[WML-Source: Glossary.wml][TOC][Part00]
[chapter]
[section]Glossary
[point]Active
Blender makes a distinction between selected and active. Only one
Object or item can be active at any given time, for example to allow
visualization of data in buttons.
[point]Alpha
The alpha value in an image denotes opacity, used for blending and
anti-aliasing.
[point]Ambient light
Light that exists everywhere without any particular source. Ambient
light does not cast shadows, but fills in the shadowed areas of a
scene.
[point]Animate
To give motion to an object or a group of objects over time.
[point]Animation
A series of images that create an illusion of movement when displayed rapidly in sequence.
[point]Anti-aliasing
Algorithm designed to reduce the stair-stepping artifacts that result
from drawing graphic primitives on a raster grid.
[point]AVI
"Audio Video Interleaved". A container format for video with
synchronized audio. A AVI-file can contain different compressed video
and audio-streams.
[point]Back-buffer
Blender uses two buffers to draw the interface in. This
double-buffering system allows one buffer to be displayed, while
drawing occurs on the back-buffer. For some applications in Blender
the back-buffer is used to store color-coded selection information.
[point]Beveling
Beveling removes sharp edges from an extruded object by adding
additional material around the surrounding faces. Bevels are
particularly useful for flying logos, and animation in general, since
they reflect additional light from the corners of an object as well as
from the front and sides.
[point]Bezier Curve
A curved line defined by its functional control points.
[point]Bounding box
A six-sided box drawn on the screen that represents the maximum
extents of an object.
[point]Bump map
A grayscale image used to give a surface the illusion of ridges or
bumps. In Blender bumpmaps are called Nor-maps.
[point]Channel
- Some DataBlocks can be linked to a series of other
DataBlocks. For example, a Material has eight channels to link
Textures to.
- Each Ipo block has a fixed number of available
channels. These have a name (LocX, SizeZ, enz.) which indicates
how they can be applied. When you add an IpoCurve to a channel,
animation starts up immediately.
[point]Child
Objects can be linked to each other in hierarchical groups. The Parent
Object in such groups passes its transformations through to the Child
Objects.
[point]Clipping
Removing, before drawing occurs, of vertices and faces which are
outside the field of view.
[point]Collision Detection
The ability of objects to register contact with other objects.
[point]Compositing
The process of combining multiple images, or layers, into a single image
[point]Curve
Series of vertices between which interpolation occurs, allowing for fluid and detailed procedural shapes.
[point]DataBlock (or 'block')
The general name for an element in Blender's Object Oriented System.
[point]Double-buffer
Blender uses two buffers (images) to draw the interface in. The
content of one buffer is displayed, while drawing occurs on the other
buffer. When drawing is complete, the buffers are switched.
[point]Environment Map
Texture mapping technique to mimic a mirroring surface.
[point]Extend select
Add new selected items to the current selection.
[point]Extrusion
The creation of a three-dimensional object by pushing out a
two-dimensional outline to give it height, like a cookie-cutter. It is
often used to create 3D text.
[point]Face
The triangle and square polygons that form the basis for Meshes, or for rendering.
[point]Field
Frames from videos in NTSC or PAL format are composed of two
interlaced fields.
[point]Flag
A programming term for a variable that indicates a certain status.
[point]Flat shading
A fast rendering algorithm that simply gives each facet of an object a
single color. It yields a solid representation of objects without
taking a long time to render. Pressing ZKEY
switches to flat
shading in Blender.
[point]Fps
Frames per second. All animations, video, and movies are played at a
certain rate. Above ca. 15fps the human eye cannot see the single
frames and is tricked into seeing a fluid motion. NTSC uses 30fps, PAL 25fps,
and movies 24fps.
[point]Frame
A single picture taken from an animation or video.
[point]Frame Rate
The speed at which frames are displayed. Normally denoted in fps (frames per second).
[point]Game Engine
The code that Blender uses to run games, including the game physics.
[point]Gouraud shading
A rendering algorithm that provides more detail. It averages
color information from adjacent faces to create colors. It is more
realistic than flat shading, but less realistic than Phong shading or
ray-tracing. Hotkey in Blender is CTRL-Z
.
