program.
‘Pre-production‘: The planning stage of a film or animation before shooting begins.
‘Primitives‘: Basic shapes used by 3D software (cube, sphere, cylinder, cone).
‘Puppet‘: Model for stop-action animation made with wire or ball-and-socket skeleton then covered in clay or latex.
‘QuickTime‘: A computer video format developed by Apple Computer.
‘QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality)': A component of QuickTime, used for creating and viewing interactive 360-degree vistas on a computer and on the Web.
‘RAM (Random Access Memory)': The area of computer memory where the computer holds data immediately before and after processing, and before the computation is ‘written’ (or saved) to disc.
‘Raytracing‘: Used by a rendering engine to create an image by sending virtual rays of lights from the light sources so they reflect off the objects in a scene.
‘Registration’: The exact alignment of various levels of artwork in precise relation of each other.
‘Render‘: To create a 2D image or animation from 3D information.
‘RGB (Red, Green, Blue)': The colours used in computer and TV monitors to make all the colours we see on screen.
‘Rostrum camera‘: A motion-picture camera that can be mounted on columns and suspended directly over the artwork to be filmed.
‘Rotoscope‘: A device that projects live-action film, one frame at a time, onto a glass surface below. When drawing paper is placed over the glass, the animator can trace off the live-action images in order to get realistic movement.
‘Script (also Screenplay)': The dialogue and directions of a film.
‘Shooting a hold’: Often used at the start and end of a simple sequence, shooting a hold involves recording a number of frames without moving or modifying the subject. This allows the viewer a few seconds to take in the subject before the animation begins. It can also be used in the middle of a sequence to help pace action.
‘Shooting in 2s’: A commonly used animation process whereby every frame of animation is recorded twice, cutting down on shooting time. You shoot in twos by taking two shots every time you move or modify the image.
‘Showreel’: A portfolio of moving images on videotape, DVD or CD. A show of an animator’s (in training) work to show upcoming employees their animations to persude them to give the animator a job.
‘Skinning’: The process of covering up the puppet armature with material to give shape and form to the character. Beginners usually work with upholstery, foam, glue and fabric, but in the industry a range of more high-tech materials can be incorporated, such as resin, foam latex and silicone.
‘Steadicam’: A camera rig that is harnessed to a steadicam operator so s/he can follow actors in a scene without the camera jolting.
‘Stop-action or stop-motion’: Animation where a model is moved incrementally and photographed one frames at a time.
‘Story reel’: see Animatic.
‘Storyboard’: A series of small still consecutive drawings that maps out a proposed story over a number of separate panels plotting key movements in an animation narrative, and accompanied by caption-like descriptions of the action and sound.
‘Streaming video’: A sequence of moving images sent in compressed form over the internet and displayed by the viewer as they arrive. The internet user does not have to wait to download a large file before seeing the video.
‘Subject’: The image or object being animated.
‘Super8’: Small film format that was popular with amateur filmmakers before the arrival of video cameras. Still has a strong cult-following. Very expensive compared to DV.
‘Texture map’: 2D image used to give texture to a 3D object.
The principles of animation (All 12)
1. ‘Squash and stretch’: (S&S for short) is the principle of applying a contrasting change of shape — from a squash pose to a stretch pose or vice versa — to give a feeling of fleshiness, flexibility, and life in animation. The absence of squash and stretch gives a rigidity or stiffness to the motion. The transition between a proper Squash pose to a Stretch pose, or the other way around, breaks the perfect solidity that CG animation in particular inherently gives to everything. Squash and Stretch – Alan Becker
2. ‘Anticipation’: An action has three stages: anticipation, action, and reaction. We anticipate actions before we do them, unless we suddenly get hit by the action.. Also, anticipation in animation is used to attract attention. An anticipation can be followed by nothing, or a different action from what we expect, in which case it has a comedic effect. Using huge anticipation for a run for example, and then only showing some reaction like the dust off of the character that just zipped out of screen, makes the action clear, even though we actually didn’t see the action at all. A small movement or a pause in the action that comes just before a more extreme movement. Anticipation helps to set up and punctuate the main action. Anticipation – Alan Becker
3. ‘Staging’: is one of the 12 Basic Principles of Animation and, oftentimes, is overlooked by animators and unnoticed by audiences. But it is a powerful tool that can inform an audience about character and narrative. Staging is connected to acting, timing, cinematography, and setting. When an animator understands staging, he or she controls the attention of the audience and helps drive the story. Staging – Alan Becker
4. ‘Straight ahead & pose to pose’: is the only principle that hints at how to approach your animation. At first glance, it seems like they’re two separate ideas, as if two different animators tried it out and decided to animate in different ways. However, this principle encompasses much more than that, as it speaks to the vein of different philosophies that have pervaded art for centuries—structure vs. spontaneity, classic vs. romantic, id vs. ego. Straight Ahead & Pose to Pose – Alan Becker
5. ‘Follow through & overlapping action’: A pose or action should clearly communicate to the audience the attitude, mood, reaction or idea of the character as it relates to the story and continuity of the story line. The effective use of long, medium, or close up shots, as well as camera angles also helps in telling the story. There is a limited amount of time in a film, so each sequence, scene and frame of film must relate to the overall story. Do not confuse the audience with too many actions at once. Use one action clearly stated to get the idea across, unless you are animating a scene that is to depict clutter and confusion. Staging directs the audience’s attention to the story or idea being told. Care must be taken in background design so it isn’t obscuring the animation or competing with it due to excess detail behind the animation. Background and animation should work together as a pictorial unit in a scene. Follow Through & Overlapping Action – Alan Becker
