3D Visualization & Animation

A scaffold should never be less than ________ from an energized power line.

10 feet

Deck holes bigger than __________ must be covered.

2 inches

Particles

2-dimensional objects typically used in large quantities to create effects like rain and explosions

If you are using a ladder to climb onto a roof, how far must the ladder extend past the roof line?

3 feet

Compressed air for cleaning must be less than __________.

30 psi(pounds per square inch)

The top rail of a guardrail system must be between _________inches.

39 and 45

3D Shutter Glasses

3D glasses made with electronic liquid crystal shutters. They are powered by the computer they are attached to and use this power to turn on and off the liquid crystal in each of the lenses creating a 3D effect, instead of the usual 2D display a computer monitor can offer.

Aspect ratio

A description of the proportion of an image by comparing its width to its height. 35 mm slides have the aspect ratio of 4:3 (1.33:1). Images become distorted if forced into a different aspect ratio during enlargement, reduction, or transfers. It should not be confused with the pixel aspect ratio, explained further on.

Timeline

A graphic representation of the passage of time as a line under the Layout viewport

3D accelerator

A graphics card specifically designed for 3D graphics. LightWave uses a system of 3D graphics called OpenGL and your graphics card must support this.

Bilinear intensity calculation

A high-speed algorithm for generating shaded faces. Used in Gouraud shading and Phong shading

Keyframe

A marker on the animation timeline that shows that a node (object, material, light) attribute (position, color, intensity) in the scene graph has been assigned a new value.

Boolean

A mathematical system developed by George Boole that expresses logical relationships between things. The results in a Boolean operation can be either true or false. Boolean is used in 3D to add, subtract, and other operations that involve Boolean calculations.

Anti-aliasing

A method for blending harsh contours and preventing staircasing or stairstepping. It is achieved by taking the surrounding areas into account when assigning a color value to pixels lying on an object's contour.

Antisymmetry surface restraint

A method for blending harsh contours and preventing staircasing or stairstepping. It is achieved by taking the surrounding areas into account when assigning a color value to pixels lying on an object's contour.

Bevel

A method of eliminating sharp edges from objects by extending an object's faces.

AVI

A popular file format that combines video and audio. It stands for Audio Video Interleave.

Algorithm

A problem-solving method that involves using a multi-step process.

Backface culling

A process included in most 3D graphics pipelines, backface culling eliminates triangles facing away from the camera. This is most efficiently performed by checking the orientation of the triangle normal in relation to the camera. The technique ignores geometry seen from behind so that only the fronts of objects that are facing the camera are rendered. Both faces of an object are rendered by default; that is, the ones whose normals are facing the camera as well as those that are not. You can choose which faces of the object you want to render as part of the rendering options: front, back, or both faces. Back culling (rendering only the front) can improve performance because less geometry needs to be rendered.

Array

A set of elements put together into a single entity. A pixel array is an ordered set of colored elements used for display purposes. In a 3D program, the array tool is usually used to create ordered copies of an object within 3D space. This tool is so named because it creates arrays of objects (creates an ordered set consisting of multiple copies of the same object).

Bank shot

A shot in billiards in which the player causes the cue ball or an object ball to rebound off a cushion. A shot in basketball in which the ball glances off the backboard before reaching the basket. Also a shot fired during a heist.

Area light

A special kind of point or spotlight. The rays emanate from a geometric area instead of a single point (entire surface uniformly emits light). This is useful for creating soft shadows with both an umbra (the full shadow) and a penumbra (the partial shadow).

Bezier curve

A technique for creating curves that was attributed to and named after a French engineer, Pierre Bézier, who used them for the body design of Renault's cars in the 1970s.

Blade

A thin plane placed in front of a light to cast a shadow, taking light off of an object. A device to create a shadow.

3D

A three-dimensional medium, display, or performance, especially a cinematic or graphic medium in three dimensions.

Adaptive supersampling

A way of antialiasing the surface of an object by decreasing the oversampling rate for those pixels that do not require the oversampling. The results of adaptive supersampling are slightly more localized, and the computing time is often shorter than other sampling methods.

3DS

Aged file format used by Autodesk 3D Studio and discreet 3d Studio max for three-dimensional scenes. It contains geometry, textures, lights and cameras as well as animation data.

Ambient light

All-directional light illuminating every object uniformly from all sides.

Ambient map

Allows manipulation of the ambient component of an objects reflection-illumination model. Usually the ambient component is given a value near that of the diffuse component.

Alpha matte/image

Alpha matte/image generally refers to an image where the brightness of each pixel is used to cut or partially dissolve out another image. These are generally grayscale or black-and-white images, but the brightness values can also be extracted from a color image.

Binary Space Partition

Also known as BSP, this is a technique used in real-time rendering for resolving in which order polygons should be drawn. The technique requires that a so-called BSP tree is built before the scene may be rendered. As this build process is very costly in terms of execution speed, BSP trees cannot usually be calculated in real-time and thus essentially only support highly complex yet static 3D worlds

Raytracing

An advanced render technique capable of calculating reflections, refractions, and shadows.

