List of Terms in Animation and Film

Aliasing - When the spatial resolution of an image is too low and jagged edges occur. The details of the image are smaller than the individual pixels used to represent the image. This especially occurs on objects with diagonal or curved profiles. There are several ways to combat aliasing. The first is expensive from a rendering standpoint. This approach is to increase the resolution of the image, hence increasing the number of pixels. A second and more efficient technique is to apply antialiasing. There are different techniques of antialiasing, but most are based on oversampling and interpolation. The color values of nearby pixels are averaged and used to determine the individual's color. Increasing antialiasing will also greatly affect the rendering time. A third way is to apply MIP maps and a fourth way is to apply texture filtering.

Animatic - A moving or slideshow of the storyboard, used to refine timing, camera decisions, composition, etc. It is also referred to as a "story reel" or "Leica reel" (pronounced LIKE-uh).

Anticipation - The action preceding the movement of the main action.

Arcs - The curved path that all natural movement follows.

Back Light - Also known as a Rim Light. It illuminates the edge of the subject so that it will be distinct from the background.

Bezier Spline - A curved line that passes through all its control points and is comprised of at least 3 points. The endpoints are called anchor points, while other points are called tangent points or nodes. Each point has two handles which give a great amount of control over the curve. Beziers are created in vector-based drawing programs such as Illustrator and Freehand by the Pen tool.

Breakdowns - A breakdown is the middle position in an arc of action. It is sometimes called the passing position because in the walk cycle, it is the position where one leg is passing the other on its way forward in a step. Other names are: middle position, or intermediate position.

Brightness - measures the light intensity; most bright is white, most dark is black.

Center of Interest - The part of the composition that attracts the viewer's eye the most or first. It is where you want to lead their eyes to.

Chroma Key - A way to make one color 100% transparent while other colors remain 100% opaque. A feature of editing programs such as After Effects.

Close Shot - Also known as a medium closeup. A camera shot where the whole face, or hand or whatever part of the subject is the focus is clearly seen but nothing else except some background.

Closeup Shot - Also known as an extreme closeup. A camera shot with an extremely close view of the subject so that it extends beyond the edges of the screen. The head, hands or whatever on the edge is cropped off. This shot is intended to clearly communicate emotions or thoughts or emphasize symbols.

Color Depth - The number of colors in an image. Millions of colors is a term used to describe 32 bit color depth.

Complimentary color - A primary color and the secondary color opposite on the color wheel.

Cuts - An immediate change from one camera view to another (using one frame).

Depth of Field - An optical effect where distant objects appear more blue and fuzzy in comparison to foreground objects which are warmer and sharp. The effect is caused by the different wavelengths of colors in the light spectrum. Blue lights are scattered more than reds and light waves reflecting from farther away appear fuzzy.

Dolly - Also called a truck; moving the camera toward or away from the subject on a line perpendicular to the picture plane. A dolly in is a move toward and a dolly out is a move away.

Down Shot - A camera shot with a point of view looking down on the subject from above.

Editing - The process of assembling shots into their final order and final length.

Establishing Shot - A particular wide camera shot that establishes the time and place of for that scene. Usually it is the first shot of a scene where there is a scene change.

Expressions - A formula used to create procedural animation usually to speed up repetitive tasks. Sometimes called scripting.

Expression Sheet - Also known as X-sheet or Dope Sheet. Sheets for notating the frame by frame information about the animation including sounds, dialogue and backgrounds.

Face - Another name for a facet, which is a planar surface. Multiple facets are used to define the 3D shape.

Fades - A scene transition technique where one image fades into the next image. These cover a minimum of 3 frames (24 fps). There are several types of fades: dissolves, fade ins and fade outs.

Frame - A single picture image in a film or animation.

Frames per second (fps) - The speed that the frames are displayed at. The standard for film is 24 fps and for video and computer its 30 fps.

Frame Rate - Same as frames per second.

Full Shot - A camera shot where the figure is completely seen or cropped from mid-calf. This shot is intended to show the full body language.

Hue - represents each of the primary colors on the color wheel. Red hue is the same as red color. If something has a reddish hue to it, then it has more red in it than Blue or Green.

Inbetween - The pose drawings inbetween the key drawings in traditional animation. In computer animation, the animator sets a key for an inbetween or the computer does it by interpolation.

Interpolation - The method used by the computer to determine the action inbetween the keys that have been set. The computer averages the information contained in the attributes from sequential keys that have been set.

Keyframing - The technique that defines the action of the animation sequence. Attributes (characteristics such as rotation, translation, scaling, color, etc.) are set in the computer at certain frames, which are called keyframes or simply keys.

Key Light - The main source of light for a scene. It is usually the dominant light.

Key Pose - Also known as the extreme poses. However, many times the key poses or key drawings explain the concept of the story and are put into the storyboard.

