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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A movie or franchise expected to generate significant revenue or profit consistently, often with minimal financial risk.
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The collective group of actors appearing in a film, typically categorized as leads and supporting characters based on their roles.
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(Verb) The process of creating a mold of an object or form, often used in sculpture. (Noun) A mold or object made from this process.
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The process of selecting actors for various roles in a film, based on their skills and suitability for the character.
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The person responsible for finding and selecting actors for roles in a film, often working closely with the director and producers.
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A memorable or repeated phrase associated with a character, often becoming iconic and synonymous with the character or film.
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The emotional release or purification experienced by the audience during the climax of a film, providing a sense of relief or resolution.
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A transparent sheet used in traditional animation, containing a single frame of an animated character or object, allowing for layering and movement.
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The first synthetic plastic, which was used for photographic film and a variety of products. Although it was eventually replaced by more stable materials, it was a crucial part of early motion picture production.
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Centre-aligned text is aligned to the center of a text frame, with uneven "rags" (or edges) on both sides of the text block.
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Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square)
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A 1929 Paris-based group that promoted abstract art and mysticism, seeking to break from traditional aesthetics and push for a universal art language based on geometric forms.
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A soft, powdery drawing or writing material used, often in crayon form, for making marks on a surface, particularly blackboards or paper.
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A visual indicator used in traditional film projection to signal the need for a reel change by the projectionist, no longer common in digital projection.
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Chaos Corona is a high-quality, physically-based renderer for 3D software, specializing in photorealistic rendering for visual effects, film, and architecture.
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An individual within a movie, portrayed by an actor, contributing to the narrative and development of the story.
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A character refers to a letter, number, punctuation mark, or any other symbol used in typography.
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Specializes in portraying distinctive or unconventional characters, often recognized for their versatility and ability to embody diverse roles.
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The process of creating movement and expression for animated characters, whether in 2D or 3D.
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A document containing details about a character's traits, backstory, and personality, aiding actors and writers in understanding the character.
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A film primarily focused on exploring the depth and development of its characters, often prioritizing characterization over plot.
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A character set includes all the characters available in a given typeface, such as uppercase and lowercase letters, numerals, and punctuation marks.
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A drawing medium made from burnt wood or vine. Charcoal is known for its rich black tones and its ability to be easily smudged, allowing for expressive and bold artwork.
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Refers to exploiting game mechanics or weaknesses in a way that trivializes the challenge, often viewed as unfair or cheesy.
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A lighting technique characterized by strong contrasts between light and dark areas, creating a dramatic and atmospheric visual effect.
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A film genre primarily appealing to women, often featuring romantic or emotional themes, sometimes used in a derogatory context.
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An actor under the age of 18, often cast in roles requiring youthful characters, subject to special regulations and protections.
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A soft box attachment used to diffuse and soften harsh lighting, transforming a hard light source into a more flattering illumination.
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A printmaking technique where a thin sheet of paper is adhered to a thicker backing during the printmaking process, producing a subtle effect that integrates the paper with the inked image.
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The art of creating and arranging dance movements, which may range from classical to contemporary, and is often an essential part of performance art and theatrical productions.
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The intensity or purity of a color, indicating how vibrant or muted the color appears. A higher chroma means a more intense and saturated color.
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A technique used to remove a specific color (usually green or blue) from the background of a shot, replacing it with a different background.
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A lens defect that causes color fringing or distortion, often appearing as a colored outline around high-contrast areas.
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A photographic print made from color negatives, using a process that involves three layers of organic dyes to produce full color images. This method became widely used for both professional and consumer prints.
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A lens specifically designed for cinema cameras, offering precise control over focus, aperture, and focal length to achieve cinematic looks.
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A film enthusiast or aficionado, deeply passionate about cinema and often engaged in film criticism, analysis, or appreciation.
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Cinema 4D is a powerful 3D modeling, animation, and rendering application used by digital artists. It is especially popular for motion graphics, visual effects, and 3D animation in film and television.
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A raw image format used in digital cinema, providing uncompressed, high-quality footage for post-production work.
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A film presentation technique characterized by an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, often achieved through anamorphic lenses, providing a wide-screen viewing experience with enhanced visual immersion.
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A non-interactive sequence used in video games to convey story, often featuring high-quality animation or pre-recorded film footage.
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Responsible for the visual aspects of a film, overseeing camera operation and lighting design.
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The art and technique of capturing visual images for a film, involving camera work, lighting, and shot composition.
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A widescreen filming process involving the use of three cameras and projectors to create an expansive, panoramic image projected onto a curved screen, offering viewers a highly immersive cinematic experience.
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A filmmaking style dedicated to capturing authentic or spontaneous moments, often employing handheld cameras and natural lighting.
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A motion picture camera and projector invented by the Lumière brothers, which became one of the first widely used filmmaking devices, pioneering film projection and cinematography.
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An artistic depiction or representation of a city's skyline or urban environment, often capturing the dynamic essence of a city's architecture, streets, and atmosphere.
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Versatile tools used on film sets to secure various equipment and accessories, such as lights, gels, or diffusion materials, providing stability and support for effective lighting setups.
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A device used in filmmaking to mark the beginning of a scene and synchronize audio and visual elements during editing, typically featuring information about the production and take number.
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An artistic movement inspired by the ideals of ancient Greece and Rome, characterized by harmony, proportion, and an emphasis on the human figure. Often associated with grand, monumental artworks.
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A stop-motion animation technique where characters and objects are sculpted from clay or similar materials, manipulated and filmed frame-by-frame to create fluid motion and lifelike performances.
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A narrative device where a story ends abruptly at a crucial moment of suspense, leaving the audience in anticipation of the resolution, often used to maintain interest and encourage continued engagement.
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The highest point of tension or conflict in a story, typically marking the decisive moment where the central conflict is confronted and resolved, leading to the conclusion and resolution of the narrative.
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A transition effect where one scene is replaced by another through a circular motion across the screen, resembling the motion of a clock hand.
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A camera shot that tightly frames a subject or object, emphasizing details and expressions, creating intimacy and drawing the viewer's attention to specific elements within the frame.
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The final section of a film that lists the names of those who contributed to its production, such as cast, crew, and special thanks.
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A European avant-garde movement founded in 1948, combining spontaneous, expressive painting with influences from folk and children's art. The group's rebellious spirit was a reaction against the commercialization of art.
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A protective layer, usually varnish, applied to a painting once it is finished to unify its surface gloss and preserve it. Over time, coatings can yellow or change color, affecting the appearance of the work.
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The concluding section of a film, serving as an epilogue or final sequence that provides closure to the story, often reflecting on the events that transpired and offering insight into the characters' futures.
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The process of creating software through coding, where human instructions are translated into a language computers can understand. Programming enables the development of interactive art and digital media.
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A historic location in Manhattan in the 1950s and '60s that became home to several influential artists, like Ellsworth Kelly and Robert Indiana, whose works transformed modern art during this period.
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A storytelling technique where a scene is shown before the opening credits, often used to grab attention immediately.
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An artistic technique involving the assembly of various materials, such as paper or fabric, onto a surface to create a new composition. The term can also refer to the resulting artwork.
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A photographic printmaking process that uses a gelatin plate to create prints with delicate details and tonal gradations, popular in the early 20th century for reproducing drawings and photographs.
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The process of adjusting and correcting the color balance of a film to match the director's vision or enhance visual aesthetics.
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A style of abstract painting that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, characterized by large swaths of color with minimal forms and few distinctions, aiming to evoke emotional responses through color alone.
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The process of altering and enhancing the color of a film, often in post-production, to create a desired mood or atmosphere.
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Color Rendering Index (CRI)
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A measure of how well a light source shows the true colors of objects, affecting the overall look of a scene.
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Color Reversal Internegative
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A film stock used to create color negatives for prints, often yielding a higher-quality result for theatrical release.
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The color quality of light, measured in Kelvin, influencing the warmth or coolness of a scene's lighting.
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A technician responsible for adjusting the color balance and exposure of a film during the post-production process.
