All articles
Everything on Frame & Blanket, organised by topic.
Animation Craft
- 2D vs 3D Animation: How the Workflows Differ — 2D animation creates movement through drawings, cut-outs, or shapes organized in a flat image space.
- Animation Timing and Spacing: The Clear Difference — Animation timing is how many frames an action takes; spacing is how positions are distributed across those frames.
- Animation Voice Acting: From Script to Final Scene — Animation voice acting begins with character and scene context, followed by directed recording of dialogue, reactions, breaths, and safe vocal efforts.
- Character Silhouette Design: Make Shapes Read — Character silhouette design makes identity, pose, direction, weight, and action readable through the outer shape alone.
- Color Scripts in Animation: Planning Mood Visually — A color script is a sequence of small images that plans palette, value, lighting, atmosphere, and emotional progression across an animated film.
- Foley and Sound in Animation: Building a World — Foley in animation is the performed recording of synchronized everyday sounds such as footsteps, clothing, and prop handling.
- How Animated Movies Are Made, Step by Step — Animated movies are developed through repeated stages: story development, storyboards, an edited animatic, visual design, asset creation, shot layout,…
- Stop-Motion Animation: How Frame-by-Frame Works — Stop-motion animation is made by photographing physical objects one frame at a time, changing their position slightly between exposures, and playing the…
- What Is a Storyboard? A Visual Planning Guide — A storyboard is a sequence of drawings that plans how a film scene will unfold shot by shot.
- What Is an Animatic? Why Rough Movies Matter — An animatic is a rough, timed movie assembled from storyboard panels, temporary dialogue, sound, music, and simple camera moves.
Family Viewing
- Captions and Subtitles for Family Movie Night — Captions are synchronized text for dialogue and meaningful non-speech audio, supporting Deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and many other viewing situations.
- How to Choose a Family Movie by Age and Readiness — Choose a family movie by combining current rating and content details with each child's individual readiness, sensitivities, interests, and circumstances.
- How to Explain Movie Credits to Kids — Explain movie credits as a record of the teams behind a film's connected choices.
- Family Movie Questions That Start Real Conversation — Start family movie conversation with open questions such as what stuck, surprised, confused, or deserved another look.
- Family Movie Night Checklist: Less Fuss, More Film — For family movie night, preselect suitable films, confirm runtime and current content information, test playback, sound, captions, and account access,…
- How to Plan Movie Breaks Without Losing the Story — Plan movie breaks by telling everyone that pauses are allowed, choosing an easy signal, and estimating natural stopping points from the runtime and story.
- Sensory-Friendly Movie Night at Home — Create a sensory-friendly movie night by asking each viewer what helps, then making volume, captions, light, seating distance, movement, breaks, and…
- How to Talk About Scary Movie Scenes With Kids — When a child is scared by a movie, acknowledge the feeling, pause or stop, and ask which image, sound, idea, or possible outcome felt frightening.
- Visual Storytelling for Kids: Watch Beyond Dialogue — Teach visual storytelling by asking what viewers understand without dialogue: who matters, what changed, where attention goes, and how framing, distance,…
- Why Kids Rewatch Movies and What to Notice Next — Children may rewatch movies for enjoyment, predictability, emotional comfort, repeated music or language, and the chance to notice details after the main…