Blocking

An animation technique in which key poses are created to establish timing and placement of characters in a given scene -- it is often the first step in pose-to-pose animation.

Aggregate Object

An object that is made up of a number of other objects. A normal aggregate object will be made up of primitives. A more complex aggregate object may be made up of primitives, other aggregate objects, or both.

Anamorphic distort

An option referring to the width of a lens flare. When selected, the larger the distort factor, the wider the lens flare will become.

A preliminary version of a movie produced by shooting successive sections of a storyboard and adding a soundtrack. Used for timing and pacing.

Animatic

Animation Channel

Animation Channel refers to the different position, rotation, and scaling settings an item can have in Layout. It can also refer to other envelope elements like light intensity. See also motion channel.

Ball

Another name for a sphere. Basically, a ball is a 3D circle or oval created by user-defined dimensions and settings.

3D object

Anything with a position and a representation in 3D space. Some objects have a special role, for instance a camera or a light, while others serve as controls for other objects, for instance splines or manipulators. The most common 3D objects are geometric objects, which can be classified according to whether they are polygon meshes, surfaces, curves, implicit objects, or nulls.

The comparing of the width to the height of an image or screen. (standard 4:3 or wide screen 16:9)

Aspect ratio (film back)

path animation

Attach a 3D object to a pre-drawn spline so the object moves along a specific path.

Baud

Bits per second. Hence kilobaud or Kbaud, thousands of bits per second. The technical meaning is `level transitions per second'; this coincides with bps only for two-level modulation with no framing or stop bits. Most hackers are aware of these nuances but blithely ignore them.

Bilinear Filtering

Blurring the pixels in a bitmap when it is zoomed in so that it seems smoother than it really is

Bone Hierarchy

Bones can be arranged to build a Bone Hierarchy, also called a Skeleton. The hierarchy defines how the movement of one bone affects other bones (up and down the hierarchy). If you then also add Constraints to the bone hierarchy, you have a Rig.

CODEC

Compression and Decompression software built into a program to allow effective render of various file types.

A curve created with a bezier spline (pen tool)

Curved path

What ladders are good to use around electricity?

Fiberglass

Dynamics ***

Forces that are simulated to make animations seem more life-like (gravity, wind, etc.)

Bandwidth

How much information a network can carry. Think of the network as a highway, and each message as a car. The more lanes in the highway, and the higher the speed limit, the more traffic it can carry. So the wider the bandwidth of a network, and the faster its speed, the more information it can carry.

Axis of motion

In 3D space, the line that an object follows during movement.

Axis of rotation

In 3D space, the line that an object rotates around.

Atmosphere

In LightWave, a volumetric effect that simulates reduced visibility in air over distances.

Which set of muscles should do most of the work when lifting an object?

Legs

2 sided

Like a playing card. A polygon that has a front, and a back, is 2 sided. A 2-sided polygon will have two surface normals, facing opposite directions.

Anaglyph

Moving or still pictures in contrasting colors that appear three-dimensional when superimposed. Anaglyph works well for printed matter or computer display, but color problems inherent in television displays (both PAL and NTSC) result in poor 3D broadcasts.

Alpha Channel

One of the four channels (or components) of information that make up every pixel in an image. There are three channels for red, green, and blue (RGB) and one alpha channel. The alpha channel is really a mask - it specifies the transparency of each pixel, which allows portions of the foreground image to reveal the background when two images are overlaid.

Ambient component

Part of the reflection-illumination model. A common surface shader parameter that adds consistency to the color of an object's surface to simulate an ambient light that reaches all points in a scene. An ambient value is determined for individual surfaces. Scene ambience is multiplied with an object's ambient color. If the scene ambience is set to black, nothing alters the ambient color of an object except, of course, a light. The careful balance of ambient and direct light sources is the key to convincing lighting. Global illumination is an alternative to ambient light that is more accurate but takes longer to render.

Animatics

Preliminary animated versions of a final video or film presentation.

The final stage in the process of defining the client's requirements for the development of an asset

Project Brief

Arc

Regularly curved open element that has a constant radius around a single center point. A section of a circle.

Backface elimination

See backface culling

Cycle Animation

Series of keyframes that loop over and over like a walk cycle.

Breakdown

Shows the progression of an animated shot

Radiosity

Simulation of light in a virtual environment.

As a general rule, fall protection is required at a height of ___________.

Six feet

B rep

Slang for boundary representation

Frame rate

Speed at which video frames appears on a screen; measured by FPS (frames per second); US TV is typically 29.97 frames, European is at 25 frames per second and movies are projected at 24 frames.

__________ can not be folded and leaned against a wall and used as a climbing ladder.

Step ladders

Origin

The absolute center of 3D space, located at 0,0,0 (x,y,z) on the coordinates plane.

Bones

The basis of movement for a model. Bones define parts of a model and how they move in relation to each other. Bones can be created in any object, even those which would normally be considered to be inanimate, to give life to that object and make it move smoothly.

