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Animation post - Film and animation terms Category: Film and Animation > Animation Date & country: 15/11/2007, UK Words: 177

motion tracking
using software to lock on to an area in a shot, then follow that area from frame to frame. For example, using motion tracking, you can replace the number plate of a car in a film sequence

mp3
the most widely used of several available sound file formats using compression to reduce file-size compared to the 'raw' original

MPEG
a (compressed) bitmap file format expressly for moving images including sound; comes in various 'flavours', one of which (MPEG-2) is used for publishing programmes on DVD. MPEG4 has better compression and is likely to become standard

multiplane
a pseudo 3D effect created in 2D animation by separating artwork at different values in the z axis. (In plain English, the animation cels are placed at varying distances from the camera. Thus, if the camera moves towards the artwork, the distant artwork will seem to move slower towards us and nearer artwork will seem to move faster. The effect is of real depth, though the artwork itself of course remains flat)

noise
this is a technical term meaning any random meaningless data added to either a picture or sound. Whilst noise is usually regarded as undesirable, some forms such as film grain may be actually added to produce a less clean and mechanistic look to an image. (See also boiling)

NTSC
TV system used in USA, Japan and elsewhere. It runs at 30 frames per second and so broadcasting movie films shot at 24 frames per second requires technical fixes

ones
(aka singles) - where one animation drawing or artwork instance is used per frame. In traditional drawn animation, much work can be saved by using twos instead

onion skinning
in drawn animation, an animator will draw on sheets of paper that become semi-opaque when illuminated from below as on a lightbox. This effect, of semi-transparency, is often emulated in animation software where it is known as onion-skinning. The idea is that you see up to several consecutive frames of animation on top of each other at one time so you can check that the movement flows smoothly

opaque
US term (rare) for paint

optical
an effect that used to be carried out in-camera: fade in, fade out, dissolve (aka mix)

original
term used on tapes to indicate that it is raw footage; in live action, this would be the tape that has actually run through a camera. Pretty much meaningless for animation

painting
traditional: the cel, having been traced, was turned over and acrylic paint applied. When it was dry and the cel was turned back the right way, the paint would be almost perfectly flat.

PAL
TV system used in most of  W. Europe, Australia and elsewhere. It normally runs at 25 frames per second. Cinema film is shot at 24 frames per second. When film is shown on PAL TV, it is generally run at 25 as the slight speed up is not noticeable, (the exception being for people with perfect pitch)

pan
in live-action, a pan is the horizontal swivel of the camera as, for example, when it sits on a static tripod and follows someone walking across a room. (The vertical equivalent is called a “tiltâ€?). In 2D animation, this effect is pretty much impossible to achieve as every element of an image would have to change in perspective. The word “panâ€? therefore has its own usage in 2D animation and generally means any movement in any direction of either characters or the camera itself except for moves “in zâ€? â€` that is towards and away from the camera.

particles animation
2D and 3D cgi software animation option to create many physical effects such as smoke, fire, water etc. based on streams of  'particles'. These can be as simple as tiny dots or any other small shape repeated many times

path
term often used to describe the non-linear movement of an animation element or the camera within a scene. It will be drawn as a guide on the camera layout.

pegbar
a thin strip of metal or plastic on to which animation drawings are placed to keep them in register. Also referred to just as “pegsâ€?, though in fact pegs have a subtly different meaning â€` see below

pegs
a regular “Acme� pegbar has a round peg and two long shaped pegs. Generally speaking, most people in animation will now use the term “pegs� when referring to the location of the round centre hole on panning artwork. The first round peg hole will be the “A� centre, the next “B� and so on. (These are precisely 8 inches apart). picture

pencil
a graphite-based digitally operated drawing device which is used to make marks on paper

pitch - roll - yaw
3D terms: these are three movements about a point. The easiest way to describe them is by reference to the movement of an aircraft:

pixel
bitmap images are composed of tiny (usually square) elements called pixels, much like the dots of a half-tone newspaper photograph

pixel aspect ratio
pixels are usually square, (an aspect ratio of 1) but not always. When they are not square in shape, they will have a pixel aspect ratio greater or less than 1

pixelation
the blocky effect you see if a bitmap image is enlarged. One common example is its use to cover the face of someone on TV in order to hide their identity. Not to be confused with the next entry...

pixilation - pixillation
moving real-world things or people around and shooting them frame by frame - animate your favourite furniture!

