← Animation Glossary

Clean-up

Clean-up in animation is the process of making the final drawings or images that will be used in the movie. After the rough sketches are done, artists go over them and make them look nice and neat. This is important because it makes the animation look smooth and professional. Think of it like coloring inside the lines of a drawing, but even more precise!

Clean-up is an essential part of the animation process to ensure that the rough sketches or storyboards are refined and polished into a final professional-looking animation. This step involves cleaning up the rough lines, erasing unnecessary marks, and adding additional details. The primary goal of clean-up is to create a final drawing that is clear, concise, and visually appealing.

There are two primary methods of clean-up in traditional hand-drawn animation. The first method involves tracing the rough sketches onto a new sheet of paper using cleaner lines. This method is commonly used for animations created with pencil and paper. The second method involves using a lightbox to trace the rough sketches onto a clean sheet of paper using ink or paint.

Clean-up in digital animation can be done using various software tools such as vector-based drawing programs or specialized animation software. These software tools allow animators to create precise and clean drawings quickly and efficiently.

Vector-based drawing programs such as Adobe Illustrator or Inkscape allow animators to create scalable vector graphics that can be easily edited and manipulated. These programs are commonly used for creating character designs, backgrounds, or props that need to be integrated into an animation.

Specialized animation software such as Toon Boom Harmony or Anime Studio Pro offers a more comprehensive set of tools for creating animations. These software tools allow animators to create frames, add keyframes, control timing, and adjust colors and lighting within a single application.

Clean-up is an essential step in creating high-quality animations because it ensures that the final product looks polished and professional. Without clean-up, animations can appear rough and unfinished, which can detract from their overall impact and effectiveness. Clean-up also helps to ensure consistency in style, design, and color throughout an animation.

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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