Le Voyage  dans la Lune(A Trip to the Moon) (1902) Georges Méliès
Armature: the skeleton of a stop-motion puppet, usually constructed of machined steel.  Armature ball and socket joints allow animators to manipulate the puppet to create the illusion of motion through stop-motion animation
Animatronics: Radio or computer -controlled robot or puppet operated through  rods, cables, and hydraulic systems connected to a motorized system operated with a joy-stick.
Bluescreen: Photographic process that involves filming in front of a brightly illuminated Bluescreen. After optical or digital rephotography, the actors are composited with a photographic plate of a background element. Most extensively used traveling matte technique.  Replaced front and rear projection as it allowed full movement of the camera, required less special equipment and permits various effects in the printing stage.
Body Sock: Software system developed by ILM to create the computer graphics liquid-metal cyborg in T2. Software allows animators to smooth and blend the edges of a digitally modeled surface.
Cel/Computer Animation: Photographing an image drawn on cels or in the computer frame by frame to produce the illusion of movement
CGI: Computer Generated Image. A Drawing is scanned into a computer or transformed into a 3D model which can be rotated, distorted, colored, shaded and given motion. e.g. Dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, ghosts of Caspar, dragon in Dragonheart.
Cracker Smoke: mineral oil base that, when vaporized, produces atmospheric smoke.
Digital Realm: All encompassing term for the computer’s internal data-based environment and the manipulations possible therein.
Double Exposure: Exposure of two separate shots on one strip of celluloid film
Effects Animation: Tradition hand-drawn effects (such as cel animation or rotoscoping) used to produce visual effects such as lightning bolts, fairy dust, electric “zaps” etc.
Enveloping: ILM proprietary software designed to enhance dinosaur animation in Jurassic Park which gives the look of skin and muscle realistically moving with a creature’s skeletal system.
Glass Shot: An in-camera compositing technique, in which a painting is made on a sheet of glass, with unpainted areas left in which a background subject (e.g. models or miniatures) can be visible. When the background subject and foreground glass shot are lined up, the two can be photographed as a composite shot.
Go-Motion:  Motion-controlled rods attached to stop-motion puppets are programmed to move while the camera shutter is open, producing life-like motion blur. This technique  avoided the “strobing” effect of traditional stop motion animation of Willis O’Brien’s King Kong and Ray Harryhausen’s Sinbad films.
Matte: A mask that partially covers film as it travels through the camera allowing the blacked out area to be filled in later with another visual element.
Matte Lines: Tell-tale signs, these are the visible edges of an element that have not been seamlessly matted into a shot.  A problem of optical compositing solved with the arrival of digital compositing
Matte Paintings: Traditionally made with brush and oils on glass, a surface that will not buckle or warp and thus betray its two-dimensionality.  Usually used for expansive establishing shots (e.g. of cityscapes) and to extend sound-stage and backlot sets.
Morphing: Image processing technique that allows different digitized images to seamlessly transform into each other.  First used on Willow (1988), Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” music video and most extensively in T2 for T-1000 effects.
Motion Control: Computerized  system pioneered by ILM on Star Wars that allows cameras, props and models to be programmed to move in specific and repeatable ways. Became foundation of modern visual effects.
Multiplane camera: Invented by Ub Iwerks for Disney Co., this vertical camera set-up created the illusion of 3D space by moving the camera down through multiple layers of cels First used in The Old Mill (1937). In 1980 ILM  developed the horizontal Automatte camera that utilized a fifty-foot camera track for a similar 3D effect.
Optical Compositing: A finished special effects shot, made up of two or more images that have been combined on an optical printer. The most common optical composites place actors, photographed on a stage, into imaginary environments that combine live action with matte paintings. Largely now replaced by digital compositing.
Optical Printer: Device combined of one or more projectors and lamphouses that allows numerous previously exposed elements to be rephotographed and combined on the same strip of film.  Was used for the creation of traditional  optical effects like dissolves, slow motion, fast motion, fade outs and fade-ins. Largely made obsolete by digital compositing.
Photoshop: Draw and paint software system created by ILM’s  John and Thomas Knoll to manipulate color images.
Pyrotechnics: the creation of explosives, smoke and fire effects.
Rear Projection: a camera photographs a foreground subject and a translucent screen onto which a background image is projected from behind.
Rendering an Image: Process of converting a 3D environment and models into a frame buffer for display on a color monitor. Most expensive step in computer graphics work requiring intensive memory capabilities on fast computers.
Rotoscope: device invented by Fleischer Bros., to enable tracing of live-action movement onto cels, frame by frame ( in order to capture human motion). Can also be used for animation effects (e.g. the light sabers in Star Wars).
Slit-Scan: A form of photography in which a streaking distortion effect is achieved by photographing artwork through a slit placed in front of the camera.  Douglas Trumbull used the technique in 2001 for the “Stargate Corridor” sequence.
Stop-Motion Animation: traditional 3D animation technique of manipulating inanimate puppets or props and shooting them frame by frame with a special animation camera to create the illusion of motion. Used in King Kong, Sinbad films and contemporary claymation series like Celebrity Deathmatch and The PJ’s.
Storyboard: Individual drawings pinned on board to illustrate scene/sequence. Initiated by Disney in lieu of traditional shooting script. In effects work, storyboards usually indicate technical notes for camerawork.
Streak Photography: technique in which the camera moves and long exposure times can produce a streaking effect to an image. Used to create streaking stars in the jump to hyperspace in Star Wars.
Texture Mapping: CGI technique by which surface textures from one image can be applied to another. e.g. Surface textures of animal skin can be applied to the surface of a 3D computer-generated wireframe model.
Traveling Matte: A system used in optical printing in which moving photographic silhouettes (e.g. of actors or spacecraft) either obscure or reveal images during rephotography.  Into the black shapes left by these photographic silhouettes, other moving images are placed.  Most commonly used process for traveling mattes is the bluescreen process.
Virtual Characters/Synthespians: 3D characters that have a photorealistic quality yet are completely computer generated.
Wire Removal: Process of digitally removing wires, pros and other unwanted elements from a scene.  Wire-removal software enabled removal of safety harnesses and other wires that made objects or actors appear to fly through the air. e.g. Schwarzenegger and boy on motorbike in T2