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.
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The substance in paint that holds pigment particles together and ensures they adhere to a surface. It can vary from oils to polymers depending on the paint medium.
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Abstract forms in art that resemble or are inspired by natural forms such as plant life, human anatomy, or animal shapes, often evoking organic growth and life.
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Refers to forms or shapes in art that are abstract but resemble or evoke living organisms, such as plants, animals, or human bodies.
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A dramatized film based on the life of a real person, often focusing on significant events or achievements in their life.
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A shot taken directly above the subject, often used to give the audience a comprehensive view of the scene or setting.
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A small, often uncredited role in a film or television show, typically with minimal lines or screen time.
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A naturally occurring tar-like substance used in painting, especially in creating dark tones or adding depth to artwork. It is known for its rich texture and use in oil painting mediums.
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A cultural movement from the 1960s-1970s led by African American artists, which aimed to promote Black identity through art and combat racial oppression during the civil rights era.
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Refers to the cultural fusion of Black communities with European and American cultures, particularly those connected through the transatlantic slave trade, influencing art and identity.
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Black Audio Film Collective
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A groundbreaking British film and video collective founded in 1982, focusing on the exploration of Black culture and political issues through experimental film and visual art.
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A genre characterized by dark or morbid humor that explores taboo subjects such as death, illness, or societal issues.
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The first film studio, created by Thomas Edison in the 1890s, which allowed filmmakers to shoot and project films. Its movable structure optimized light exposure.
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Black Mountain College
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An experimental liberal arts college in North Carolina from 1933 to 1957, fostering a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to education that influenced many American artists.
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In performance art, a "black box" refers to a small, often intimate space, typically with black walls, used for experimental or immersive performances where the audience is directly engaged.
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The practice of excluding or ostracizing individuals from the entertainment industry due to political beliefs or affiliations.
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Low-budget movies featuring predominantly African-American casts, often tackling themes of crime, empowerment, and identity.
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In printing, bleed is the area beyond the trim line that is intentionally extended to ensure no unintentional white borders after trimming. It helps prevent content from being accidentally cut off.
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Blender is a free and open-source software used for 3D creation, including tasks like modeling, animation, rendering, and simulation. It’s a versatile tool for digital artists working in various industries, including film and game development.
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A highly successful and widely popular film that generates significant revenue at the box office, often becoming a cultural phenomenon.
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A digital ledger system that records transactions across a network of computers. In art, blockchain is increasingly being used for provenance tracking and the sale of digital artwork as NFTs.
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The process of planning and choreographing actor movements and camera positions for a specific scene or sequence.
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A group of intellectuals and artists living in the Bloomsbury area of London from the early 1900s, famous for their influence on British arts, literature, and culture in the 20th century.
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An unplanned or humorous mistake made during the filming of a scene, often resulting in laughter or outtakes.
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The process of enlarging a film frame or image to create a larger print or display, typically for theatrical or promotional purposes.
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A style of humor characterized by risqué or vulgar content, often exploring taboo subjects with irreverent or explicit language.
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A chroma keying technique where actors perform in front of a solid blue background, allowing for the insertion of different backgrounds or effects in post-production.
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A stand-in or replacement actor used for specific scenes, typically for stunts, nudity, or shots where the actor's face is not visible.
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Art in which the artist's body is used as the principal medium, often focusing on the body itself or its modification as part of the artistic process.
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Body copy refers to the main text in a design, typically the articles or paragraphs, as opposed to titles, headings, and other elements in a layout.
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Body copy refers to the main text in a design, typically the articles or paragraphs, as opposed to titles, headings, and other elements in a layout.
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Bold refers to a heavier weight of a typeface, often used for emphasis or to draw attention to specific parts of text.
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The Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India, known for its colorful musicals, dramatic storytelling, and larger-than-life productions.
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Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group
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A short-lived group of Indian artists formed in 1947 in Bombay, who sought to break away from traditional Indian art practices and embraced modernism and abstraction.
