Media glossary: 50 technical terms from film, photo, animation & graphic design

Why a glossary is important‍

The media world is full of technical terms, abbreviations and tools that often look like a foreign language to outsiders. This glossary provides clarity and provides insight into the working world of Picture Colada and other agencies, creative teams and film productions.

Regardless of whether you are already working with us or an other agency, are planning a project or are simply interested in creative processes — with these 50 terms, you have the most important basic knowledge in a nutshell.

🎥 Film production

1. B-roll — Additional material to complement main scenes
2. Color Grading — Color correction for the right image mood
3. gimbal — Camera stabilizer for smooth movements
4. LUT — Color filters for uniform look generation
5. storyboard — Visual schedule for shoots or animations
6. DOP (Director of Photography) — Responsible for camera and lighting
7. Frame Rate — Frames per second (e.g. 24fps for cinema)
8. Shotlist — List of all planned camera settings
9. Set design — Designing the backdrop at the filming location
10. frame.io — Online tool with comment function for approving film projects

📸 Photography

1. RAW — Uncompressed image format with maximum editing freedom
2. JPEG — Common, compressed image format
3. focal length — Influences image detail and perspective
4. depth of focus — area of the image that is shown in focus
5. Golden hour — Optimum light at sunrise/sunset
6. white balance — Regulates color cast in the image
7. ISO — Sensor sensitivity to light
8. histogram — Graphical presentation of exposure and contrast
9. Exposure time — Duration of light absorption by the sensor
10. aperture — Aperture in the lens, influences the amount of light and depth of field

💻 Animation

1. Keyframe — Start or end point of an animation
2. Tweening — Automatic calculation of intermediate images
3. Rigging — Insert a digital skeleton for movement
4. rendering — Calculation of the finished image or video
5. Compositing — Merge multiple image layers
6. Motion Design — Moving image design in the graphics sector
7. After Effects — Adobe tool for animation and video effects
8. VFX (Visual Effects) — Digital Special Effects
9. Pre-rendering — Preview rendering before final export
10. Timing — Timing of movement and rhythm

✍🏻 Graphic design

1. CMYK — color space for printing (cyan, magenta, yellow, black)
2. RGB — color space for digital media (red, green, blue)
3. DPI (dots per inch) — resolution for printed images
4. Mockup — Presentation of a design in an application context
5. vector illustration — Scalable without loss of quality
6. Raster graphics — Pixel-based image formats
7. corporate design — Visual appearance of a brand
8. branding — Holistic development and maintenance of a brand
9. screen design — Design of digital interfaces and interfaces
10. Flat Design — Minimalistic, two-dimensional style

🎨 Cross-media & general

1. Call to action (CTA) — Call to action such as “Book now”
2. Touchpoint — Point of contact between target group and brand
3. UX (user experience) — user experience, overall impression of the application
4. UI (user interface) — Visual design of the user interface
5. Conversion — Target action, such as buying, clicking, or signing in
6. Funnel — Marketing funnel from initial contact to completion
7. briefing — Project description with objectives and framework conditions
8. Mood board — Visual collection of ideas for finding style
9. screencast — Video recording from the screen
10. Asset — Media element, such as logo, graphic, animation, clip

Tip: Our glossary is also perfect as a reference work for new employees, customers or for training purposes in media projects.