← Animation Glossary

Safe zone

Safe zone is a term used in animation that refers to an area on the screen where important information or characters should be placed to avoid getting cut off when the animation is displayed on different devices.

When creating animations, it is important to understand the concept of safe zones. Safe zones are areas within a frame that can be seen on all devices and screens. This is particularly important in animation as it ensures that important elements are not cut off or obscured by display issues such as overscan.

The safe zone is typically defined as the innermost rectangle of a frame, with a margin of about 5-10% from the edges. This means that any important element should be placed within this rectangle to ensure that it is visible on all screens. By following these guidelines, animation professionals can ensure that their work looks consistent across different devices and platforms.

In addition to ensuring visibility, safe zones also serve as a guideline for framing and composition. By placing important elements within the safe zone, animators can create a visually appealing and effective animation that effectively communicates its message. This is particularly important in advertising and marketing where the goal is to capture the viewer’s attention and convey a message quickly and effectively.

Safe zones are also important when creating animations for television. In the past, televisions used overscan which meant that parts of the image were cut off at the edges. While most modern televisions no longer use overscan, it is still recommended to use safe zones to ensure that important elements are not cut off or obscured.

When creating animations for different platforms such as social media or mobile devices, it is important to consider the aspect ratios of the screen. Different platforms have different aspect ratios which means that the safe zone may need to be adjusted accordingly. For example, vertical videos for Instagram stories, or Tiktok require a different safe zone than videos designed for YouTube.

By using safe zones, animators can ensure that their work looks consistent across different devices and platforms while also creating visually appealing and effective animations that communicate their message effectively.

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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