Copy of `ClickInk - Animation art glossary`

The wordlist doesn't exist anymore, or, the website doesn't exist anymore. On this page you can find a copy of the original information. The information may have been taken offline because it is outdated.

ClickInk - Animation art glossary Category: Arts > Animation terms Date & country: 01/02/2018, USA. Words: 38

Gum Arabic Based Cel Paints
The sap from two species of the acacia tree grown in northern Africa and the Middle East are hardened into a gum, which is then dried and ground to make gum arabic, a binder for water-soluble paint mediums. Gouache is one type of gum arabic based cel paint.

Dry Brush
To achieve a scratchy or highly textured finish, dry brush painting requires a brush just damp enough to hold paint or ink.

Cut-out/Trimmed Cels
Backgrounds, props, and some characters often begin as 2D objects, trimmed to scale and shape, and placed as needed within the frame. Some main characters are made from cut-outs, too. The TV series, South Park, is a recent example of cut-out animation.

Cracking
Cracking occurs when paintings are folded, creased, or crumpled instead of being stored flat or smoothly rolled. Room temperature is also important to prevent cracks from forming, especially when acrylic paints are used.

Courvoisier Setups
The Courvoisier galleries of San Francisco developed this style to display works from the Disney studio during the 1930s and 1940s. It’s a simple presentation, employing a simple frame and cream-colored matt with a simple inscription of the character or production name.

Concept Art
Before detailed work begins, concept art is developed to convey the mood, sequence of events, and other elements of the final production.

Color Model Cels
Cels produced during the development stages that help the production staff determine placement, color, contrast, and shading for best visual effect. Animation artists develop the color models and the rest of the production staff uses these color models as examples of how the finalized cels should look.

Clean-Ups
Clean-ups are required at various stages of the animation’s production to erase/edit flaws; correct alignment, color, and shading; coordinate sound with motion; and streamline motion. Clean-ups also refer to the more refined sketches traced from the rougher, original concept drawings.

Chipping/Paint Loss
Over time, paint from original works tend to chip and flake off, especially when mishandled or stored poorly. These anomalies usually affect the value of the piece.

Character Models
Because animation is a moving art form, individual characters will be seen in various poses, angles, and actions. Before a final drawing is committed to celluloid, individual characters are drawn in all anticipated activities in order to choose the single look that best meets the needs of the production. These models are then used as templates to complete the rest of the production.

Cel Setups
Two or more cels stacked together to produce the final copy or scene.

Cel Levels
Using multiple layers of animation cels stacked together produces a more three-dimensional look and allows the animator more freedom to change details on an individual cel without drawing a large number of very similar cels.

Casein Based Cel Paints
Used since the time of the ancient Egyptians, casein based paint is made with milk and ammonia. This fast-drying paint can be made at home, dries to a matte finish, and is often used for underpainting.

Background Paintings
An animated work of art is often begun with background paintings, where the same painting is used for the background in multiple frames. This technique saves production time, money, and ensures consistency within the sequence. It also allows for each member of a production team to work on various cels without distorting the final production.

Art Corner Setups
From the mid-1950s until the early 1970s, Disney animation art prints with lithographic backgrounds were sold in a gift shop in the Tomorrowland section at the Disneyland theme park. These inexpensive prints represented soon-to-be-released films still in the production phase of development and each one sported a distinctive gold authentication sticker on the back side of the frame.

Animation Cels
These individual cels represent the many layers involved with producing a single frame of an animated production.

Acrylic and Vinyl Based Cel Paints
Paint suspended in an acrylic polymer emulsion (acrylics) produces a very versatile, vibrantly colored paint that dries fast, resists water, and can be applied so the finished piece appears to have been produced with oil or watercolor. Vinyl paints have many of the same desirable characteristics as acrylics but produce toxic fumes. Caution is advised when using vinyl paints.

Acetate Cels
Original cels were compounded camphor and cellulose nitrate, a combo that is highly flammable and easily decomposes into toxic substances. A newer version, using the acetate ester of cellulose, is more popular today thanks to its chemical stability. It’s sometimes referred to as zylonite or zyl.

Hand Inking
Before 1960, all outlines in animation productions were done by manually drawing the shapes onto the cel using a quill pen or paint brush. Modern technology has automated the process but some artists prefer hand inking, if only for special effects.