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A drawing tool made of pigments or dyes encased in wood, offering artists a precise and controlled medium. The colors are mixed with binders and waxes, which provide a smooth texture and vibrant hues.
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The process of adding color to black-and-white films or images, modernizing and revitalizing classic works by introducing vibrant hues and enhancing visual appeal, albeit often controversial among purists.
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The process of adding color to black-and-white footage, often used for older films to bring them up to modern standards.
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Colour field painting
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A form of abstract painting from the 1950s–60s that uses large, flat areas of color to create emotional resonance, without the use of detailed form or recognizable figures.
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A term coined by Robert Rauschenberg, referring to artworks that combine elements of painting with three-dimensional objects, challenging the boundaries between sculpture and painting.
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A sequence of rapid attacks or actions performed in quick succession to maximize damage or effectiveness, often used in fighting games.
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A form of visual storytelling made up of sequential images, often accompanied by text, that tells a narrative. Comics can take various forms, including strips, graphic novels, and webcomics.
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The inclusion of humorous elements or characters in a film to provide levity and break tension, offering moments of comedic relief amidst dramatic or intense scenes, enhancing the overall viewing experience.
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A form of visual art that imitates the style of comic strips, incorporating sequential drawings and often humor or social commentary, following a structured format.
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A film focusing on the growth and maturation of its protagonists, typically adolescents or young adults, as they navigate rites of passage, self-discovery, and the challenges of transitioning into adulthood.
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A term referring to an outstanding or special performance, often used for films that are of exceptional artistic or critical merit.
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Commercial photography
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Photography created for commercial purposes, such as advertising, fashion, or product shots, where the primary goal is to promote or sell an item or service.
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Commercially primed canvas
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A canvas that has been pre-treated with primer, ensuring it is ready for painting. Commercially primed canvases are convenient for artists who prefer a prepared surface.
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The act of hiring an artist to create a custom piece of artwork, either as a private request or for a specific project.
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Art that involves collaboration with communities, focusing on creating works that engage and reflect the lives, cultures, or issues of a specific group of people.
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Complementary (colours)
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Complementary colours are those located directly opposite each other on the colour wheel, such as red and green, blue and orange. They create a balanced contrast that enhances visual appeal.
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Complementary colours
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Complementary colors are pairs of colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. When placed next to each other, they create contrast and make each other appear more vibrant.
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The process of combining visual elements from different sources to create a seamless final image, often used in visual effects.
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Composition refers to the arrangement or placement of elements within a work of art. It’s the intentional structuring of parts to form a cohesive whole, guiding the viewer's eye.
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Composition refers to the arrangement of elements within a frame, balancing visual weight and guiding the viewer's focus. In film and VFX, it plays a crucial role in determining how a scene conveys emotion or narrative.
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An art movement that emphasizes the idea or concept behind the artwork rather than its physical form, often challenging traditional notions of art-making and its purpose.
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Conceptual photography
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Photography where the emphasis is on illustrating an idea, concept, or theory, rather than purely capturing aesthetic or literal representations of the subject.
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An abstract art movement that focuses on geometric shapes, colors, and lines without reference to the natural world, emphasizing the purity of form itself.
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A movement of abstract art that emerged in Britain in the 1950s, focused on using geometric forms and natural rhythms to create art with a mathematical or scientific structure.
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An art and architectural movement that emerged in post-Revolutionary Russia, advocating for abstract art that served a social or functional purpose in society, often using industrial materials.
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A photographic print where the negative is placed directly onto the photo-sensitive paper for exposure, resulting in a print the same size as the original image.
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Art produced in the present day, often characterized by a focus on innovation, diverse media, and the exploration of modern ideas and concepts.
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The consistency of the elements within a scene or sequence, ensuring that details like props, positions, and costumes remain accurate.
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The technique of editing a film in such a way that maintains the logical sequence of events and smooth transitions.
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A mistake in a film where details, such as props, costumes, or character movements, are inconsistent between shots.
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The difference in tones, textures, or colors within a work of art. High contrast emphasizes dramatic differences, while low contrast creates subtler transitions.
