Storyboard & Filmmaking Glossary
The vocabulary every director, animator, and pre-visualization artist should know — explained with practical examples from real productions.
Storyboarding is the bridge between a written script and a shot film. To use that bridge well, a director or animator has to speak two languages at once: the narrative language of the screenplay and the visual language of cinematography. This glossary maps that visual language — shot sizes, camera moves, composition rules, animation pipeline terms, and the workflow vocabulary that shows up in every production meeting.
Each entry is written for someone actively making a storyboard, not for a textbook reader. Definitions are short. Examples come from feature films, animated shorts, and commercials. Where a term has a useful counterpart (an over-the-shoulder shot only makes sense alongside its reverse), we link them so you can move through related concepts without leaving the page.
We are continuously expanding this glossary as new shot conventions emerge in AI-assisted pre-visualization. If a term you need is missing, the contact page has a way to request additions.
Browse by topic
Shot sizes & framing
How close the camera sits to the subject — extreme close-up, medium shot, wide shot, and the choices behind each.
Camera angles & perspective
High angle, low angle, bird's-eye, Dutch tilt — angle controls power, scale, and emotional read.
Camera movement
Pan, tilt, dolly, tracking, crane — what moves, why it moves, and how to draw it on a board.
Storyboard concepts
Beat boards, shot lists, animatics, and the pre-production artifacts that come before a single frame is animated.
Animation pipeline
Keyframe, in-between, layout, blocking — the staged process by which a storyboard becomes finished animation.
Continuity & editing
Eyeline match, 180-degree rule, screen direction — the invisible grammar that makes cuts feel seamless.