Glossary of Terms
The Glossary of Terms is a curated collection of definitions from the worlds of film, games, art, and design. Whether you're a student, artist, creative director or technical developer, this glossary is made to streamline your workflow and sharpen your understanding. All terms are written with clarity in mind, so you can move from confusion to creation faster.
The glossary includes industry-specific language used in animation, storytelling, production, visual effects, interactive media, conceptual art, and design systems. It’s structured for creative professionals, by creative professionals.Browse through categories like visual language, camera techniques, character design, game mechanics, UI principles, rendering technology, and more.
What is the Glossary of Terms?
The Glossary is a living index of essential concepts across entertainment and creative industries. It helps define and demystify production terms, art direction language, cinematic devices, and technical terminology — all in one place. You can use this glossary to learn the language of the industry, write clearer documentation, improve production notes, or enhance your storytelling vocabulary.
Why use a Glossary?
Many terms in the entertainment industry are often used inconsistently or misunderstood. The Glossary gives you clean, consistent definitions across mediums — helping teams stay aligned, students learn faster, and artists speak the same language. It also supports better communication between departments, whether you're working in pre-production, post, or interactive pipelines.
Term
Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK)
Description
A Slovenian avant-garde collective formed in the 1980s, using art to address the political and social landscape of Yugoslavia during its transition and in opposition to oppressive regimes.
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A German neo-expressionist movement of the late 1970s and 1980s, known for its aggressive, colorful style and focus on emotional intensity, often linked to social and political themes.
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New British sculpture
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A movement of British sculptors from the 1980s who rejected the minimalist and conceptual art trends, opting instead for more traditional approaches to materials and expressive imagery.
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New English Art Club (NEAC)
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A society founded in London in 1886, promoting a style of painting influenced by impressionism, often focused on light, color, and capturing natural effects in a realistic manner.
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A revival of figurative art in the 1960s, contrasting with abstraction, characterized by distorted forms and emotional intensity, often linked to social and political issues.
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New Generation Sculpture
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A group of British sculptors in the 1960s who experimented with non-traditional materials and techniques, challenging the traditional forms and expectations of sculpture.
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A film movement in the United States from roughly 1967-1976, led by a group of film students passionate about filmmaking and challenging the status quo.
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A German realist movement in the 1920s, emphasizing objective depictions of society, often critiquing the disillusionment and hardships of post-WWI Germany, with a focus on social and political themes.
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A photographic style that depicts human-altered landscapes with a detached, objective approach, emphasizing the built environment over nature.
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A film movement initially referring to innovative French filmmakers challenging traditional filmmaking conventions, characterized by non-linear storytelling and improvised direction.
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A collective of avant-garde artists, including Abstract Expressionists, active in New York in the 1940s and 1950s, which helped shift the center of the art world from Paris to New York.
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Public art created outside institutional structures with a focus on social engagement and activism, often aiming to directly connect with and engage the public in meaningful ways.
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A term referring to the use of digital technologies in the creation and distribution of art, including video, computer graphics, internet art, and interactive installations.
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A movement in 19th-century sculpture that sought to modernize the medium, incorporating elements of realism, movement, and emotive expression in contrast to traditional academic forms.
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Refers to the resurgence of expressionist painting in the 1980s, emphasizing emotional depth, psychological exploration, and a return to figuration after years of abstraction.
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A group of artists who settled in Newlyn, Cornwall, in the late 19th century, known for their impressionistic style and focus on rural life and coastal scenes, emphasizing natural light.
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A business where patrons paid a nickel to watch short films on individual machines like Kinetoscopes or Mutoscopes, resembling a "movie arcade."
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A highly-flammable film base made of cellulose nitrate, commonly used until the late 1940s when it was replaced with an acetate base.
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In a node-based workflow, nodes represent individual actions or modifications performed in 3D or VFX software. Nodes are connected to form a graph, allowing complex operations like modeling, animation, and compositing to be organized.
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Noise, or film grain, is a type of visual distortion in images, often added intentionally to create atmosphere or a retro aesthetic. It can also be an artifact from low-light or low-resolution footage.
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Sound that comes from outside the story world, such as a film’s score or narration that the characters cannot hear.
Term
Non-fungible token (NFT)
Description
A unique digital asset that represents ownership of a digital item, such as artwork, secured and verified on the blockchain, often used to buy and sell digital art.
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A type of abstract art that does not represent anything from the real world, focusing purely on form, color, and composition to express an emotional or aesthetic experience.
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A derogatory term for a beginner or inexperienced player, often used in multiplayer games to mock a player's lack of skill or knowledge.
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A slang term for a grenade launcher or other powerful, easy-to-use weapon that is often favored by less experienced or casual players.