Keys - The points on a computer timeline where the information is set for that particular attribute of the character or model.

Long Shot - A camera shot of the full figure and a large amount of the environment. This shot contains a lot of space around the subject. It is intended to merge the subject with the environment.

Material - A set of parameters that define the surface color, shininess, smoothness, etc.

Medium Closeup Shot - Also known as a close shot. A camera shot where the whole face, or hand or whatever part of the subject is the focus is clearly seen but nothing else except some background.

Medium Shot - A camera shot where the figure is cropped between the waist and mid-thigh areas. In this type of shot we can see the body posture and even more background.

Montage - The juxtaposition or arrangement of camera shots in relationship to one another.

Morphing - An animated 3D effect than converts one geometry smoothly into another.

Negative Space - The space around the subject of primary interest. It may be empty or filled with other objects.

Oblique Shot - A camera shot looking at the subject from a tilted horizon line.

Overlap - When some motion starts before others have finished.

Over the Shoulder Shot (OTS) - A camera shot with a point of view from behind a character including part of the head and shoulders of the character.

Pan - A camera transition where the camera is stationary and turned left or right (side to side) on a line parallel to the picture plane. Sometimes called yaw.

Point of View (POV) - The viewpoint of the camera.

Pose - A positioning of the character that shows its attitude at that particular moment. These are sometimes used as another name for the extremes.

Procedurial - The process of using computer procedures built into the 3D software, useful for repetitive tasks. It describes the method used to obtain the color, surface material, model or the animation of many instances of the same geometry.

Primary Action - The action that captures the audience's attention. It carries the action forward to the next action.

Proportion - Proportion defines the relationship of the part with the whole, how large some part is respect to the entire composition.

Reaction Shot - A camera shot where the audience sees the reaction of some character listening or observing the action taking place

Real-time - When events happen at a rate similar to events in the real world.

Rendering - The process in computer animation where the animated models are visually represented on screen.

Reverse Cut - A camera cut where the camera faces the opposite direction from the previous shot. Two-way conversations, confrontations, etc. are common scenarios for these types of shots.

Rule of Thirds - A technique where the picture plane is divided horizontally and vertically into thirds and the center of interest is positioned anywhere the lines meet. Usually, the center position is the most common and, hence, the most boring if not used properly.

Saturation - the color intensity of the hues involved in a color; basically the amount of full color.

Scale - In art, scale is the relative size of each element of a composition as seen from the viewer's POV. In CG, scale is an attribute that varies the size of the object selected to be scaled.

Scene - There are 2 definitions, one for live-action and one for animation: For live-action scenes: each change of time or place or thought. For animation scenes: each change of a camera shot.

Script - The story written in a form that just contains some basic descriptions of movements and scenery, the camera and scene transitions, and dialogue.

Secondary Action - The action(s) that echo or compliment the primary action. It often starts as a reaction to the primary action, but may through time become the next primary action.

Sequence - A sequence is a block of scenes. It represents one continuous episode, similar to a chapter in a book.

Shading - The process of assigning surface parameters to 3D geometry.

Shot - Each change of camera angle and/or position.

Staging - In cinematography, it describes the process of positioning (layout) the camera and lighting and the actor's positions. In animation, it describes the principle of communicating the action, emotion, and personality with clarity and effectiveness.

Storyboard - A series of panels of sketches or illustrations of the story based upon the script as it is interpreted by the director and/or storyboard artists. There are 3 kinds of storyboards: Conceptual, Technical and Presentational. Animators work with technical storyboards.

Texture - A term in art and a separate term in CG animation. In art, it refers to the rough or smooth characteristics of the parts of a composition or object.In CG animation it refers to an image file that is used to define the surface attributes on the geometry.

Thumbnails - Small paneled sketches of the story or sequence. Preliminary work for the storyboards or for animating.

Tilt - A camera transition where the camera is stationary and turned up or down.

Tone - Also known as value. The amount of white or black percentage of a color.

Treatment - A short 1-3 paragraph synopsis of the story idea. This is made into a script.

Truck - Also called a dolly; moving the camera toward or away from the subject on a line perpendicular to the picture plane. A truck in is a move toward and a truck out is a move away.

Twinning - When extremities mirror each other or create "twins".

Value - Also known as tone. The amount of white or black percentage of a color.

Wide Shot - A camera shot where the figures are distant, almost lost in the background. The purpose of this shot is to show the environment.

Wipes - A scene transition technique creating an optical effect when one scene supercedes the previous by some sort of matte or an object in the composition. The mattes can be solids or come in a pattern (window blinds, spiral, dots, etc.).

Zoom - An optical effect, not a camera transition, where the lens changes to make the subjects appear to move in or move away. It is sometimes confused with the truck, however, the camera does not physically move in a zoom.