Glossary – Materials in Motion

inking

Inking is the term used for applying the contours of the animated objects and characters on the recto of a cel. This can be done with a brush, a pen or a marker.

Clean up is a stage in the workflow of hand drawn animation. The clean-up animation follows the rough animation, which consists of loosely made sketches of the movement. When these sketches are approved by the animator or director, they are reproduced in the clear and clean lines that make the finished look of the animation.

collage animation

collage animation or cut-out animation is a process of animating characters made out of several two dimensional pieces by moving them around frame by frame. Collage animation is a form of stop-motion animation and can either be computer generated or done traditionally using paper. Toon Boom Animation Inc. Glossary Lexikon der Filmbegriffe. Animationsfilm: Typen und …

cut-out animation

cut-out animation or sometimes referred to as collage animation is a process of animating characters made out of several two dimensional pieces by moving them around frame by frame. Cut-out animation is a form of stop-motion animation and can either be computer generated or done traditionally using paper. Toon Boom Animation Inc. Glossary Lexikon der …

background [BG]

A background is the element in a scene that appears to lie at the most distant plane. In analogue animation, a background is a piece of artwork generally rendered on a single level, over which the finished cel(s) is/are placed to be photographed and which serves as the setting for the action. S/R Laboratories Animation …

leader

1. (film-technique) a length of film attached to the head or tail of a film to assist in threading a projector or telecine. 2. (broadcasting and screening) a short sequence that plays at the beginning of a show.

storyboard

A visual plan of all the scenes and shots in an animation. The storyboard indicates what will happen, when it will happen and how the objects in a scene are laid out. Toon Boom Animation Inc. Glossary

header strip

A header strip or registration strip is a punched strip of paper or plastic that is adhered to a cel, animation paper or background. The shape of the punched holes and the distance between them correspond with the pegs on the peg bar. When the cels or animation drawings are not punched, a header strip can be used to …

cel

A cel is a transparent sheet of plastic foil on which the image sequence of the animated film is drawn, painted or otherwise created. The word cel is derived from celluloid, the material used in the production of the very first animated films. Celluloid is the common name for a class of compounds created from cellulose nitrate and camphor, with …

Shui-mo animation

Shui-mo animation (Ink-wash animation, 水墨动画) is an animation style that is unique to China. This style combines both Chinese traditional aesthetics of ink wash drawing (Shui-mo) and modern animation techniques. Du, Daisy Yan. “National Style and National Identity: The Rise of Ink-Painting Animation in the Early 1960s,” in On the Move: The Trans/national Animated Film in …