Inglés para Animación: vocabulario y frases esenciales

"squash and stretch"

A principle that gives objects a sense of weight and flexibility by deforming them during movement.

"The director asked for more squash and stretch on the ball to make it feel bouncy."

"anticipation"

A preparatory movement that signals the start of a main action to the audience.

"Add some anticipation before the character jumps so the motion reads clearly."

"follow-through"

The continuation of movement in secondary parts of a character after the main body stops.

"The character's coat needs better follow-through as she comes to a halt."

"overlapping action"

Different parts of a character moving at different rates to create naturalistic motion.

"Use overlapping action on the hair and ears to avoid a stiff, robotic feel."

"ease in / ease out"

The gradual acceleration at the start of a movement and deceleration at its end, also called slow-in slow-out.

"The car acceleration looks robotic — adjust the ease in on the first ten frames."

"arc"

The curved path along which natural movements travel, used to create organic, flowing motion.

"Make sure the arm swing follows a clean arc from shoulder to wrist."

"secondary action"

A smaller action that supports and enriches the main action without distracting from it.

"A subtle head nod as a secondary action reinforces the character's agreement."

"timing"

The number of frames used to complete an action, determining the speed and weight of movement.

"The punch feels weak — tighten the timing to three frames for maximum impact."

"pre-production"

The planning phase of a project, including scripting, storyboarding, and design work before actual animation begins.

"We are still in pre-production and won't start animating for another two months."

"storyboard"

A sequence of drawings representing the planned shots and actions in a scene, used to visualise the story before production.

"The director approved the storyboard, so we can move on to the animatic."

"animatic"

A rough animated version of the storyboard, often with placeholder audio, used to check pacing and timing.

"The animatic showed the third act was too slow, so we cut two scenes."

"layout"

The process of setting up the camera angle, character positions, and background composition for a scene.

"The layout artist positioned the characters before the animators took over."

"render farm"

A cluster of computers used to process and render animation frames faster than a single machine could.

"We sent the final sequence to the render farm and got results overnight."

"pipeline"

The complete sequence of software tools and production stages used to create an animated project.

"Our studio's pipeline runs from Maya for rigging to Nuke for compositing."

"deliverable"

A specific output that must be completed and handed over at a defined stage of production.

"The main deliverable for this sprint is the fully animated fight sequence."

"turnaround"

A character design showing all angles — front, side, back, and three-quarter — used as a reference by animators.

"The rigger needs the character turnaround before they can start building the rig."

"rigging"

The process of creating a skeletal or control system inside a 3D model so animators can pose and move it.

"The rigging team finished the character skeleton, so it is ready for animation."

"keyframe"

A frame in an animation where specific values are recorded; the software interpolates frames between keyframes.

"Set a keyframe at frame one and another at frame twenty-four for a one-second cycle."

"inverse kinematics (IK)"

A calculation method where the position of an end joint (e.g. hand) drives the position of parent joints (e.g. arm).

"We switched the arm to inverse kinematics so the hand stays planted on the table."

"blend shape"

A deformation technique where a mesh morphs between two or more target shapes, commonly used for facial animation.

"The smile expression is driven by a blend shape that the animator can dial up or down."

"UV mapping"

The process of unfolding a 3D mesh into a flat 2D plane so textures can be applied accurately.

"The character needs clean UV mapping before the texture artist can paint the skin."

"weight painting"

The process of defining how strongly each bone in a rig influences the vertices of a mesh.

"The shoulder deformation was fixed with careful weight painting on the clavicle."

"motion capture"

A technique that records the movements of a real actor and transfers them to a digital character.

"The fight choreography was recorded with motion capture and then cleaned up by animators."

"dynamics simulation"

A physics-based calculation that automatically generates movement for cloth, hair, or rigid bodies.

"We ran a dynamics simulation on the cape so it reacts realistically to the wind."

"compositing"

The process of combining multiple visual elements from different sources into a single final image.

