Animation 101

I'm going to try to keep an ongoing list of definitions for people who may not be familiar with Animation.  If you have questions about any terms or anything I talk about on this blog, please email me at roarajane@gmail.com and I'll try to respond and add the definition here.




After Effects - An Adobe program specializing in creating "motion graphics and cinematic visual effects" (per the Adobe website 1/20/12)

Animatic - (via Wikipedia 1/20/12) "At its simplest, an animatic is a series of still images edited together and displayed in sequence. More commonly, a rough dialogue and/or rough sound track is added to the sequence of still images (usually taken from a storyboard) to test whether the sound and images are working effectively together."

CG/CGI - Shorthand for Computer Generated/Imagery - Our production is aiming to use a combination of live action and CG techniques.  We'll see how this goes.

Maya - a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas.  Also, An incredible program that does everything from modeling to lighting to rendering and everything in between. For the NJAMS Project, we will be using Maya primarily (at first) to create 3D computer models of some elements and characters in our production.

Storyboards - (again, via Wikipedia 1/20/12 because it's so much easier than coming up with my own definition) "Graphic organizers in the form of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence."