3Delight
A high performance rendering software and tool set, based on industry proven RenderMan standards and practices. 3Delight has been used extensively in television, film and other entertainment industries such as games. Being a RenderMan compliant renderer, it shares all the main advantages as Pixar's RenderMan based products.

Albedo
Often used to describe an unlit, pure diffuse texture or render channel that is devoid of light, specular or shadow information.

Bump Mapping
Bump mapping is a rendering trick used to fake the appearance of a complex surface than one that is actually being rendered. This is achieved by painting a black and white texture map onto the object, white representing raised surface details, black representing lowered surface details. Limitations of bump mapping are that it does not alter the surface’s shape, it only serves as an illusion on the original surface. Because only surface normals are being adjusted, it does not change the object’s silhouette, at more perpendicular angles to the viewing angle, the illusion breaks down. Bump mapping has been largely superseded by the superior normal mapping, and displacement mapping techniques.

Compositing
The process of creating an image from a layered collection of source images, the idea being that changes can be made rapidly by re-blending and tweaking the images rather than waiting hours for re-rendering. This process has its roots in traditional 'optical compositing', which uses photochemical methods to re-expose a number of images on top of each other. Digital software has now all but replaced the old ways.

Digital Double
A digital representation of a real life actor. Commonly used for shots considered too dangerous or expensive to do with live action stunt work.

Diffuse
Taken literally, diffuse means to spread widely. Within a 3D realm, its often used to describe scenarios where light hits a surface and is scattered evenly in all directions. Most light that we see is diffused light, diffusely lit surfaces look the same from any viewing angle as true diffuse light is view angle independent. A diffuse texture map refers to an evenly lit texture map image with no highlights or shadows. See also the contrasting definition for specular.

Displacement Mapping
An easy way to think of displacement mapping is an advanced version of bump mapping. Similar to bump mapping, displacement mapping is achieved by painting a black and white texture map onto the object, white representing raised surface details, black representing lowered surface details. Displacement mapping works by actually moving a surface up or down the surface normal, depending on the displacement map’s contents. This process is much more effective than bump mapping because it actually changes the 3D shape of the object, rather than just acting as a surface thin illusion.

Fresnel
The Fresnel (pronounced 'freynell') effect, is often used in reference to a phenomenon, whereby light is observed to reflect more at a glancing angle, then looking straight on at a surface. This effect is everywhere in nature, for example, if you gaze across a pond you will often see only reflections, but if you look straight down at the water, it is usually possible to see under the surface of the water. Named after French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788-1827) who was the first to observe the effect.

Hyperrealism
Hyper-realistic works are similar to photorealistic works with the key difference that elements are often pushed to a level that is more real than reality. Often this is done for stylistic or story telling reasons, for example making a sun brighter than normal, or making a characters eyes brows particularly evil looking.

HDR
High dynamic range (HDR) images contain a great deal more lighting information than regular images, such as ones found in books or the internet. These images are generally created by shooting the same photographic subject at a series of exposure settings, then by using computer software, combine the total range of light into one image. HDR has many benefits within compositing and lighting, allowing a much fuller representation of intensity range found in the natural world. Often real life environments are captured as HDR images and put to use in 3D production with image based lighting techniques. This technique was pioneered by Paul Debevec.

IBL
An acronym meaning Image Based Lighting, which refers to the process of lighting a 3D model using only image data. Often this image data is recorded in a HDR compatible format to allow representation of the light’s full magnitude present in a scene.

Index Pass
An index pass is created by a renderer to enable different elements to be isolated in a composite, this would be useful if you wanted to, for example, remove highlights from only the eyes of a character.

LOD
An Acronym which is short for 'level of detail'. This technique involves creating a number of 3D objects, each with decreasing levels of complexity from the original, highest quality object. When the viewer is moved away from the object at speed or commonly by distance, it is replaced with a lower quality version, this continues until the lowest quality object is in view. Typically LOD techniques are used heavily in most video games but the technique has its uses in any production where there are limits to the amount of computer processing power available and shortcuts must be taken to keep a balance between visual quality and rendering time.

MEL
An acronym meaning Maya Embedded Language. The cool thing about Maya it that it is written in MEL, so every command executed from within Maya is actually running MEL scripts in the background. MEL is arguably one of the biggest reasons for widespread popularity of Maya. If Maya doesn't currently have the functionality to cater to your needs, then it is relatively easy to implement new functionality using MEL. MEL offers a method of speeding up complicated or repetitive tasks, enables the building of entirely new toolsets and pipelines without needing to have hardcore programming knowledge. However C++ or Python might be better suited to very demanding extensions or plugins.

Mari
Mari was originally developed internally at Weta Digital with the intended purpose of managing complex and detailed texture work on a massive scale. The creative toolset of Mari allows artists to paint directly onto their 3D models and view the result instantly - essentially putting other 3D paint software to shame. Bigman has recently brought Mari into the studio and has been amazed at the giant leap forward in texturing that Mari accomodates. Tom's blog has a breakdown of Mari HERE.

Maya
Autodesk Maya software is the leading industry standard tool for generating 3D assets and animations for film, television, game development and architecture. Maya's assets are contained within scenes, elements within scenes are node based, with each node being customisable and having it's own attributes. This enables a very flexible working environment, users often create custom tools in Maya using MEL scripting techniques.

Motion Graphics
An exact definition of 'motion graphics' is a much debated subject. Put simply, it is animated graphic design, a series of graphic images that combine to give the illusion of motion.

Node
Node based software is built up from a number of small, simple modules. Each module is referred to as a node. Nodes can be interconnected by a number of ways, making a complex function from a group of simple parts.

Normal Mapping
In a similar, but advanced process to bump mapping, normal maps can fake a more complex looking surface than the one actually being rendered. This is accomplished by changing the angles of surface normals using an RGB image. Whilst a polygon might be flat across its length, normal mapping is used to enhance the appearance, displaying a much more detailed surface. Normal maps are somewhat unintuitive to paint directly, they are often created by comparing a high resolution object to a low resolution 'target' object, then 'baking' the normal map as part of a complex calculation. xNormal is a great example of an application that can be used to generate normal maps. Normal mapping suffers from the same failing as bump mapping, as it’s only a surface illusion, the silhouette of the object is not changed. When a surface is at more perpendicular angles to the viewing angle, the illusion breaks down.

Photogrammetric Modelling And Texturing
A 3D modelling process that is entirely driven by a collection of reference photography, enabling the creator to generate 3D models from 2D images. The key advantage is the quality and realism of the result, which is only constrained by the amount of detail present in the reference photographs. Bigman 3D's proprietary system we created for Maya is showcased on our About Us page.

Photorealistic
Often more of a goal than an end result, Photorealistic imagery is typically computer generated work that aims to be indistinguishable from actual photos.

Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is powerful industry standard software that allows the user to manipulate graphic imagery. Used extensively by photographers, artists and designers to add, remove or enhance features. Like 'Googling', 'Photoshopping' has become a verb to describe any general photo manipulation work.

Pass
In compositing, a ‘pass’ is a single render element. Composites are often created by combining a number of different passes. For example a reflection pass, light pass and albedo pass might be combined to produce a final image.

Point Clouds
Point clouds are 3D files that are made up of a series of dots in space. Often an object is 'baked' from polygons into a point cloud format. If this 'cloud' is dense enough it can be used to efficiently store information about objects such as their colour or irradiance. Many rendering systems use point based approximations to facilitate faster ways of rendering complex effects, such as ambient occlusion or IBL.

Previsualization

Often before production starts on a film, an approximated representation of the action is put together, this is known as previsualization (or previz). There are many advantages to this technique, most notably it allows creative processes to begin before full blown production starts. Experimentation can begin right away, often solving many problems that would be hard to foresee, prior to much more expensive filming and VFX production phases.

Once approved, the previs is often sent to various studios so they can bid for each shot. Previsualization is an evolving artform, with techniques such as stereoscopic-3D and real time motion capture being developed, it is becoming an increasingly important tool in a filmmaker's arsenal.

Polygon
In geometry, a polygon is a shape that is bounded by a closed path, made up from a sequence of straight lines. The most simple polygon is a triangle of 3 lines (known as edges), that connect 3 dots in 3D space (known as vertex). 3D computer models are often constructed from hundreds, thousands or millions of these triangles. As polygon count increases, the smoother and less obvious it becomes that the model is actually composed of these linear, straight lined components.

Rendering
The process of creating 2D images from 3D data. Scene data that includes lights, cameras and 3D objects are 'rendered' using software such as Renderman or V-Ray to produce rich, complex images than can take several hours to process.

RenderMan
Since the early beginnings of the CGI VFX industry, RenderMan has been present leading the way. Principle scientists like Ed Catmull who created RenderMan, invented other fundamental techniques such as texture mapping, whilst they developed their once highly ambitious goal of creating 3D animated movies. As a definition RenderMan is both an industry standard rendering specification, also a range of products by Pixar that are 'RenderMan compliant' (meaning they adhere to RenderMan specifications). Bigman uses 3Delight, which is an excellent RenderMan compliant renderer. These compliant renderers are ubiquitous in VFX and animation industries, mainly due to the raw power and speed at which they can process complex animated scenes. Typically RenderMan will 'cheat', making many approximations of the way light behaves in reality. This allows typical render farms to deliver hundreds or thousands of HD frames per day. RenderMan compliant renderers excel when it comes to stability within enormous scenes. Most notably the rendering of fast motion blur, displacement, hair and depth of field effects (often at once), when there are hundreds of characters onscreen together.

Rim Light
A rim light often used behind a foreground character or object with the goal of heightening the contrast with the background, thereby adding a 'punch' or depth to objects that brings them forwards in the composition and helps to focus the viewers attention.

Reflection Occlusion
This is essentially a 'cheat' technique aimed at reducing render times. The process of Reflection Occlusion involves shooting rays from the camera out into the scene, the rays bounce once and scene objects are shaded depending on if these rays are occluded (shaded black), or if they bounce off the object to hit the environment (shaded white). Often used together with reflection maps and bent normals to make a cheap but effective lighting solution.

SFX
Special effects (often abbreviated to SFX) are the illusions created for entertainment industries. They enhance events on-set mechanically through various elements such as props, pyrotechnics or scale models, also optically via photographic processes. Often mistakenly used interchangeably with VFX.

Subsurface Scattering
Subsurface scattering (SSS for short) describes the way light transmits through an object’s surface and leaves at another point. Depending on the object’s translucency, light will penetrate in a number of ways. This method is essential in 3D graphics to accurately render materials such as skin, wax or soft foods and drinks. The best way to observe SSS, is to hold a torch light right up to your fingers and see the light travel through the other side. SSS has been a great innovation in CGI as it adds warmth, softness and depth to surfaces, preventing them from appearing like cold hard plastic.

Shader
Shaders are software programs used to define the look or position of a particular material’s surface. A 'mountain' shader might make use of specially painted textures to move points on a surface, creating a jagged silhouette on all 3D objects which it is applied to. A 'cheese' shader might be programmed to randomly scatter blue veins over the whole surface of any object it is linked to, this might include an SSS component. Production scenes often use many shaders to create believable surfaces in complex 3D environments. Particularly in advanced shaders, which are sometimes made by combining a number of sub-shaders, creating one very intricate shading network describing a material's interaction with light.

Specular
Specular in short, means mirror-like, having or relating to the qualities of a mirror. Within 3D it is often used to describe scenarios where light bounces on the surface of an object, reflecting in a wide range of directions. Anything that might be referred to as a reflection, or a highlight, is light that has been reflected in a specular way. Specular light is view angle dependent, meaning different results are seen as we move around an object exhibiting specular characteristics.

Stereoscopic 3D
Stereoscopic 3D refers to imagery that is split into left and right images, designed to fool the viewers eyes and create the illusion of depth. Although 3D images were invented over 100 years ago, contemporary digital technology such as the Nintendo 3DS and RealD cinema have help repopularise this art form. 3D cinema, TV and games are revolutionizing contemporary media.

Texture Mapping
Within our industry, the term 'texture mapping' is the process of adding information to a 3D modelled surface. Most commonly texture mapping is used to add colours to a model to heighten realism, often these 'colour maps' are derived from photographic reference. People have found ingenious ways to attach information to surfaces using this technique, other types of texture mapping include specular mapping, bump mapping, displacement mapping.

VFX
Visual effects (often abbreviated to VFX) involves an integration of live action footage and (often computer generated) synthetic imagery. It's main purpose is to create believable scenes or environments which would otherwise be too expensive, dangerous or in some cases, impossible to capture on film. Compositing is often used bring together the numerous VFX elements. Often mistakenly used interchangeably with SFX.

V-Ray
V-Ray is a rendering engine in widespread use, most commonly in the advertising and architectural visualisation industries. V-Ray is very efficient and capable of processing advanced techniques, such as global illumination, much faster than conventional renderers that are often provided as default with 3D animation packages.

ZBrush
A revolutionary, 3D industry standard digital sculpting and painting program. ZBrush allows artists to sculpt up to a billion polygons using a proprietary "pixol" technology which stores color, material, lighting and depth information for objects on screen. The clever code inside Zbrush allows the operator to work in a way akin to traditional sculpting without many of the technical contraints typically imposed by other 3D modelling packages.