[point]Hierarchy
Objects can be linked to each other in hierarchical groups. The Parent
Object in such groups passes its transformations through to the Child
Objects.
[point]Inverse Kinematics (or IKA)
A character animation tool which allows the animator to move the endpoint of a hierarchically linked chain to determine a character's position.
[point]Ipo
The main animation curve system. Ipo blocks can be used by Objects
for movement, and also by Materials for animated colors.
[point]IpoCurve
The Ipo animation curve.
[point]Item
The general name for a selectable element, e.g. Objects, vertices or
curves.
[point]Keyframe
A frame in a sequence that specifies all of the attributes of an
object. The object can then be changed in any way and a second
keyframe defined. Blender automatically creates a series of
transition frames between the two keyframes, a process called
"tweening."
[point]Lathe
A lathe object is created by rotating a two-dimensional shape around a
central axis. It is convenient for creating 3D objects like glasses,
vases, and bowls. In Blender this is called "spinning".
[point]Lattice
Three dimensional grid of vertices, used to deform meshes, surfaces, and particles.
[point]Layer
A visibility flag for Objects, Scenes and 3DWindows. This is a very
efficient method for testing Object visibility.
[point]Lens Flare
Artifact created by a light source shining directly into a (camera) lens.
[point]Link
The reference from one DataBlock to another. It is a
'pointer' in programming terminology.
[point]Local
- Each Object in Blender defines a local 3D space, bounded by its
location, rotation and size. Objects themselves reside in the global
3D space.
- A DataBlock is local, when it is read from the current Blender
file. Non-local blocks (library blocks) are linked parts from other
Blender files.
[point]Material
Contains all the information about the appearance of an object, such as color, sheen, and the mapping of textures.
[point]Mapping
The relationship between a Material and a Texture is called the
'mapping'. This relationship is two-sided. First, the information that
is passed on to the Texture must be specified. Then the effect of the
Texture on the Material is specified.
[point]Mesh
This is the triangle and quad mesh data forming a object. It contains vertices, faces and normals.
[point]MetaBalls
Spherical or tubical objects that can operate on each other's shape.
[point]MPEG-I
Video compression standard by the "Motion Pictures Expert Group". Due to
its small size and platform independence, it is ideal for distributing video
files over the internet.
[point]MPEG
"Motion Pictures Expert Group"
[point]Normal
An imaginary ray pointing out from the surface of a polygon, and perpendicular to that surface.
[point]Normap
Blender term for bumpmap.
[point]NTSC
TV standard by the "National Television Standards
Committee". Most common industry standard used in the USA and Japan.
[point]NURBS
Non-Uniform Rational Bezier Curve. A mathematical description of a curved surface.
[point]ObData block
The first and most important DataBlock linked by an Object. This block
defines the Object type, e.g. Mesh or Curve or Lamp.
[point]Object
The basic 3D information block. It contains a position, rotation, size
and transformation matrices. It can be linked to other Objects for
hierarchies or deformation. Objects can be 'empty' (just an axis) or
have a link to ObData, the actual 3D information: Mesh, Curve,
Lattice, Lamp, etc.
[point]Orthographic View
A view in which an object's distance from the viewer has no effect on the size at which it is drawn.
[point]PAL
"Phase Alternating Line", a TV standard common for Europe.
[point]Parent
An object that is linked to another object, as the parent is linked to
the child in a parent-child relationship. A parent object's
coordinates become the center of the world for any of its child
objects.
[point]Parenting
The process of creating a hierarchical organization of objects in a scene.
[point]Particles
Non-volume, non-surface 2D pixels in 3D space, to which forces can be applied.
[point]Path
Special type of curve. Any curve can become a path, any objects parented to a path will use it as a trajectory.
[point]Perspective View
In a perspective view, the farther an object is from the viewer, the
smaller it appears. See orthographic view.
[point]Pivot
A point that normally lies at an object's geometric center. An
object's position and rotation are calculated in relation to its
pivot-point. However, an object can be moved off its center point,
allowing it to rotate around a point that lies outside the object.