Inker's Tests & Clean-Up Tests
An inker’s test involves using ink and/or pencil sketches of characters and action against an inked background, the musical score, and voice actors to synchronize all elements before color, clean up, and all other elements are refined and finalized. Clean-up tests are similar, done when the production is in its final phase.

Lamination
Even though it’s often applied as a means of preservation, the lamination process can damage artworks of all genres. The high heat and strong chemicals used to apply the laminate cause damage to many art mediums.

Layout Drawings
Line drawings that represent characters’ movements and background and are used as reference guides by the rest of the production team.

Limited Edition Cels
Hand-painted or digitally created cels of finished quality that are created for sale to collectors but not used in the actual production of the final work. Only a limited number of each cel is produced, with number and quantity noted on the piece itself; for example, 10/100 indicates a piece is the tenth of 100 copies of a particular cel.

Line Wear
When a work of art is in stable, or good, condition (above the line), no restorative work is needed nor is the value of the work diminished due to condition. Below the line, enough damage is evident to warrant repairs and value diminishes according to the extent of the line wear.

Merchandising Artwork & Book Illustrations
This artwork is used for advertising and merchandising purposes. One common example of this type artwork is the movie poster often seen in a theater lobby. Book illustrations incorporate artwork from the animated production onto covers and internal pages to help illustrate the story in book form.

Nitrate Cels
The original celluloid film used for animation purposes, made from cellulose nitrate and camphor.

Panning Shots
Derived from the word, panorama, panning shots encompass more of a scene than can be viewed through the lens of a stationary camera. Pan shots provide a wide-angle view in motion, providing views that pan from left to right horizontally, vertically, or zooming in or out for close-up or distance shots.

Photographic Lines
Very fine, thin lines used to sketch outlines onto a cel for extreme close-up shots. Hand inking produces lines that are too thick to achieve the correct effect so hand-inked drawings are rendered at full size then photographically reduced to the desired size.

Presentation Setups
This type setup provides instructions to the projectionist as to how projection equipment needs to be assembled, readied, and calibrated to provide the highest quality presentation to the viewing audience.

Publicity & Promotional Artwork
High-quality cels or video clips designed to sell the story of the animated production to financiers, movie houses or chains, advertisers, and the general public. This type artwork is often seen as movie trailers and production-based designs on soft-drink bottle and cup labels, candy wrappers, and cereal boxes.

Recent Art Packaging
Since 1973, Disney art bears the name, “Walt Disney Company.” Each piece is laminated and bears an embossed seal of authentication on the topmost cel of the work.

Rough Animation Drawings
First draft drawings of scenes that will be refined and completed by the animation clean-up staff once key scenes are selected. These rough drafts usually represent only one out of every several frames and are often more highly prized as collectors’ items than their cleaned-up final versions.

Sealant
Often used to waterproof a painting, sealants typically darken over time, obscuring vivid colors and important details.

Separation, Lifting, or Glassing
Where multiple layers of paint are used, the layers can separate, or lift, with age. Even the best preserved works of art can sustain damage from broken glass, such as would happen if the glass cover of a frame or show case breaks.

Serigraphs
Derived from the Latin word for silk (seri) and the Greek word meaning to write or draw (graphein), serigraphy is a form of screen printing similar to silk screening onto fabric. Some software programs accomplish serigraphy using computers. Serigraph prints are usually printed in lots of 5,000 or fewer and are used for promotional purposes.

Storyboards
Rough template-like frames depicting timeline of the finished production. Storyboards resemble comic strip drawings but represent just a brief outline of the story. Details, motion, color, and other finishing touches will be added to the separate, finished cels as they are produced.

Title Cards
Title cards contain the text associated with an animated production, which usually includes title and cast/crew credits. Traditionally, a text overlay is created on a transparent cel stacked on top of a background painting but today’s digital technologies make this process much easier and quicker.

Xerography
This dry-inking process replaces hand inking of outlines onto animation cels. Invented in 1938, the process was first used in the animated feature film, One Hundred and One Dalmations, in 1961. The process, more commonly known as xeroxing, increases the precision of a large animation staff with multiple members working with the same static elements of various frames.