← Animation Glossary

Onion skinning

Onion skinning is a tool that animators use to create smooth animations. It's like having a see-through onion layer on top of your drawing, so you can see the previous and next frames as you draw the current one.

Onion skinning is an essential technique for animators to create smooth and consistent animations. It enables the animator to visualize the character’s movement, ensuring that they move seamlessly from one pose to another. Onion skinning is especially useful in 2D animation, where each frame must be drawn manually.

In Brush Ninja Animation Maker the onion skinning tool can be toggled on by pressing the button that looks like an onion. This will overlay the 3 previous, and 3 following frames on top of the current frame. This allows you to see how the character moves over time and ensure that the movement is consistent across all frames.

The process of onion skinning involves displaying multiple frames of an animation at once, with each frame slightly transparent and superimposed on top of each other. This technique allows animators to see the previous and next frames as a reference point for the current frame they are working on. By doing so, they can ensure that the character’s movement is consistent across all frames.

Onion skinning helps animators to create smoother animations by allowing them to see how their characters move over time. Without this technique, it would be challenging to create seamless transitions between poses. Animators would have to rely solely on their memory or guesswork when drawing each frame.

Onion skinning is an incredibly useful technique for animators looking to create smooth and consistent animations. It allows them to see how their characters move over time and ensures that their movements are consistent across all frames. Whether using 2D or 3D animation software, onion skinning is an essential tool for every animator.

Animation Terms

2

2D Animation

3

3D Animation

A

Alpha Channel

Ambient sound

Animation

Anti-Aliasing

Anticipation

Aspect Ratio

B

Bezier Curve

Bitmap

Blue Screen

Bone Animation

Bounce

Broadcast Standards

C

Camera Angle

Camera Shake

Casting

Cel Animation

Character Animation

Character Design Sheets

Cinematic lighting

Claymation

Clean-up

Close-up

Color Correction

Color Grading

Compositing

Composition

Concept Art

Continuity editing

Cross-cutting

Cut

Cutout nimation

D

Depth of Field

Dialogue

Dissolve

Distributed Rendering

Dolby Atmos

Dope Sheet

Dutch Angle

E

Easing

Emitter

Exaggeration

Eyedropper

F

Foley

Follow through

Forward Kinematics

Frame Rate

Frame

Framing

Freeze Frame

G

Ghosting

GIF File Format

Golden Ratio

Graph Editor

H

High key lighting

Hue and Saturation

I

Inertia

Infographic Animation

Inverse Kinematics

J

Joint

JPEG File Format

Jump cut

K

Keyframe Interpolation

Keyframe

Kinetic typography

L

Layers

Lens distortion

Level of Detail

Lighting

Line of action

Lip syncing

Low key lighting

M

Match cut

Matte painting

Montage

Morphing

Motion blur

Motion capture

Motion graphics

Motion path

Motion trail

Mouth shapes

MP3 File Format

MP4 File Format

N

Network rendering

Non-linear editing

O

Occlusion culling

Onion skinning

Overlapping action

P

Pan

Parallel rendering

Particle system

Persistance of Vision

Phonemes

Playback speed

Plot

PNG File Format

Pose-to-pose animation

Props

Puppet animation

R

Render farm

Rendering

Resolution

Rigging

Rotoscoping

Rule of thirds

Run cycle

S

Safe zone

Scene

Score

Screenplay

Script

Shot

Silhouette

Skeletal animation

Slow Motion

Smears

Sound Design

Sound effects

Soundtrack

Special Effects

Split screen

Squash and Stretch

Staging

Stop Motion Animation

Storyboard

Straight-ahead Animation

T

Time Remapping

Timeline

Timing

Title Card

Title Sequence

Tracking shot

Tweening

V

Vector graphics

Visemes

Voice acting

Voice-over Narration

W

Walk cycle

WebM File Format

Weighting

Wide shot

Z

Z-depth

Zoom

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