PNG
a bitmap file type that can have lossless compression and an alpha channel

post production
last stage of the film production process, where the 'raw' footage is edited, special effects are added, sound dubbed and so on

POV
= point of view, eg 'we look up to see owner from dog's POV'

primary (colour)
these are basic colours from which all other colours can be mixed

progressive scan
video in which the whole picture is shown as one frame (25 per second in PAL, 30 per second in NTSC), which is similar to a film frame. The opposite is interlaced

Quicktime
Apple's proprietary moving image (and sound) file format. Mostly used on MACs, but also commonly used on PCs where files will normally be suffixed .mov

ray tracing
3D cgi rendering option based on the path taken by light to reach the viewer from a scene. Particularly useful for emulating realistic reflections. Care must be taken in limiting iterations (how many times the light bounces around) or render computing time increases out of control

render(ing)
producing the final image from the draft work; (in 2D, the draft stage is the line-test, in 3D it is wireframe anmation). The rendered image is the one seen in the finished film

resolution
how much information is present in media - how sharp a picture is, how accurately recorded a sound

RGB
= red, green, blue. Values of these three primary colours are used in some graphics file formats to describe colour value. Component video is usually based on RGB. Note that a very small range of colours in CMYK cannot be reproduced using RGB

RGBA
= red, green, blue, alpha. Used in bitmap graphic files. The alpha channel represents transparency

roll
see pitch/roll/yaw above

rostrum
the large table plus column(s) and camera cradle used in a traditional animation rostrum camera set-up. Although now almost entirely replaced by software, the convention of referring to an animation camera as though there is still a physical one continues

rotoscope -rotoscoping
animation drawings based on or copied from live action imagery

rushes
aka 'dailies'. The footage generated in one day on a particular production. On major productions, the relevant crew will assemble to view the rushes each day together with the director

sampling rate
how many times per second a measurement is taken in recording sound

saturation
the amount of colour in an image; when the saturation is zero, there is no colour, so you are left with a greyscale image

scene
in live action, a scene is one location within a story (e.g. a kitchen). A scene may consist of separate shots. Scene in animation is often used to mean what would be understood to be a shot in live-action (see below)

SD(TV)
standard definition TV, approximately 600 lines resolution as distinct from HDTV = high definition

sdi
= serial digital interface using BNC leads, professional use. High quality inter-connect for video signals. All video and audio data travel down one single cable.

self trace
in drawn animation, refers to ink lines that are coloured the same as the areas they enclose. The effect is thus that there are no visible trace lines

SF = segmented frame
this is a special instance of interlace used only in high definition TV. There are 2 fields as in normal interlaced pictures, but each field represents exactly the same moment in time

SFX
short for 'special effects'

shade
another word for brightness or luminance

Shockwave
a file format related to Flash, though not so widely used online. It is more used for 'authoring' CD ROMS. If you do need to play Shockwave files, you need to download a plug-in from Adobe. Files produced by Shockwave are called '.DCR' - don't be confused into thinking it has anything to do with .SWF - that's the file format of Flash

shot
best described in live-action terms: whenever you start the camera rolling, you are starting a new shot

special effects
(SFX) the term covers many different ways of altering the appearance of raw imagery. An effect may be as simple as adding a blur or may involve very complex effects animation, such as explosions

specular lighting
3D cgi term. The effect of a directional light hitting a shiny surface which causes sharply defined highlights, like on a polished snooker ball

sRGB
a version of RGB colour space with a reduced gamut to RGB proper. If you are offered a choice of colour space within an application, always choose sRGB as its use is almost universal

stopframe
or stop-frame: all animation is in essence stopframe, but the accepted use of this word is for describing the photographing of (physical) models frame by frame as distinct from drawn animation or cgi 3D

storyboard
the story of a production in pictures, together with dialogue and indications of framing, action, camera moves, transitions between shots, music, sound effects. Pre-printed storyboard pads can be purchased

strobing
the very unpleasant juddering that sometimes occurs within camera or artwork pans. It only occurs at particular speeds but is also dependent on other factors like image contrast and colours etc. Apart from experimenting with different movement speeds, there are two other ways to reduce the problem: first, blurring the edges of objects moving across screen will help. (See motion blur).

stroke
in vector graphics: control points placed on a path that control its colour and width. Strokes can, for instance, be used to create the appearance of a dip-pen line

subtractive (colours)
this is the description of how coloured inks and paints mix together as in print work or painting on canvas. The four most commonly used subtractive primary colours are CMYK - cyan, magenta, yellow and black

SWF
Small Web File. The output file generated by Flash and other software for sending (mostly) vector animation over the internet. It doesn't stand for Shockwave file

telecine
the transfer of movie films to electronic media, such as hard disk, video tape or broadcast

TGA
( 'Targa') a common bitmap file type that can have an alpha channel

TIFF
a common bitmap file type that can have an alpha channel. There are many variations of TIFFs, so if exchanging files, agree on a type. File extension names:

timecode
a way of designating and identifying every frame with a unique number. A typical timecode reading might be:  01:10:00:00

trace - tracing
traditional: the animators` line drawings were copied on to cels, either by hand drawing using technical or dip pens, usually in ink, or automatically by some sort of photocopying process. The result was a line drawing, (most often black), which was then used as a boundary line to paint up to on the reverse side of the cel

track in - out
this is where the camera moves towards or away from the artwork; in 3D, this is a move in the z axis. (When animation cameras were real cameras, this meant they moved up or down their supporting columns). The term has the same meaning as in live-action. It is sometimes, incorrectly, referred to as a “zoomâ€?, â€` a zoom shot in live-action or CGI is achieved by altering the focal length of a lens, hence perspective and depth of field alter as you go between a wide angle type shot and telephoto. The effect can be very different from physically moving the camera

twos
(aka doubles) - as distinct from ones  - each animation drawing or artwork instance is held for two frames. Most animation can be done this way without problem, but very fast movements should be animated and shot on ones or unpleasant juddering will be seen

vector graphic
the alternative to bitmap graphics. The lines of a vector drawing are actually mathematical curves which connect up control points (vertices). Unlike bitmap images, a vector graphic can be enlarged to a very large degree without ill effects like blockiness or fuzziness

wav
sound file format, normally higher quality than compressed formats such as mp3

white balance
unlike the human eye, a camera will normally only record colours correctly at one  specific colour temperature. But you don't need to know the colour temperature to film correct colours; a sheet of white card can be held up to the camera and a white balance reading taken. The camera will then 'know' what is supposed to be white in that scene and record all colours correctly

whizz lines
extra lines added to indicate fast movement - a crude way of approximating to motion blur

wireframe
the first stage in cgi 3D before an object is rendered. As the name implies, the imagery looks as though it is drawn in thin lines. As far less computation is required to represent wireframe images, they may sometimes be used to test animation timing

xyz
the 3 axes of movement in space possible. See below:

yaw
see pitch/roll/yaw above

YUV
a format of video that uses minimal compression in order to reduce the amount of data created by RGB. Note that some graphics software enables you to produce YUV files, but this is very rarerly needed

x axis
East West movement (left to right) is in x

y axis
North South movement (up and down) is in y

z axis
 movement towards and away from the camera is in z