← Animation Glossary

Character Design Sheets

Character Design Sheets are blueprints for animators! They are drawings that show the details of a character from different angles. These sheets help animators make sure the character looks the same in every scene of the show.

Please note that Character Design Sheets is not directly applicable to Brush Ninja.

Character Design Sheets, also known as model sheets, are essential tools used in the animation industry to maintain consistency and provide detailed information about a character’s appearance, proportions, and personality. These sheets act as a visual reference for animators, artists, and other team members involved in the production process.

Examples of Disney Character Design Sheets:

Mickey Mouse Character Sheet for the Brave Little Tailor

Mickey Mouse Character Sheet for the Brave Little Tailor

Goofy Character Model Sheet

Goofy Character Model Sheet

Pluto Design Sheet

Pluto Design Sheet

Donald Duck Head Construction Sheet

Donald Duck Head Construction Sheet

Whinnie the Pooh Character Reference Sheet

Whinnie the Pooh Character Reference Sheet

Here are some key aspects of Character Design Sheets:

  1. Appearance: Character Design Sheets showcase various angles and poses of a character, including front, back, side views, and close-ups of important features such as face expressions or special body parts like hands or feet. These details help artists maintain consistency while drawing the character throughout the animation.

  2. Proportions: It is crucial to establish consistent proportions for characters within an animated project. Character Design Sheets provide accurate measurements and guidelines for body proportions to ensure that characters appear consistent from one frame to another.

  3. Color Palette: The sheets often include color swatches or guidelines indicating the specific colors to be used for different parts of the character’s design. This helps in maintaining uniformity across all animations featuring that particular character.

  4. Costume and Accessories: Character Design Sheets display different outfits or costumes that a character might wear during specific scenes or situations. Additionally, any accessories like hats, glasses, jewelry are also shown to ensure continuity throughout the animation.

  5. Personality: Character Design Sheets also provide information about a character’s personality, including their likes and dislikes, hobbies, and other traits. This helps animators create more realistic characters by giving them a better understanding of the character’s background and motivations.

Character Design Sheets are an essential part of the animation process. They provide detailed information about a character’s appearance, proportions, and personality, which helps animators maintain consistency throughout the animation. These sheets also help artists create more realistic characters by giving them a better understanding of the character’s background and motivations.

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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