[point]Pixel
A single dot of light on the computer screen; the smallest unit of a
computer graphic. Short for "picture element."
[point]Plug-In
A piece of (C-)code to load during runtime. This way it is possible to
extend the functionality of Blender without a need for recompiling. In
Blender we have Texture plug-ins and Sequencer plug-ins.
[point]Point Light
A light source that emanates from a single point in space in all directions.
[point]Polygon
A two-dimensional, closed non-intersecting geometric figure. Polygons can be triangles or squares. Also called 'faces' in Blender.
[point]Primitives
Basic 3D geometric shapes like a cube, sphere, cylinder or cone. The building blocks for more complex objects.
[point]Procedural Textures
Random patterns (such as marble, wood, and clouds) generated by
mathematical algorithms. Each 3D coordinate can be translated directly
into a color or a value.
[point]Proportional Editing Tool (PET)
Adds a magnet like function to Grab, Scale, and Rotate.
[point]Python
The interpreted, interactive, object-oriented programming language that can be used with Blender to manipulate data.
[point]Radiosity
A method to calculate softer, more natural shadows.
[point]Render
To create a two-dimensional representation (i.e. a picture for print
or to display on the monitor) of an object based on its shape and
surface properties.
[point]Rotation
Moving an object around a specific center and axis.
[point]Scale
Changing the size of an object along one or all axis.
[point]Scene
The basis of the 3D world. A virtual stage that determines what, and
how much, will be rendered.
[point]Selected
Blender makes a distinction between selected and active. Any number
of Objects can be selected at once. Almost all key commands have an
effect on selected Objects.
[point]Single User
DataBlocks with only one user.
[point]Skinning
Stretching a surface over a series of 2-dimensional "ribs" or cross-sections.
[point]S-Mesh
Subdivision mesh. Each face is calculated with a smooth subdivision on the fly.
[point]Smoothing
A rendering procedure that performs vertex-normal interpolation across a
face before lighting calculations begin. The individual facets are then
no longer visible.
[point]Surface
Special type of nurbs curve, with interpolation in two dimensions (U and V).
[point]Text
Special type of curve. Only Postscript Type 1 is supported.
[point]Title Safe
An area which is completely visible on all consumer TVs. In Blender,
this area is denoted by the inner dotted line in the Camera view.
[point]Toolbox
Menu containing almost all keyboard commands (hotkey: spacebar).
[point]Transform
Change a location, rotation, or size. Usually applied to Objects or
vertices.
[point]Transparency
A surface property that determines how much light passes through an
object without being altered.
[point]User
When another DataBlock referenes a DataBlock, it has a user.
[point]Vertex (vertices)
The general name for a 3D point. Besides an X,Y,Z coordinate, a vertex
can have color, a normal vector and a section flag.
[point]Volumetric Light
Light with some type of volume perceived. This done with HALO Spots.
[point]Wireframe
A representation of a three-dimensional object that shows only the
lines of its contours, hence the name "wireframe."
[point]X, Y, Z axes
The three axes of the world's three-dimensional coordinate system. In
the front view, the X axis is an imaginary horizontal line running
left to right; the Z axis is a vertical line; and Y axis is a line
that comes out of the screen toward you. In general, any movement
parallel to one of these axes is said to be movement along that axis.
[point]X, Y, and Z coordinates
The X coordinate of an object is measured by drawing, through its
centerpoint, a line that is perpendicular to the X axis. The distance
from where that line intersects the X axis to the 0 point of the X
axis is the object's X coordinate. The Y and Z coordinates are
measured in a similar manner.
[point]Zbuffer
For a Zbuffer image, each pixel is associated a Z-value, derived from
the distance in 'eye space' from the Camera. Before each pixel of a
polygon is drawn, the existing Zbuffer value is compared to the
Z-value of the polygon at that point. It is a common and fast
visible-surface algorithm.
[point]Zoom
Modification of the camera's focal length. This is done with a camera's 'lens' setting.
-cw-
Last modified: Mon Nov 6 18:50:50 CET 2000
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