Glossary

Terms and Definitions

Combining Live Action: This takes real life footage and mixes it with animation. Taking the storyboarding (mapping both live action and animated sequences), then filming live action (which will include stand-ins or markers for the animated elements), next the animation is created (by hand-drawn animation, 3D modelling, or computer animation) and finally, integrating the live action and the animation together by compositing software, which minor adjustments like lighting and shadows will need to match both footage, allowing it to blend together.

Rotoscoping: An animation technique, which a frame is projected, then traced over for a realistic animation and repeated for each frame to create a realistic action, such as the lightsaber's in Star Wars. It is still used today with computer software like Adobe after effects.

Wireframes: Simplified sketches of 3D objects or characters, used as a guide before adding detailed textures. This helps the animator understand the object's structure to make accurate adjustments to the model.

Computer Generated Imagery (CGI): The use of computer software and hardware to use visual effects to generate realistic imagery, such as video games, films, television programs and simulations. There are three key stages - modelling, layout and animation and rendering, which involves making the 3D objects, positioning to animate them and creating the final image. 

Cel Tracing / Onion Skin: An animation technique in 2D animation, by overlaying multiple frames of the animation to trace over the previous frame to keep consistency a smooth motion when drawing each frame.

Key Fames: The frames that include significant changes or poses that occur, to define the starting and ending points to create the transition between them.

In-betweens: these are the frames between the key frames, which are done by assistant animators or automictically done with software, which the process is called tweening. An example is a character throwing a punch, a key frame where the character is about to extend his arm, another of his arm extended out and another of him bring his arm back. The in-betweens would show shown the character bring his arm out and back.

Frame-by-frame animation: A traditional technique, with each individual frame or image is displayed one after another to create a series, allowing for the illusion when the motion is played a high speed.

Frames: Is an individual image that can makes up an animated sequence when played in rapid succession, allowing for the illusion of motion.

Frame Rate: Is measured in frames per second (FPS), is a number of frames captured in one second of time, which the higher the frame rates the smoother and more lifelike motion will result. The most common rates are 24, 30 or 60 fps.

Number of frames: The more frames will create a longer and smoother animation such as a 5 second animation at 24 fps will require 120 frames whereas at 60 fps will require 300 frames making it a smoother animation.

Compression techniques: 2 types: Lossless compression: zipping up a file that can be unzipped, with nothing lost and exactly the same as the original. Lossy compression: squishing the image to make it smaller, but when un-squished, details will be lost and won't be the same as the original) examples with MP4 and MPEG being lossy and GIF being lossless.