Starting out with 3D #2 (F - L)

This section builds on #1, which can be found here.

Face
Simply put, the shape of which a 3D object has been extruded. The front or back of an extruded object. Any of the polygons which makes up it’s boundaries.

Fall off
The way in which the intensity of a light diminishes with the distance from its source. In the real world, this is calculated by the inverse square law, which states that the intensity is inversely proportional to the square of the distance. In other words, the further the light, the darker the object. Real world examples would be the sun, a light, etc.

Forward Kinetics (FK)
A character animation technique for controlling the motion of bones in a chain. For example, the limbs. The opposite of this is inverse kinetics. (See further down)

Global Illumination
A type of rendering that computes all the possible light interactions between surfaces in a given scene.

Grime(Dirt) map
2D images applied to a particular channel of material. When the image is projected across the surface of an object, it breaks up the channels flat, even value, creating realistic variations.

Hard Body Dynamics
Also known as rigged body dynamics. It simulates the physical behaviour of rigged object that do not deform on collision.

Hardware Rendering
Renders a preview of a 3D scene providing real-time feedback. To make this possible it removes certain processor-intensive effects such as volumetrics, shadowing and realistic refraction.

Hierarchy
The relationship of the sub objects within a model or scene to one another. Sub-objects may exist as
parents, children or independents. A parent object controls the motion of all child objects linked to it. The motion of a child object does not affect its parent.

Interpolation
When a 3D package calculates the in between position between two keyframes.

Inverse Kinematics (IK)
Inverse Kinematics is a character animation technique in which the end bone of a chain is
assigned a goal object. When the goal object moves, the bone moves with it, dragging the rest of the chain behind it. For example, when moving a hand up, the whole arm moves up with it. The reverse is Forward Kinematics.

Joints
Points between the bones in a character rig.

Keyframe
An image used as a reference point for animation. An image is set up at a certain time in an animation and a later time and have the computer calculate all the frames between the two reference images. (See Interpolation)

Lathing
A modeling technique in which a two-dimensional profile is duplicated in rotation around a reference axis. The duplicates then join up to create a continuous three-dimensional
surface. Lathing is particularly useful for creating objects with rotational axes of symmetry, such as plates, glasses, vases or wheels.



Lofting
A technique in which a continuous three-dimensional surface is created by selecting and joining multiple two-dimensional cross sections or profiles. You basically have a “path” and an “object” the object will follow the path.

Low Poly Modeling
When creating a simplified model with a low polygon amount for realtime use, such as games. A few years ago anything with a polygon count of 512 and under was considered low poly. Today, anything well over a few thousand can still be rendered in realtime.

In part 3 I am going through the words between M and P.