The meaning of references in the work of an animation artist

INTRODUCTION . Creating a screen product is impossible without working with references – auxiliary visual materials. Analog and digital channels provide access to a large amount of visual content, causing problems in finding and selecting the necessary information. An important stage in the artist’s work on creating visual content is working with references, the systematization and classification of which has not been carried out in full. The purpose of the research is to determine the types of references, the principles of their systematization and brief description, the features of the reference bases development, as well as to describe the main methods of working with them. MATERIALS AND METHODS . The research material is the practice of domestic and foreign animation artists. Interdisciplinary approaches, as well as comparative and classification methods, are used in the study. Based on a comparative analysis of the practical experience of artists from domestic and foreign studios, various aspects of working with references are revealed. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION . The separation of references according to the nature of the material (static and dynamic), according to the form of creation (borrowed and author’s), according to the tasks for which they are used. The principles of the reference databases development are described and a brief description of the main databases located on Internet resources is given. CONCLUSION . The results obtained are of an applied nature and can be used in the practice of both artists engaged in the creation of screen works and students in the field of “Animation film and multimedia artist”.