Bit

The building blocks of computer data. Has either the value of 1 or 0 (current or no current). Bits can be grouped together to carry larger values.

Background color

The color that occupies all space not occupied by text, images, or any other objects. By default LightWave's background color is black.

Blitting

The copying of a virtual frame buffer to the displaying screen.

Barn doors

The flaps on the front of a movie light to assist in limiting the beam of light.

Absolute coordinates

The location of a point in terms of distances and/or angles from a fixed origin. See Relative coordinates.

Blending

The mixing of two (or more) textures into one final texture that is displayed in rendering, or the final step in making a margarita.

Animate, Animation

The movement of elements through time and space. Also, the process of creating and recording images that change over time. Everything in a scene is represented by numeric values and, as such, animation is also the process of changing these values - position, color, or any other property - over time. A method of creating the illusion of life or movement in inanimate objects or drawings. Through animation the artist's drawing comes to life. The most well known works are cartoon comedies, like Ren & Stimpy or The Simpsons, for example.

Aperture

The opening size of a camera lens. The greater the aperture, the smaller the depth of field and the greater the amount of light entering the lens.

Compositing

The process of bringing in all elements of the animation before rendering, layering technique that places one image on top of another, properly taking transparent pixels, apparent depth, shadowing and other elements that make up an image into account

Rigging

The process of creating a skeleton for a 3D model so it is ready for animation.

Annotation

The process of inserting text or a special note, explanation or to provide relevant detail to a surface, a rig or a point in your scene in LightWave.

Axis, Axes

The reference for describing the origin and position of an object in space, displayed by intersecting straight lines. By using two axes, a plane is determined; for example, the XY plane is defined by placing the X and Y axes so that they intersect at the global center (point of origin). Three dimensions are determined by using three axes: X, Y, and Z.

Angle of incidence

The relative angle between a lit surface and the light source. The more the surface is turned away from the light source, the less light it receives and the darker it becomes. When the angle of incidence is 90 degrees, the light shines directly on the surface and it is illuminated with maximum intensity

Shot composition

The way objects are set up in a scene. Best way is to use the Rule of Thirds. Main subject lies on one of the vertical lines.

Additive mixing of colored light

There are two sorts of mixing of colors. One is called additive, or sometimes transmissive and refers to the fact that the more red, green and blue you add together the nearer to white your final color. This is the normal light scene for LightWave or other graphics packages with output mainly through the medium of a screen. Subtractive mixing indicates that the fewer colors you mix the nearer to white you are and is used for reflective color, such as printed material.

Banking

This is when an object following a path rotates about the path when it changes direction.

3D map

Three-dimensional map either built up from multiple layers of bitmaps or, more often, generated in three dimensions with a procedural texture. These are algorithms that can generate 3D maps resembling marble or wood, and when applied to an object, the grains of the marble, and the fibers of the wood, will be correctly mapped to the surface in all three dimensions. If you split a 3D-mapped cube in two halves, the cross section surface will match the neighboring faces. A 3D map does not require texture coordinates.

Bend

To deviate from a straight line or position: The lane bends to the right at the bridge. To assume a curved, crooked, or angular form or direction: The saplings bent in the wind.

Which of the following should you not do while carrying a load?

Twist your back

2D map

Two-dimensional map consisting of either a bitmap or a procedural map. An object using a 2D map needs texture coordinates. See UV for further details.

Bitmap

Two-dimensional monochrome raster image. A bitmap is a black and white image marking boundaries. It is often used for clip maps in LightWave.

Additive opacity

Type of opacity that adds the background color to the material's color of the transparent object.

Entertainment, Science, Advertising, Marketing, Medicine, Aerospace, Engineering, Graphic Design, etc.

Ways that 3D is used in industry

1 sided

When a polygon is created, unless otherwise set up, it will have only one side. If you were to look at a playing card, it has a front and a back. A 1-sided polygon only has a front, and therefore only one surface normal.

Attenuation

When light travels through air its strength diminishes with the distance. The further the light travels, the dimmer the light. In real life, the light attenuates by the inverse square of the distance. This means that if attenuation is turned on for a light only the geometry in its proximity will be lit. Not only is this more realistic for your renderings, it also helps speed up rendering time since only the geometry close enough to be affected by the light needs calculation time. See also Decay.

Aliasing

When referring to pictures, aliasing is the effect that occurs when a line looks jagged instead of smooth because of a contrast in colors. Usually, you can tell when this happens because the line between the colors looks very jagged, as if it were a flight of stairs, in fact it is often referred to as a "stairstepping" effect. For contrast, see antialiasing.

When should you use a dolly or hand truck to carry an object rather than carrying it by hand?

Whenever you believe it is safer and easier to use a dolly or hand truck

API

abbreviation for application programming interface.

Not wearing ________ is the most frequently cited PPE requirement.

hard hat

LP gas tanks must be stored _______.

outside