Animation Terms

I was thinking earlier about how I've looked a little, but not full on explored the different styles, techniques and the current trends of animation... and it would help if I understood some of the terminology used within animation... (The more terms/techniques I discover, the more I will post up).

I've made my own notes rather than ramble on here, but I've taken a look at....

Cel-Shaded or Toon-Shaded animation; a a type of non-photorealistic rendering, to make computer graphics appear to be hand drawn.


Motion Capture/Motion Tracking/Mocap...  the process of recording movement and translating that movement onto a digital model. Using the information from movements of human actors, and applying it to digital characters in 3D computer animation. When the process includes face/fingers/captures subtle expressions, it is often referred to as performance capture.

Drawn on film animation/direct animation, (animation without camera), is an animation technique where footage is produced by creating the images directly on film stock, as opposed to any other form of animation where the images or objects are photographed frame by frame with an animation camera.

And also.... Sand Animation.

Sand Art is a style of 'live performance art' where an artist applies sand to a surface, (often a light-board or an overhead projector), and then creates images by drawing lines and figures in the sand with their hands. Sand art is also a style of animation, where animators move around sand on a backlighted or frontlighted piece of glass to create each frame for their animated film.

I think this is incredible....

It just goes to show you can animate with absolutely anything you can get your hands on.