ANIMATION DICTIONARY
This dictionary was written/compiled by me. If you want to copy/replicate it, please drop me an email first. Thanks. OK, now go ahead and read and pass the knowledge onto others. Also, if you find error, imprecision, or just plain stupidity, or if you’d like to add something, please contact me!
2D
Everything that’s conceived on a 2D plane/sheet/canvas (see 3D).
3D
Everything that’s built inside a 3D software as a virtual 3-dimensional object (even though it gets rendered as a 2D image that we see on a 2D screen, in the end, the difference is in the method of creation - 2D is a line, 3D is an object)(see 2D).
animatic
In its simplest form, a storyboard filmed and timed so you get a flowing version of it and be able to judge the storyboard as film. In a more complex form, a rough version of the film that involves camera movement and characters and props moving (but with very basic animation, just to roughly place elements in space and time). Also referred to as a “leica reel” (in the old days). As the production of the film begins the animatic is usually continuously upgraded (with layout for example, and then animation, as soon as there is any) (see props; production; layout).
anticipation
An action has three stages: anticipation, action, and reaction. We anticipate actions before we do them, unless we get hit by the action…. out of the blue. 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 comic 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 (see reaction).
appeal
Quality of a character to attract the eye and please the audience - because of design, acting and personality, overall quality of animation…
arcs
An articulation’s path of action is normally an arc, unless we animate some sort of robot. Arcs can be more or less round, and can turn more or less abrupt, but the idea is that keeping articulations on clean arcs, without jerky movement (unless needed), creates animation flow, logic, and beauty (see articulation).
articulation
A character’s joints or articulations can have 1, 2 or 3 degrees of rotation freedom (such as rotate left /right, up/down, and twist), and be more or less flexible.
breakdown
When working pose to pose, the highest level of poses are the key poses, the keys are further detailed with extremes, and then further detailed with breakdown poses (and at the lowest level is the inbetween). Breakdowns basically describe small bits of movement, and because they’re found in between two extreme positions, they’re also called passing or middle positions). An arc for instance can have two extremes and then, to further define it, you add one or more breakdowns (so, for example, if the extremes were left and right, the breakdown could be a middle-up “extreme”).There can be one or many layers of breakdowns (see pose to pose animation; key; extreme; inbetween; arcs).
breaking joints
Bending a joint in the opposite direction to its normal bending, in such a position that would normally, in reality, break it. This is used for flexibility, for creating the illusion of a curvy limb, waving like a flexible piece of rubber (see progressively breaking joints).
camera cut
An interruption of the film/image by moving to another image/piece of film. A cut separates two shots (see shot).
claymation
(see stopmotion).
contact
A contact position is used when a character “takes off” or “lands”, basically when it just comes in contact with something, or just about to leave (so it’s not necessarily foot contact, but can be hand, head, anything). Used many times as a stretched pose, the contact helps the flow of images by connecting the object about to reach (or just departing from) a target… with the target. This contact kills strobing by filling empty space. Even though the contact position is many times a weird overstretched exaggerated pose, it flows so quick it can’t be seen, just felt, and it gives an organic continuity to the motion - it also helps describing a path of action. In a walk, the contact is the position where the foot touches the ground but has no weight on it yet (see strobing; path of action; weight).
counteraction
Basically, as the body moves, the loose parts of the body such as hair or breasts or belly fat or clothes, they all stay behind and tend to move in the opposite direction (not to mistake for follow through which is the action of those body parts AFTER the movement has come to a stop; also, not to mistake for secondary action or overlapping)(see follow through; secondary action; overlap).
down position
I also call it a low position or key. In a walk or a run (etc) it is the lowest pose, with weight on it.
extreme
The start and ending point of an action, of an arc for instance. In a walk, the extremes are the down/low and the up/high positions, in an arm swing the extremes are the most forward and the most backwards positions (see arcs; down position; up position).
figure 8
A particular type of arc that can be very successfully used for turns (but not only!) - basically, an articulation goes for example up and left and makes a right turn and then it comes back down and left, so it intersects the path it followed when it went up - a figure 8 can be very thin and barely look like an eight, and it can be incomplete, the turn is the idea. It’s always better to use a figure 8 and not a straight line with a sharp turn if animating a living thing (see arcs).
follow through
Auxiliary elements of the body, like tails, floppy ears, clothing, etc, that are soft and flexible, do not come to a stop at the same time with the rest of the body, but follow through… and settle after a while (not to be mistaken for secondary action, which is conscious movement, nor for counteraction, which is about the dragging, while follow through is about the settling)(see overlap; secondary action; counteraction).
fps
Frames per second (see frame rate).
frame
An image in a succession of images (that when played back give the illusion of motion).
frame handles
Extra frames added at the beginning and/or end of a shot, also called cutting frames in the UK (original info here)(see shot).
frame rate
The number of frames per second. Animation, like film, works at 24 fps (see frame).
hard accent
Simply put: a bounce. You “hit” and change direction (see soft accent).