"The compositing department layered the animated character over the live-action background."

"green screen"

A technique where a solid-colour background is filmed and later replaced with a different image in post-production.

"The actors performed in front of a green screen, and the VFX team added the city environment."

"particle system"

A simulation that generates and controls a large number of small objects (particles) to create effects like fire, smoke, or rain.

"The explosion was created using a particle system with thousands of individual sparks."

"render pass"

A separately rendered layer of visual information (e.g. shadows, reflections, ambient occlusion) that compositors combine later.

"Export a separate render pass for the shadows so we can adjust them in compositing."

"rotoscoping"

The process of tracing over live-action footage frame by frame to create realistic animation or to isolate subjects.

"The visual effects team used rotoscoping to remove the safety wire from every shot."

"matte painting"

A photorealistic painting used as a background or set extension to create environments that cannot be filmed practically.

"The ancient city in the background is a matte painting created by our concept artist."

"colour grading"

The process of altering the colour, contrast, and overall look of footage during post-production to achieve a specific visual style.

"Colour grading gave the flashback sequences a warm, desaturated look."

"ambient occlusion"

A shading technique that calculates how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient light, adding depth and realism.

"Adding ambient occlusion in the render pass made the contact shadows look much more realistic."

"appeal"

The quality of a character or design that makes it interesting, charming, or visually engaging to an audience.

"The villain needs more appeal — right now the design is generic and forgettable."

"acting"

The choices an animator makes to convey a character's thoughts, emotions, and personality through movement.

"The acting in the close-up shot is too subtle — push the performance to read on screen."

"silhouette"

The outline or shadow shape of a character, which should clearly communicate pose and action at a glance.

"Test the pose as a silhouette — if you can't read what she's doing, the pose isn't clear enough."

"character arc"

The transformation or development a character undergoes throughout a story.

"The protagonist's character arc from selfishness to generosity must be visible in her body language."

"staging"

The positioning and framing of characters and elements to clearly communicate an idea or narrative moment.

"The staging puts both characters in the same frame to show the tension between them."

"lip sync"

The process of matching a character's mouth movements to pre-recorded dialogue or sound.

"The lip sync for the song sequence took the team three weeks to complete."

"weight"

The sense of mass and gravity conveyed through an animated character's movement and timing.

"The giant robot should move slowly to show its weight — speed it up and it looks like a toy."

"pose-to-pose"

An animation method where key poses are drawn first and the in-between frames are filled in afterwards.

"For this dramatic dialogue scene, we used a pose-to-pose approach to nail each emotional beat."

"showreel"

A short compilation video showcasing an animator's best work, used to apply for jobs.

"I updated my showreel with the latest project before sending applications to studios."

"freelance"

Working independently on a project-by-project basis rather than as a full-time employee of one company.

"After ten years at the studio, she decided to go freelance and work on indie projects."

"pitch"

A presentation of an animated project's concept, characters, and story to potential producers or broadcasters.

"Our team prepared a ten-minute pitch for the streaming platform's development fund."

"IP (intellectual property)"

The creative rights to characters, stories, and designs, determining who owns and controls an animated franchise.

"The studio retained IP ownership, so the creator couldn't take the characters elsewhere."

"retainer"

A regular fee paid to a freelance animator or studio for ongoing work or availability over a set period.

"The games company put our studio on a monthly retainer for cutscene animation."

"broadcast quality"

A standard of technical resolution, frame rate, and format required for content to be aired on television or streaming platforms.

"The client requires broadcast quality delivery at 1080p and 25 frames per second."

"credits"

The list of names acknowledging all individuals and companies who contributed to an animated production, displayed at the end.

"Getting a credit on a major studio film is a milestone for any junior animator."

"pitch bible"

A detailed document for an animated series outlining characters, world, tone, episode format, and story arcs for potential investors.

"We spent three months writing the pitch bible before presenting to the network."