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Introduction:
Animation is one of the booming- industries of today’s time. As a matter of fact, The global animation industry accounted for about USD 394.6 billion in the year 2022. Animation is the process of creating the illusion of motion using still images. These still images are then stacked and tracked on another parameter called time. This creates an illusion of motion and thus, an animated video is formed.
Every industry goes hand in hand creatively. Storytelling is the backbone of the entertainment industry regardless of various mediums. The mediums of storytelling can completely alter the way it is perceived. A designated style and colour grading are required to present the piece to its target audience.
What is Film Design?
When you are a beginner in the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comic industry (abbreviated as AVGC Industry), it is common to be confused by the tough vocabulary that the professionals use.
This blog will help clear some brain fog and confusion around some important terms. We have covered some common terminologies that raise the confused brow of beginners.
These terminologies will also include a few slang commonly used by industry professionals.
We have segregated these terms in alphabetical order.
Here we go:
A: Animation, Aspect Ratio, Aesthetics
B: Background, Baseline
C: Concept Art / Curves
D: Digital Painting, Depth, DOF
E: Export, Emphasis, Eyedropper Tool
F: File Format, Flow, Frame Rate
G: Greyscale, Glyphs, Gradient, Golden Ratio
Adjustment Layer:
Adjustment layers are special layers in raster-based softwares that contain special effects applied to an image. These Adjustment layers are mostly used to add lighting, colour and selective colour effects.
Animation:
Animation is the process of creating the illusion of motion using still images. These still images are then stacked and tracked on another parameter called time. This creates an illusion of motion and thus, an animated video is formed.
Aspect Ratio:
Aspect Ratio is the ratio of width is to height. This is used to define the average ratio size of a digital canvas. Most Common aspect ratios are, 1:1(square), 4:3, 16:9
Aesthetics:
Aesthetic is the overall pleasing composition of elements that are being rearranged in a particular fashion. They play a crucial role nowadays in the visual industry. There are various types of aesthetics, softcore, grunge, paper texture etc.
Background:
The background is the last element of a composition. It supports a certain feel to the design.
Baseline
Baseline is generally referred to as a typographic term. The baseline is the horizontal axis where each character sits. This can be shifted, the phenomenon is called a baseline shift.
Concept Art:
Concept Art is the starting point of every idea. Concept artists are designers who are responsible for visualizing and creating a variety of assets in several different settings. These artists are incredibly versatile at what they do and refine their skills to be successful.
Curves:
Curves are one of the types of adjustment layers. Curves are a feature of a raster-based editing software, called Adobe Photoshop. The Curves adjustment layer controls the lights and shadows of an image. The lights are the lighter areas of an image, in contrast to the darks of the image, called shadows. The areas that lie in between these two extremes are called midtones.
Digital Painting:
Digital painting is a booming industry. Digital painting is similar to traditional painting given that the canvas is a digital canvas and so are tools. Digital painting is a necessary skills for anyone pursuing fields like concept art etc.
Depth:
Depth is the visual length of a composition. Basically, how far can your eyes go into the composition, what details can you recognise within the image. The more the depth, the better the illusion of space.
DOF:
DOF refers to the Depth of Field. This term is commonly used in the photography industry.According to photographylife.com, “Depth of field is the distance between the closest and farthest objects in a photo that appears acceptably sharp.”
Export:
Exporting is a common term used by designers. It simply means to save an artwork in a designated format. This term in use will sound like,” Hey, Export this file in a .jpeg format and share it to me”. So, now you know.
Emphasis
Emphasis literally, means to give visual importance to one or more elements in the composition. This is created by changing the properties of those important elements in the design layout.
Eyedropper Tool
The Eyedropper tool comes a lot handy when we need to sample a colour. Sampling is often called,” to pick a colour” To pick a colour from a reference image and apply it to your own creation is usually done by the use of an eyedropper tool. The eyedropper tool generally looks like a chemical equipment called, dropper, hence the name. This is common in all design programs.
File Format:
File Format refers to the format in which the file will be saved. There are plenty of formats available in popular design programs. The most common ones being, .JPEG , .PNG, .SVG, .PSD, .PDF, .AI etc.
Flow
Flow is the visual flow of a design. The visual flow will be determined by the placement of design elements in a composition. Usually, the flow follows an F-pattern or a Z-pattern. Now, Notice that, when you are reading this blog, you’re eyes are moving in a Z-pattern allowing you to read properly.
Whereas, when you look at a social media creative where every text is aligned onto either side of the canvas, your eyes will follow an F-Pattern.
Frame Rate
Frame rate is the number of frames that are shown in one second. This is a common term used by artists who work related to the video production industry. Animation, Video Editing, Motion Graphics etc, all work on the same fundamentals starting from FPS (Frames per second). Usually, 24 fps is a standard number for animation, and 30 fps is used for smoother animation. Manga and Japanese anime run on a 30 fps frame rate.
Greyscale:
Greyscale is a technical term used for Black and white imagery. Anything black and white is called a greyscale composition. This is important to keep the values in check, so, the artists do not get distracted by the colour/hue.
Glyphs:
Glyphs refer to the hieroglyphic character or symbol.To keep things simple, a glyph is a decorative form of a letter or a character. Usually, good fonts keep 2-3 variations of characters to provide a good choice to the designer. All these sub-ornamental designs are called glyphs.
Gradient
A gradient is the gradation of 2 or more colours. These colours merge to create a smooth gradation across a selected area. Gradients are most commonly used in graphics design and compositional work.This invites a touch of uniqueness and compensates the boringness of a graphic.
Golden Ratio
The Golden Ratio is one of the crucial concepts of graphic design. The Golden Ratio is a mathematical calculation to place your elements in such a way that it will always be pleasing to the human eye. The Golden Ratio is the number used when two quantities are divided in a way that their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger one of the two quantities. That number is 1.618, also called Phi. This is a visual representation of the golden ratio in action.
Conclusion:
It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss all the important terms in one blog, so we are breaking this down into 2 core articles. These blogs will cover all the fundamental vocabulary that you will hear somewhere in your design career. Our motto is to educate curious learners and to share some knowledge that ill inhibit their feeling of being left out. We at Frameboxx make sure that all our students and fellow frameboxxers are in touch with the latest trends in the industry and hence, are set out to create amazing and successful careers.
In conclusion, For individuals passionate about learning from industry experts, enrolling in our Specialization as well as Degree courses at Frameboxx Animation Institute can be the first step towards a fulfilling career. Our commitment to nurturing talent, coupled with an industry-focused approach, ensures that our students graduate with the skills needed to thrive in the competitive film landscape.
Keep Learning!
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