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A regional school of landscape painting in early 19th-century Britain, focused on depicting the rural and industrial landscapes of East Anglia with a naturalistic style.
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A French art movement founded in the late 1950s, often seen as a European counterpart to pop art, focusing on incorporating real-world objects and media in artistic expressions.
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Nuke is a powerful node-based compositing tool used for post-production VFX. It’s widely used in the film and TV industry for tasks like color correction, rotoscoping, and integrating CG elements into live-action footage.
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The operating expenses associated with a movie, including the cost of leasing and staffing theaters, also known as a house nut.
Description
A cultural and political movement from the 1930s by African and Caribbean students in Paris, aiming to reclaim African culture and reject colonialist ideologies.
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OpenColorIO (OCIO) is an open-source color management solution designed to simplify the color pipeline. It ensures consistent color accuracy across various devices and platforms, making it easier to share files in VFX workflows.
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Acronym for "one-hit kill," referring to any attack or ability in a game that instantly defeats an enemy or player with a single blow.
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Short for "overpowered," referring to a game element (such as a weapon, character, or ability) that is significantly stronger than others, creating imbalance in the game.
Term
Objective abstraction
Description
A style of abstract art developed by British artists in 1933, characterized by non-geometric abstract forms that aim to convey visual clarity without subjectivity or emotional interference.
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Octane Render is a GPU-accelerated real-time rendering software that focuses on providing high-quality, photorealistic images. Its spectral rendering engine is known for delivering fast results and supporting complex lighting environments.
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The complete body of work produced by an artist throughout their career, encompassing all artworks created.
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Refers to a performer who has memorized all their lines and no longer needs to hold a script during performances.
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A method of printing where the image is transferred from a plate to a rubber blanket and then onto the printing surface, commonly used for mass production of images in various media.
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A type of paint made by suspending pigment in oil, which dries slowly and allows for a rich, blendable texture, commonly used in traditional fine art.
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A term used to describe certain Victorian artists whose works focused on classical themes, emphasizing idealized forms and drawing inspiration from Greek mythology and Renaissance traditions.
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Founded in 1913 by Roger Fry, the Omega Workshops was an English applied arts company that promoted modernist art and design, blending art with everyday objects and interiors.
Term
Omniscient Point of View
Description
A narrative perspective where the narrator knows all the thoughts, feelings, and events of the characters.
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Filming that takes place outside a studio, typically in a real-world setting like a city or natural environment.
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Digital art represented by NFTs that are fully stored on the blockchain, including both the smart contract and the media content of the artwork itself.
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A quick, succinct joke or witty remark, often delivered for comedic effect.
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A film that is shot in a single continuous take, without any edits or cuts.
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A style of abstract art, developed in the 1960s, that uses optical illusions of motion and depth created by precise patterns and contrasting colors.
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A property of a material or medium that prevents light from passing through, often used to describe paints or mediums that are not transparent.
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OpenEXR is a high-dynamic-range (HDR) image file format developed by Industrial Light & Magic. It supports multiple layers and channels, making it ideal for storing complex visual effects in a film production pipeline.
Description
A game design model where players can explore a large, unrestricted game world with minimal linear progression, often allowing freedom in mission completion and exploration.
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The sequence at the beginning of a film that lists the main actors, director, and other key personnel.
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The first shot of a film, setting the tone or mood and often establishing key elements like location and character.
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Referring to forms, shapes, or materials that are derived from natural, living sources, or that mimic biological structures or growth patterns.
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Organic modeling involves creating 3D models of living entities, such as humans, animals, and plants. It contrasts with hard-surface modeling, which deals with man-made objects with rigid, smooth surfaces.
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A narrative detailing the genesis of a character or organization, often exploring their background and early experiences.
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An orphan is a short line or single word that appears at the beginning of a new column or page, often considered a typographical flaw.
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A style of abstract art, influenced by Cubism, that focuses on the use of color and light to create dynamic, rhythmic compositions, pioneered by Robert and Sonia Delaunay.
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Refers to areas of the game that are not accessible to the player, often beyond the intended play space, and may require exploits to access.
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Art created by self-taught or marginalized artists, often exhibiting a raw, unrefined quality, and typically produced outside of the conventional art world or academic training.
Term
Over-the-Shoulder Shot
Description
A camera angle positioned behind one character's shoulder, typically used in dialogue scenes to establish spatial relationships.
Description
Technique of filming at a higher frame rate than the standard, resulting in slow-motion footage when played at normal speed.
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Describes a shot with excessive light, resulting in a washed-out appearance, often used for dream sequences or flashbacks.
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A camera angle positioned directly above the subject, offering a bird's-eye view perspective.