6. ‘Slow in & slow out’: As action starts, we have more drawings near the starting pose, one or two in the middle, and more drawings near the next pose. Fewer drawings make the action faster and more drawings make the action slower. Slow-ins and slow-outs soften the action, making it more life-like. For a gag action, we may omit some slow-out or slow-ins for shock appeal or the surprise element. This will give more snap to the scene. Slow In & Slow Out – Alan Becker
7. ‘Arcs’: All actions, with few exceptions (such as the animation of a mechanical device), follow an arc or slightly circular path. This is especially true of the human figure and the action of animals. Arcs give animation a more natural action and better flow. Think of natural movements in the terms of a pendulum swinging. All arm movement, head turns and even eye movements are executed on an arcs. Arc – Alan Becker
8. ‘Secondary action’: This action adds to and enriches the main action and adds more dimension to the character animation, supplementing and/or re-enforcing the main action. Example: A character is angrily walking toward another character. The walk is forceful, aggressive, and forward leaning. The leg action is just short of a stomping walk. The secondary action is a few strong gestures of the arms working with the walk. Also, the possibility of dialogue being delivered at the same time with tilts and turns of the head to accentuate the walk and dialogue, but not so much as to distract from the walk action. All of these actions should work together in support of one another. Think of the walk as the primary action and arm swings, head bounce and all other actions of the body as secondary or supporting action. Secondary Action – Alan Becker
9. ‘Timing’: Expertise in timing comes best with experience and personal experimentation, using the trial and error method in refining technique. The basics are: more drawings between poses slow and smooth the action. Fewer drawings make the action faster and crisper. A variety of slow and fast timing within a scene adds texture and interest to the movement. Most animation is done on twos (one drawing photographed on two frames of film) or on ones (one drawing photographed on each frame of film). Twos are used most of the time, and ones are used during camera moves such as trucks, pans and occasionally for subtle and quick dialogue animation. Also, there is timing in the acting of a character to establish mood, emotion, and reaction to another character or to a situation. Studying movement of actors and performers on stage and in films is useful when animating human or animal characters. This frame by frame examination of film footage will aid you in understanding timing for animation. This is a great way to learn from the others. Timing – Alan Becker
10. ‘Exaggeration’: is not extreme distortion of a drawing or extremely broad, violent action all the time. Its like a caricature of facial features, expressions, poses, attitudes and actions. Action traced from live action film can be accurate, but stiff and mechanical. In feature animation, a character must move more broadly to look natural. The same is true of facial expressions, but the action should not be as broad as in a short cartoon style. Exaggeration in a walk or an eye movement or even a head turn will give your film more appeal. Use good taste and common sense to keep from becoming too theatrical and excessively animated. Exaggeration – Alan Becker
11. ‘Solid drawing’: The basic principles of drawing form, weight, volume solidity and the illusion of three dimension apply to animation as it does to academic drawing. The way you draw cartoons, you draw in the classical sense, using pencil sketches and drawings for reproduction of life. You transform these into colour and movement giving the characters the illusion of three-and four-dimensional life. Three dimensional is movement in space. The fourth dimension is movement in time. Solid Drawing – Alan Becker
12. ‘Appeal’: A live performer has charisma. An animated character has appeal. Appealing animation does not mean just being cute and cuddly. All characters have to have appeal whether they are heroic, villainous, comic or cute. Appeal, as you will use it, includes an easy to read design, clear drawing, and personality development that will capture and involve the audience’s interest. Early cartoons were basically a series of gags strung together on a main theme. Over the years, the artists have learned that to produce a feature there was a need for story continuity, character development and a higher quality of artwork throughout the entire production. Like all forms of story telling, the feature has to appeal to the mind as well as to the eye. Appeal – Alan Becker
‘Thumbnails’: to describe a small drawing on paper ( usually part of a group ) used to explore multiple ideas quickly.
‘Tie-down’: A small screw-and-nut device built into the bottom of a stop-motion puppet’s feet. It allows the model to be firmly attached to a tabletop.
‘Timeline’: Part of software that displays the events and items of an animation in terms of time or frames.
‘Trace back’: Sometimes a part of an animation may remain unchanged from one cel to the next. It is therefore traced back onto subsequent cels.
'Track ( or Truck )': A cinematic shot where the camera moves through a scene.
‘Turnarounds’: Front / Side / Back ( or ¾ pose ) Make sure you align height of head, hips, shoulders and feet ( get the ruler out )
‘Tweening‘: Drawing the intermediate drawings/frames that fall between the keyframes in animation.
‘Vector‘: Lines created in computers using mathematical equations.
‘Vector animation‘: An animation that uses images created with vectors. Vector animations are resolution independent so they can be enlarged to any size without deterioration of image quality.
‘Vertex‘: A control point on a 3D object, where two lines of a wireframe model meet.
‘Visemes‘: Mouth shapes corresponding to phonemes.
‘Wireframe‘: A representation of a 3D object showing its structure made up of lines and vertices.
‘World Wide Web ( or WWW )': The graphical interface of the internet that is viewed on a computer using a software browser.