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Narrative devices where the opening and closing scenes of a film mirror each other thematically or visually, providing closure or framing the story.
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A cinematic technique where the camera is attached to a mechanical arm or crane, allowing for dynamic overhead or sweeping shots.
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An unauthorized or illegally copied version of a film, often distributed through unofficial channels such as piracy websites or physical copies.
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A game mode or style where players face a series of challenging boss battles, often without additional level content between them.
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Computer-controlled characters or entities, either as NPCs in single-player games or as participants in multiplayer games simulating human behavior.
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A reflective surface used to redirect or soften light on a film set, enhancing illumination and reducing harsh shadows.
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A bowl is the curved, enclosed part of a letter, such as in C, G, O, and b.
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A bracket is the curved connection between the stem and the serif in certain fonts, enhancing the flow of the design.
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A photography technique where multiple exposures of the same scene are captured at different settings, ensuring optimal exposure in challenging lighting conditions.
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Brand identity encompasses all the visual elements associated with a brand, including logos, typefaces, colours, and marketing materials. It’s the visual embodiment of a brand’s values and personality.
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A term used to describe the natural pauses or rhythm in dialogue or action, used to create a more organic flow.
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The artistic technique of using available materials to create a new piece, often with items that were not originally intended for artistic use, emphasizing creativity from repurposed objects.
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A transitional or establishing shot used to bridge gaps in time, location, or action within a film narrative, aiding continuity and coherence.
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The measurement of light intensity within a scene or image, affecting its visibility and mood.
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A term used for artists in early 1800s Bristol, particularly inspired by the local landscape of the River Avon and its surroundings, capturing the natural beauty through detailed landscapes.
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British black arts movement
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A radical political art movement founded in 1982 in the UK, focusing on issues of race, gender, and identity while challenging the dominant cultural narrative and political establishment.
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British impressionism
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Refers to the British artists in the late 19th century who were influenced by the French Impressionists, focusing on capturing light and everyday scenes with broken color and loose brushwork.
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A lighting technique that illuminates the subject's broad side, softening shadows and creating an even light spread.
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A camera angle or shot that presents the subject in a side view, typically used to highlight the silhouette or profile.
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Brutalist Architecture
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A style of architecture that emerged in the mid-20th century, characterized by raw concrete, geometric shapes, and a focus on functionality. It often evokes a sense of starkness and monumentality.
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A German Expressionist group founded in 1905 in Dresden, focused on emotional intensity, vibrant color, and social activism, using art as a tool to challenge societal norms.
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A temporary enhancement to a player's or enemy's abilities or attributes, often used to gain an advantage in combat.
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A transitional shot used to create a visual break or ease between two different scenes or setups.
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A flaw or error in a game's code that causes unintended behavior, ranging from minor glitches to major issues affecting gameplay.
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Refers to man-made spaces and structures such as buildings, roads, and bridges, which influence how humans interact with and experience their surroundings.
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A visual effect that allows time to be slowed down or frozen, while the camera moves around the scene, often seen in action sequences.
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A term used to describe enemies that take an excessive amount of damage before being defeated, often seen as frustrating for players.
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A short audiovisual segment that precedes or follows a film, often featuring studio logos, production credits, or promotional content.
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A portable, large-scale diffusion panel used to soften and diffuse light on a film set, creating flattering and even illumination.
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A tool used on film sets to attach lights, flags, or other equipment to various structures or supports.
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A photographic print made from a color negative or slide, often used for prints created from a chromogenic (color) photographic process, giving vibrant and rich color outputs.
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Computer-generated imagery, the use of digital technology to create visual effects or elements in filmmaking, enhancing realism or creating fantastical scenes.
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Computer-Generated Imagery (CGI) is a term for visual content created digitally using computers. This can include 3D models, environments, and effects such as fire, smoke, and explosions, often used in film and TV production.
