The word is ANIMATION , not ANIMATIONS

Online I notice a lot of confusion and imprecision of terminology when discussing traditional hand drawn animation , so I thought it would be useful to post a reference document with a glossary of commonly used terms .

Click here to access Traditional Animation Glossary of Terms

First, let’s define Animation:

Animation - ( *never “Animations”) - - The act, process, or result of imparting life, interest, spirit, motion, or activity. - The quality or condition of being alive, active, spirited, or vigorous. - The art or process of preparing animated cartoons. - An animated cartoon : A series of drawings that bring inanimate objects and characters to life.

*Animation is an “uncountable noun” , therefore it does not have an extra “s” added for “Animations”. Unlike countable nouns, uncountable nouns are substances, concepts, etc. that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself , so for example , we do not speak of “bottles of milks” . Or another example is "music" ... we don't speak of "musics" . Neither would we speak of "animations" , but rather animation.

For professional animators trained in the traditional animation discipline hearing the term "Animations" is like fingernails on a chalkboard.

My friend and colleague, storyboard artist and animator Eddie Pittman also addressed this on his Substack recently.  Eddie wrote: 

In the animation world—at least the one I grew up in, back when we carved our drawings on stone walls and ran around with flickering torches to watch them move—the word “animation” is a mass noun (or so says grammar experts). Like the words “furniture”, “software”, or “music.”

I mean, you wouldn’t say: “I listened to some musics today.” You would say: “I listened to music.”

In the same way, you don’t traditionally say: “I make animations.” You say: “I make animation.”

So when I hear someone say: “I love Pixar’s animations,” that’s nails-on-a-chalkboard wrong. Why does it bother me so much? Animation isn’t a product—like a collection of little wiggly things you can count like…wiggly things. It’s a discipline. A craft. A performance. It’s acting. It’s dance. Built one painstaking drawing at a time.

When I started in animation, back in the 90s—long before GIFs, social media, and those motion UI widgets that make websites (and the viewer) feel like they’re having mild seizures—animation meant more than interchangeable widgets that wiggle. It was, as Frank and Ollie told us, the illusion of life.

And it was singular. Always singular.

https://eddiepittman.substack.com/p/a-small-grammatical-hill-i-will-cheerfully

 

Eric Goldberg animating at the Richard Williams Studio

 UPDATE:  I found it.  It's posted here on this wonderful animation resource page by Daniel Aguirre Hansell:

https://emeraldtoneanimation.weebly.com/vintage-stuff.html

It is from a magazine called The Movie: Illustrated History of Cinema ,No. 33 ,1980.

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Master animator Eric Goldberg animating a commercial at the Richard Williams Animation Studio, circa 1980.

I used to own a copy of the British film magazine this image appeared in (it was an article about the Richard Williams studio) ,but I've lost it over the years or it's buried in one of my boxes of animation "schtuff" from days gone by. If anyone who sees this happens to have a copy of the magazine, please scan the article at high-res. and post it. I'd love to see it again. The entire article is now posted below, courtesy of Daniel Aguirre Hansell.

Animator Eric Goldberg at his animation desk Richard Williams Studio early 1980's

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