hold
A character striking a pose that’s a simple drawing with no animation on it. If there is very subtle animation, it’s not a hold anymore, it’s a moving hold (see moving hold).
inbetween
The smallest unit of an animation. Keys are further detailed with extremes, extremes are being broken down with…. breakdowns, and breakdowns are being broken down with inbetweens. The inbetweens in handdrawn animation are indicated by the animator, and drawn by the inbetweener. On a computer, the animator can use computer inbetweening - and use all kinds of interpolations in between keyframes (see key; extreme; interpolation; keyframe).
interpolation
The way a computer calculates the path and timing in between 2 points. The path is arched if the skeleton you are using is hierarchical, so an articulation gets to pivot around a pivot point located somewhere else, like a wrist pivots around an elbow, or linear, if the system is not hierarchical. The timing on linear interpolation is 1//2//3, on spline is 1//1.5//2.5//3, on stepped (or held) is 1//1//3, etc.
key
One of the few and most important poses in a shot, which is where its name comes from: you have a drawing on a frame that’s ‘key’ to the entire length of the shot or part of that shot. An entire shot can easily revolve around one or two keys. A key pose usually captures an expression, so I like to call it an expression pose (also called main or “golden” pose).
keyframe
In computer animation, to keyframe an object or articulation means to lock it in time and space. A keyframe is a visual cue for that specific moment where that specific articulation is placed.
layout
Pre-animation stage where you arrange the characters, cameras, props, all the objects needed in your scene to be ready for animation.
line of action
An imaginary line that you can draw along the character’s pose. A character’s body posture flows along this imaginary line of action. Flexible and dynamic line shapes tend to be arched or S-like, with the legs and hands either flowing along the line or opposing it. Natural shapes are more diverse though, but also tend to have less visual impact.
lipsynch
Animating the mouth (so it actually includes the tongue as well, not only the lips) to synchronize with the speech on the soundtrack.
moving hold
In computer animation especially, holds are moving holds, meaning that you can’t simply freeze the character into a pose or it will look very dead… A moving hold is basically very subtle animation on a character that doesn’t move, or moves very little (see hold).
ones
Animation “on ones” means a drawing (or image render) per each frame. In handdrawn animation this is usually used in fast and/or detailed, intricate motion. Computer animation renders everything frame by frame, so normally there is no “ones versus twos” battle (see twos).
overlap
Delaying different bodyparts or any animated elements so you don’t have everything hitting an accent or coming to a stop on the same frame(do not mistake for follow through or counteraction, overlapping events is, like secondary action, a conscious action)(see follow through; counteraction; secondary action).
overshooting
Going over the limits of an extreme, or of any pose, and then coming back to that pose - to give it an extra punch.
path of action
Any animated object or body or articulation travels along a path of action, which is usually an arc. Only robots can have truly linear movements, but for a living being of any kind known to us, its paths of action will be arched (see articulation; arcs).
pose
A pose or position or a drawing is basically what it sounds like - positioning (or drawing) the body (and facial expression maybe) to describe/express something; (see pose to pose animation).
pose to pose animation
A method of animating: the animator sets layers of poses and works in an organized fashion by breaking down the movement in more and more detail. The highest layer is that of the key poses, then come the extremes, then breakdowns (as many layers as needed - some people prefer to add layers and keep breaking things down in more and more detail), and finally, the lowest, more mechanical level, of the inbetweens (this method tends to be too rigid, it’s ideal to combine it with straight ahead animation and work straight ahead between the main poses, that I like to call “pillars”)(see pose; straight ahead animation).
postproduction
Once the whole thing is done, it’s not done! There is color correction, editing… last minute panic, all that jazz (see preproduction; production).
preproduction
Preparations for the film - that include research, using inspirational artwork, designing characters and sets and props, creating a color script (organizing the overall color design for every scene), developing the story, creating a storyboard and upgrading it to an animatic (see set; prop; storyboard; animatic; production; postproduction).
production
The actual work on the film once the preproduction stage is done. Mainly animation, but also, in 3D for example, it means modeling, texturing, rigging, simulations, lighting and rendering (see preproduction; postproduction).
progressively breaking joints
We apply the breaking joints technique to an entire chain. Joints in a flexible chain follow a leader who’s generating the motion, and the motion propagates through this chain in such a way that 2 follows 1, 3 follows 2 and so on. Yes, it’s the overlap idea applied to a chain of breaking joints (see breaking joints).
prop
Object used by a character.
reaction
An action has three stages: anticipation, action, and reaction. An action can be followed by a reaction to that action, and this reaction can be that of the character, of other characters, of the ambient, of an object… (like if you fly and hit a wall, the hit is a reaction). Reaction can be used with great effect in film when you have multiple layers of reaction (you hit a wall, the wall fractures, you fall down, the wall fractures some more, the wall collapses on top of you, the entire construction that was held by that wall collapses, the entire city is left in darkness because the construction was an electrical power plant or something… and so on, an entire chain of events) (see anticipation).