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CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Key/Black) is the colour model used in print design, relying on subtractive colours to create various hues. Unlike RGB, CMYK produces darker tones as colours are mixed.
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Acronym for "central processing unit," the core component responsible for executing game logic, calculations, and actions within a game.
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Short for "Computer Role-Playing Game," this sub-genre of RPGs is heavily influenced by tabletop games, featuring deep storytelling and party-based combat.
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Cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse)
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A surrealist collaborative drawing technique where multiple artists work together, each contributing to a drawing without seeing the others' work, creating unexpected and often surreal outcomes.
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A white pigment that gives a warm tone, known for its transparency and used in oil painting to achieve soft, luminous whites.
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A document provided to crew members detailing the schedule for the film's production, including arrival times and scenes requiring specific actors.
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The scheduled time at which an actor or crew member is required to report for work.
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A phenomenon in film sound where sound appears to come from a different direction or location due to acoustics.
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The art of stylized, decorative writing, where the form of letters and symbols is a creative expression, often with cultural significance in different regions.
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An early photographic process, patented by Fox Talbot in 1841, which produced a negative image on paper, allowing for multiple prints from a single negative, revolutionary at the time.
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A British post-impressionist art group founded in 1911 by Walter Sickert, focused on depicting urban life, often in the working-class areas of London with an emphasis on raw, realistic portrayals.
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A brief appearance by a well-known person, often a celebrity, in a film, typically for humorous or cameo purposes.
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A specific lighting technique used to highlight a particular actor or character, often for dramatic emphasis.
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The fundamental device used in filmmaking to capture images, utilizing various components such as lenses, aperture, and viewfinders.
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The perspective from which a scene is shot, determining how the subject is portrayed and the viewer's perception of the scene.
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The extent to which a scene is covered by different camera angles or shots to ensure continuity and visual variety.
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A large mechanical device used to raise or lower the camera, providing sweeping shots and fluid movement.
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A wheeled platform used to move the camera smoothly across a set or location, often used for tracking shots.
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Involves the physical motion of the camera to capture different angles and perspectives, enhancing visual storytelling.
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Responsible for operating the camera during filming, executing the director's vision under the guidance of the director of photography.
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Camera shake is a technique used to enhance the visual impact of scenes, such as explosions, by creating a sense of chaos and realism. It involves adding simulated or real vibrations to the camera in post-production.
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The process of determining the correct camera movement and lens settings to achieve the desired visual effect.
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A device used to stabilize handheld camera shots, ensuring smooth and steady footage even during dynamic movements.
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Cameraless photography
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A photographic process in which images are created without a camera, such as photograms or cyanotypes, often achieved through manipulation of light and chemical processes on photosensitive surfaces.
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A strategy where players remain in one location to take advantage of specific gameplay advantages, often viewed negatively in competitive multiplayer settings.
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A durable, woven fabric often used as a painting surface, typically stretched over a wooden frame. Artists commonly use canvas for both oil and acrylic painting due to its robustness.
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A durable, woven fabric often used as a support for paintings, particularly oil or acrylic works, known for its texture and ability to hold paint well.
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Cap height is the measurement of the height of a capital letter above the baseline, referring specifically to letters with flat tops like H and I. Rounded letters may extend beyond this height.
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A German art movement from the 1960s, a response to American Pop Art, focusing on the mass production and commercialization of society, often critiquing consumerism through stark, simple imagery.
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A concise, often brief review of a film, typically found in social media posts or as snippets in larger review compilations.
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Text displayed at the bottom of a frame, typically used to convey dialogue or translate spoken words, benefiting viewers with hearing impairments.
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A portrayal of a character, often exaggerated or distorted, emphasizing specific features or traits for comedic or satirical effect.
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An exaggerated or distorted portrayal of a person or thing, focusing on certain features for comedic, satirical, or critical effect.
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Small photographic portraits mounted on card stock, popular in the mid-19th century. These "visiting cards" were often collected and exchanged.
