Animation Tropes



""Damn the illusion of movement! Damn the illusion of movement to hell!""

- Don Hertzfeldt's intro for The Animation Show

Tropes which are exclusive to Animation as a medium, due to the unique freedom inherent in all Graphical Tropes combined with the ability to portray action. Thanks to the rise of CGI, animation can occur within and sometime barely distinguishable from live action, allowing a medium within a medium.

See Also: Japanese Animation Tropes and Animation Genres. Do not confuse with Graphical Tropes, its super-index.

Tropes
Categories:
 * All CGI Cartoon
 * The Golden Age of Animation
 * History of Animation
 * Japanese Animation Tropes
 * Stock Visual Metaphors
 * Voice Acting Tropes
 * Absurdly Bright Light
 * Absurdly Ineffective Barricade
 * Accordion Man
 * Acme Products
 * Action-Hogging Opening
 * Agony of the Feet
 * Alertness Blink
 * All Animation Is Disney
 * Alternate Tooniverse
 * Animated Actors
 * Animated Music Video
 * Animation Bump
 * Barefoot Cartoon Animal
 * Behind a Stick
 * Big Ball of Violence
 * Born in The Theatre
 * Bullet Seed
 * Cartoon Juggling
 * Catch That Pigeon
 * Celebrity Toons
 * Clip Art Animation
 * Conspicuous CG
 * Conspicuously Light Patch
 * Crush Parade
 * Deranged Animation
 * Detail-Hogging Cover
 * Disney School of Acting and Mime
 * Drop What You Are Doing
 * Eat the Camera
 * Everybody Do the Endless Loop
 * Everything Dances
 * Extendable Arms
 * Eye Pop
 * Faceless Masses
 * False Teeth Tomfoolery
 * Fight Unscene
 * Fun Hating Confiscating Adult
 * Heavy Voice
 * Hit Flash
 * Inaction Sequence
 * Infectious Enthusiasm
 * Inkblot Cartoon Style
 * Ink Suit Actor
 * Knife Outline
 * Koosh Bomb
 * Lantern Jaw of Justice
 * Limited Animation
 * Live Action Adaptation
 * Medium Blending
 * Medium Shift Gag
 * Mime and Music Only Cartoon
 * Motionless Chin
 * Narrative Shapeshifting
 * No Flow in CGI
 * Not Quite Starring
 * Ocular Gushers
 * Off-Model
 * Pastel-Chalked Freeze-Frame
 * Piano Key Wave
 * Picture Drama
 * Pigeonholed Voice Actor
 * Relationship Voice Actor
 * Polka Dot Paint
 * Ringer Ploy
 * Roger Rabbit Effect
 * Rule of Animation Conservation
 * Running On the Spot
 * Scooby Stack
 * Screeching Stop
 * Shadow of Impending Doom
 * Simpleton Voice
 * Talking to Himself
 * Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats
 * Temporary Bulk Change
 * The Twelve Principles of Animation
 * Toon
 * Toon Physics
 * Toon Town
 * Toon Transformation
 * Typewriter Eating
 * Vacuum Mouth
 * Vocal Evolution
 * Voices Are Mental
 * Voices in One Room
 * Wheel of Decisions

Technical terms

 * Adobe Flash
 * Animation Lead Time
 * Cel Shading
 * Motion Capture
 * Mouth Flaps
 * Lip Lock
 * Rotoscoping
 * Squiggle Vision
 * Synchro Vox
 * Thick Line Animation
 * Three Shorts (animation-specific episode format)
 * Toon Boom