maquette
(ma-ket)

A maquette is a physical sculpture of an animation design. The sculpture can be of a character or an object. Maquettes are made using the character or object's model sheet, to make sure that their proportions most closely match those of the 2d drawings. These sculptures are valuable in helping animators determine how to draw aspects of the animation design from various angles.
Source: animation.about.com

atelier
(at-el-yey)

Atelier is a French word meaning the studio or workshop of an artist. It comes from the old French term astelier, meaning workshop, which in turn comes from the word astele, meaning a chip or splinter of wood.
The atelier method of art tuition is based on the transfer of art skills from an experienced artist to students, in the studio of the master artist. Atelier method is centered on realism, and the acquisition of fundamental skills before exploring personal expression.
Source: painting.about.com

analogous
(uh-nal-uh-guh-s)

Analogous colors are colors that are adjacent or next to one another on a color wheel.
An analogous color scheme is one in which only three adjacent colors are used. The theory is that colors work well or harmonize together. Usually one of these colors is dominant, or used more than the other two, in the painting.
Source: painting.about.com

vernissage
(vayr-nah-sahzh)

A vernissage is an invitation-only or private preview of an art exhibition before it opens for public viewing. It's used as a marketing tool to promote an exhibition, to introduce the artist(s) and their work to important figures in the art establishment, art collectors, and sometimes celebrity guests. Plus journalists in the hope to get some media coverage (preferably favorable, but any publicity is better than none).
The term comes from the French vernissage, which literally means "varnishing", and the tradition in centuries past for artists to use the day before an exhibition opened to put finish touches to their paintings and/or varnish them, once they had been hung.
Also known as: preview, private view, private showing, opening
Source: painting.about.com

phenakistoscope
(phen-a-kis-to-scope)

A phenakistoscope was one of the earliest devices that simulated animated motion, invented in the early 1800s. The device consisted of a wheel with the animation sequence (what we define as separate frames of motion now) drawn in succession around its circumference. Slits were cut in the wheel, and it was mounted vertically in front of a mirror.
Viewers would spin the wheel and then look through the slits to see the rapid succession of images reflected on the mirror to create the illusion of animated motion.
Source: animation.about.com

antefix
(an-tuh-fiks)

An upright ornament along the edges or eaves of a tiled roof designed to conceal the joints between the rows of tiles, protecting exposed wooden parts of the architecture from the elements. In ancient times, antefixes were often placed on the roofs of Greek and Etruscan buildings. They were often decorated, and were typically made of terra cotta.
Source: artlex.com

alchemy
(al-kuh-mee)

The ancient and medieval chemical practice especially concerned with the attempt to convert base metals into gold.
Source: artlex.com

bevel
(bev-uh l)

The meeting of a line or surface with another at any angle other than 90°, or the angle at which they meet. Also, carving or cutting to make a bevel; a chamfer. It may also be an instrument which is formed by joining two rules as adjustable arms in order to measure or draw angles of any size or to fix a surface at an angle; an instrument also known as a sliding bevel or bevel square.
Source: artlex.com

gargoyle
(gahr-goil)

In architecture, a sculpture or rain spout carved to resemble a grotesque creature or monster. It is a common feature of Gothic cathedrals
Source: artlex.com

grotesque
(groh-tesk)

Something having a fantastically distorted appearance. Also, a style of painting, sculpture, and
ornamentation used in antiquity in which natural forms and distorted figures are intertwined in bizarre or fanciful combinations, consisting of representations of medallions, sphinxes, foliage, and imaginary creatures.
Source: artlex.com

raster
(ras-ter)

An image in which each pixel's color value is strictly defined, saving an image in a fixed format as opposed to vector images, which define shapes and colors according to mathematical values and thus are more easily scalable. Common raster image formats are BMP, JPG, and GIF. Shrinking these images results in data loss, while enlarging them results in a loss in image quality.
Source: animation.about.com

vector
(vek-ter)

In graphics and animation, a "vector" is a line or a movement defined by end-points or, essentially, the distance between point A and point B. Vectors can be used to calculate animated motion mathematically instead of through the use of manual key frames; vectors can also be used to define computer-animated shapes.
Source: animation.about.com