rotoscoping
Copying movement by tracing video frame by frame (lame, but helpful sometimes).
scene
Normally referred to as a sequence of shots where all the action happens within a given space and time, with no jumps to a different space and/or time.
secondary action
Small auxiliary movements meant to enrich the main action, but usually not distract too much from it. Fingers playing, shoulders going back and forward, tail animation, ears animation (but not when these are being simply dragged or pushed or settling, that’s counteraction and follow through), blinks, etc (see counteraction; follow through).
set
The happy place where the action happens. In 2D there might be no set if all there is is painted backgrounds, but in 3D or stopmotion you need to build the set from the ground up (unless, again, you use background images).
shot
The smallest fragment of a film, the amount of film rolling in between two camera cuts (see camera cut).
slow in
Also referred to as “ease in”. A movement that starts slower and then accelerates is a movement with a slow in (see slow out).
slow out
Also referred to as “ease out”. A movement that slows down towards its end is a movement with a slow out (see slow in).
soft accent
An accent created by a moving object or body or articulation without changing the direction of action but simply alternating timing - introducing fast movement in slow action and vice versa. The contrast doesn’t need to be significant to be noticeable. Basically, you “hit” and continue in the same direction (see hard accent).
spacing
The path of action of an object (see path of action). Because of the visual feedback timing has in animation, spacing is often mistaken for timing and vice versa. The amount of space from A to B is timing!! The exact position of A and B is spacing!!(see timing).
squash and stretch
It means two things: 1. squashing and stretching a body - to enhance a movement and make the character more flexible (rigid parts of the body, like the cranium, should normally be kept rigid); 2. squashing and stretching a pose - this doesn’t involve any deformations, but being aware of them while posing enhances movement. Life is a continuous squash and stretch.
stopmotion animation
Animation with real-world puppets, where the camera takes a picture and then the animators rearrange the puppet, the camera takes another picture, and so on. Basically, we have a camera that is “stopped at every frame” (also called stopframe animation, stopmo, claymation - when the puppets are clay sculptures).
storyboard
Visual description of a film/fragment of a film, by drawing an image for every important action. Telling the story visually, with drawings. There normally has to be at least one drawing per shot. The storyboard is often used during the development of the story, in the preproduction of a film. It’s easy to change story structure by rearranging the drawings pinned on the board, making new drawings, etc (see shot).
straight ahead animation
A method of animating: the animator works frame by frame in a continuous creative flow (this method tends to be too loose, unfocused, hard to control, it’s ideal to combine it with pose to pose animation and work straight ahead between the main poses, that I like to call “pillars”)(see pose; pose to pose animation).
strobing
Flickering animation. There are many reasons for this to happen: the spokes of a wheel rotating can strobe if the distance covered by one spoke is greater than the distance from one spoke to another (the eye gets confused, it can’t relate the images anymore). Also, panned backgrounds can produce this jitter at certain speeds, but not all images seem to produce jitter - it depends on softness, color, contrast. There may be other reasons too. For images to flow well one into another they have to be connected in such a way that the eye doesn’t read any obstruction or break or unexpected change.
timing
The amount of time required for an action or series of actions (you can use for example an expression such as “fast timing” to describe the overall timing for an entire animation). Because of its visual feedback (timing in animation is seen as distance from point A to point B: if the distance is small the object travels slowly, and therefore the timing is slow, if the distance is large the object travels a lot of space from one frame to another, and therefore the timing is fast) it is often mistaken for spacing, and vice versa. The amount of space from A to B is timing!! The exact position of A and B is spacing!! (see spacing).
twos
Animation “on twos” means a drawing (or image render) for every two frames. The drawings get duplicated, which means half the number of drawings. In handdrawn animation this is usually used in normal and slow motion. Stopmotion also uses twos (see ones).
up position
I also call it a high position or key. In a walk or a run (etc) it is the highest pose, with the weight traveling upwards, maybe being thrown up in the air by the body movement.
weight
Any body or object has a certain weight, that we can read from its movement and its interaction with other bodies or objects. A heavy object for example is hard to move, a heavy body in movement will put more effort into fighting gravity. A heavy object or body is hard to start and hard to stop. Each step set by a heavy character is going to leave the ground for a very little amount of time and come back to the ground really fast, so the illusion of weight is mainly created with timing. A heavy box is hard to lift, so the character has to position itself in such a way as to accommodate that difficult task, and also think about the action before doing it. In this case we help achieving the illusion of weight through attitude and posing.
weight shift
The weight of a body in motion shifts from one part of the body to another as the body changes the center of balance. For instance in a walk we keep shifting the weight from one foot to another. Being aware of where the weight is and how it shifts is essential to creating believable movement. If the character for example is out of balance because its weight is on the left foot and that foot is in the air, and the animator holds that pose without the character collapsing, it’s wrong. When cartoons defy the laws of physics they can do anything, but in most cases, even with cartoons, for creating believable movement you need to abide to the laws of physics. So even though they can walk on air because they didn’t read about gravity yet, that walk still has weight.
