Glossary
Animator Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential animator terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key animator vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in animator training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Arcs
- Natural curved motion.
- Compositing
- Combining visual elements.
- Dailies
- Review sessions of work.
- In-betweens
- Frames between keyframes.
- Keyframe
- A frame defining a key pose.
- Modeling
- Creating 3D shapes.
- Motion capture
- Recording real movement.
- Pipeline
- Steps from concept to final.
- Rendering
- Producing final images.
- Rigging
- Building controls for models.
- Spacing
- How motion is distributed across frames.
- Squash and stretch
- A principle that adds life.
- Storyboard
- Sketches planning a sequence.
- Texturing
- Applying surfaces to models.
- Timing
- How long actions take.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Animator practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Animator training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.