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An anonymous artist group in 1980s New York that protested against the commercial gallery system's exclusion of minority artists, aiming to expose tokenism and discrimination in the art world.
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PPI (pixels per inch) measures digital image resolution, while DPI (dots per inch) is used for print resolution. Higher numbers indicate better image quality, especially for print.
Description
Acronyms for "player versus player" (PVP) and "player versus environment" (PVE), denoting whether players compete against each other or against AI-controlled enemies.
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The tempo or speed of dramatic action in a movie, influenced by factors such as dialogue speed, soundtrack, and editing style.
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Refers to the use of visible brushstrokes and a loose, expressive application of paint that emphasizes the texture and the act of painting itself.
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An artwork made by applying pigment, typically using brushes, to a surface such as canvas, wood, or paper, one of the oldest and most prominent forms of visual art.
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A flat surface on which artists arrange and mix their paints, traditionally made from wood or glass, enabling artists to combine colors before applying them to their canvas or other surfaces.
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A palette in design refers to the chosen set of colours used in a project, often guided by a brand's style guide to ensure consistency and harmony.
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A flat, blunt tool used for mixing or applying paint, allowing artists to create texture, sharp lines, or even scrape off layers of paint from a surface.
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A photographic print made on paper coated with palladium, a metal that produces rich, warm tones and is less expensive than platinum, used for fine art prints.
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Abbreviation for panorama shot, involving the horizontal movement or rotation of the camera in one direction.
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Technique for adjusting widescreen movies to fit standard television screens by focusing on relevant picture elements and mechanically panning to show missing content.
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An ideology and movement that advocates for the unity and solidarity of African people worldwide, often reflected in art that celebrates African heritage, culture, and resistance to colonialism.
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A flat, rigid surface or support used by artists to create paintings, drawings, or other works of art. It can also refer to the individual sections of a multi-panel artwork such as altarpieces.
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The Pantone Matching System (PMS) is a standardized colour system used in printing, where each colour is assigned a unique code for consistency across industries.
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A versatile material made from plant fibers that serves as a support for drawing, painting, and printmaking. Paper has been a fundamental medium in the creation of various art forms.
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A collage technique where paper is glued onto a surface to create an image, similar to collage but with a focus on the flat, drawn quality of the medium rather than painting.
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A sculptural technique that uses paper pulp or layers of paper glued together to form objects or sculptures, often used in craft and decorative arts.
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A statement or situation that appears self-contradictory or illogical but may reveal deeper truths upon closer examination.
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Parallax is the visual effect where the relative position of objects appears to shift as the viewpoint changes. It’s often used in VFX to create depth and add realism to 3D environments or animations.
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Directions in a screenplay, shown in parentheses, indicating how a line should be delivered by an actor, such as with a specific emotion.
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Art that invites or requires the audience's active participation, often making them co-creators of the work, blurring the line between artist and viewer.
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Particles are tiny, individual elements that combine to simulate natural phenomena like smoke, fire, and explosions. They are used in VFX to create complex effects that would be difficult or impossible to simulate with geometry alone.
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A group of characters in a game, either controlled by one player or multiple players, working together to achieve common goals or progress through the game.
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A drawing medium made from pure pigment mixed with a binder, typically applied directly to paper to create vibrant, soft colors that can be blended or smudged.
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A thin layer or film that develops on materials like bronze or wood due to age or oxidation, often valued for the character it imparts to the surface.
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A contractual agreement in which a production company commits to paying an actor or crew member regardless of whether their services are utilized.
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A writing or drawing tool composed of a graphite or colored core encased in wood or plastic, used for sketching, shading, and detailed line work.
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A pair of artworks created to be displayed together as a matching set, often designed to complement one another both visually and thematically.
Term
Penwith Society of Arts
Description
An artists' society founded in 1948 in St Ives, Cornwall, UK, which focused on promoting modernist and abstract art in the British context.
Description
An optical illusion technique used in theater and performances to make objects or people appear ghostly or transparent by reflecting them onto a glass plate.
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An art form that involves live actions or events, often involving movement, sound, or visual elements, where the artist’s physical presence is central to the experience.
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Frames designed to match the time period in which the artwork was created, often reflecting the style and materials of the era.
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A publication, such as a magazine or journal, that is released regularly, containing articles, images, and features on various topics, including art.
Description
A gameplay mode where a character’s death results in the permanent loss of progress, often raising the stakes for the player and creating a high-risk experience.
Term
Persistence of Vision
Description
An optical phenomenon where the brain blends multiple still images into a single moving image, creating the illusion of motion.
Description
A technique used to create the illusion of depth and three-dimensionality on a flat surface, often involving vanishing points and converging lines in representational works.
