I'm over it...

This post is simply because I am tired and have been studying for this test for quite a while now and well...I'm over it. These are the vocab words that I will be tested on tomorrow afternoon. Am I ready? Actually, no. But it's going to happen so please pray! Pray hard!
3d Modeling and Animation
ARTS 2743
Flash Vocabulary Study List


Alpha channel – is a special type of channel used in graphics software for saving selections. Most bitmap editing software allows you to save multiple alpha channels with an image when it is saved in the program's native file format. Any of the alpha channels can be reloaded as a selection or mask at any time, even after closing and reopening the image.

Ambient Occlusion – a setting that creates a shadow without adding a light.

Anchor point (vector) – is a point that marks the end of a vector line segment. These points can be moved around freely without disturbing any shape or text below it. The “pen tool” makes anchor points within your artwork.

Anti-aliasing - is a technique of blending bitmap-based images and text to reduce the stair-stepping or jagged appearance. In areas of transition, the edge pixels are blended to give a smoother appearance.

AVI file format – (Audio Video Interleave) is a multimedia container format introduced by Microsoft in November 1992 as part of its Video for Windows technology. AVI files can contain both audio and video data in a file container that allows synchronous audio-with-video playback. Like the DVD video format, AVI files support multiple streaming audio and video.

Bevel – refers to a raised effect on a edge or plane.

Bitmap – the color “space” or document type which is comprised of simple pixels. Each pixel has a specific value, and that value determines the color, intensity, and brightness of that pixel.

Blending mode – allow you to adjust how one layer or color mixes with the colors in the layers below. Blending modes are most often used with layers in your graphics software, but they can also come into play with painting tools where the blending mode of the painting tool affects how the colors mix with the existing colors on the same layer where you are painting.

Boolean – a procedure of adding or subtracting one object from another object. It can also be used to produce a shape derived from the overlap of two shapes.

Bump mapping – a way in which you can add a indented or extruding surface texture to a rendered object. It is a technique where at each pixel, a perturbation to the surface normal of the object being rendered is looked up in a texture map and applied before the illumination calculation is done. The result is a richer, more detailed surface representation that more closely resembles the details inherent in the natural world.

Camera – the built in object that establishes a custom view (or viewport) for rendering 3d objects. Most cameras allow for viewing angle cone, motion, and size.

Caustics- is the simulated envelope of light rays reflected or refracted by a curved surface or object, or the projection of that envelope of rays on another surface. This is usually used with glass or shiny metal objects.

CMYK color mode (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) – the color “space” or document type which is based on the absorption and reflection of light. Usually this process is used mostly in printing such as printing presses or tshirt printing. Four “process” inks – cyan (close to blue), magenta (close to red), yellow and black (called the “subtractive primaries”) are used in varying combinations and percentages to produce a range of printable colors in most commercial printing. A CMYK file has four color “channels” one for each of the subtractive primary. Why is the letter “k” used for black? So that it is not confused with the name “Blue” which is not used in this mode. If you mixed all the colors you would get black.

Codec– (compression=co/decompression=dec) is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. JPEG, GIF, Quicktime are all examples of codecs.

Color mode – the color “space” or document type which defines the structure of the colors in your file. Files that stay on the screen should be “RGB”-color mode, and files that print should be “CMYK”.

Compositing – is the process of combining any two or more objects (images, video, illustrations, etc) into an overall design.

Curve– a series of anchor points (with handles) that create a arching line.

Displacement mapping - It is very similar to bump mapping, but actually makes the new geometry as opposed to simulating it. Looks more realistic, but render times will increase.

Edge – two or more points on one side of a polygon.

EPS file format - "Encapsulated PostScript." EPS is a PostScript image file format that is compatible with PostScript printers and is often used for transferring files between various graphics applications. EPS files will print identically on all PostScript-compatible printers and will appear the same in all applications that can read the PostScript format. PostScript is used for storing font and vector image information.

Eyedropper tool – A tool that allows you to sample a color anywhere on screen to use as your fill or stroke color.

Extrude – Create solids and surfaces by extending objects into 3D space.

Filter – a built in tool or plug-in that produces a special effect. The type of effects you can get with plug-in filters can range from something as simple as a blurred or softened image to wild, psychedelic patterns, distortions, and artistic effects.

Frame – one unit of time on the timeline.

GIF file format – "Graphics Interchange Format," GIF images use a compression formula originally developed by CompuServe (which is why you see the term "CompuServe GIF" in Photoshop) and are based on indexed colors, which is a palette of at most 256 colors. GIF files are great for small icons and animated images, but they lack the color range to be used for high-quality photos.

Gradient – A gradient, or graduated fill, is a color fill that gradually blends from one color to another. A gradient can contain more than two colors, all fading smoothly from one to another. Gradients are very useful for creating shading for three-dimensional and metallic effects. Most graphics software allows you to create a variety of gradient effects such as linear, radial, reflected, diamond, conical, and angle.

Handles (vector) – are controls, on a anchor point, that determine the shape of the vector line segment. With the handles, you can make a line arched or perfectly straight.

History – The history palette displays a list of the most recent states (or changes) that were applied to an image, with the bottomomost state being the most recent. Clicking on a prior state restores the image to that stage of the editing process.

Hypernurb – a smoothed out shape.

JPEG (or JPG) file format - "Joint Photographic Experts Group," is the name of the committee that developed the format. “.jpg” is a file saving format that can compresses large colorful files by eliminating a small amount of information. However, if the image is compressed too much, the graphics become noticeably "blocky" and some of the detail is lost, or “lossy”. Jpeg doesn’t support transparency.

JPEG Sequence – a series of jpegs rendered in a numbered sequence.

Keyframe – a unit that represents “change” on the timeline. You set a keyframe on the timeline when you want the object on the stage to do something different than its doing currently.

Lasso tool – is the selection tool that allows you to make organic, “free-form” selections. It works like a pencil following the mouse movements on screen.

Lathe – enables you to create a 3D object by rotating a shape or a line around an axis.

Layers – The positioning of a stack of images relative to other stacks of images. Layers are like clear acetate sheets; opaque where there is imagery and transparent where there is no imagery.

Light object – gives light in a 3d scene. Types of lights: omni, spotlight, infinite light, area light, parallel light.

Loft – is a variant of a wireframe of the 3D object, a technique used in 3D modeling. It's derivable from flat section by doubling it along the path given.

Luminance – is used to produce self-illuminated objects such as neon lights, tv, and computer screens.

Marquee tool – is the tool used to create simple-shape selections. These selection shapes are usually rectangular, elliptical, a single row of pixels, or a single column of pixels. Holding the shift key while dragging a marquee will make a perfectly constrained selection shape.

MOV file format – The QuickTime (Movie) file format functions as a multimedia container file that contains one or more tracks, each of which stores a particular type of data: audio, video, effects, or text (e.g. for subtitles). Each track either contains a digitally-encoded media stream (using a specific codec) or a data reference to the media stream located in another file. Tracks are maintained in a hierarchical data structure consisting of objects called atoms.

NURBS – (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines), are mathematical representations of 3-D geometry that can accurately describe any shape from a simple 2-D line, circle, arc, or curve to the most complex 3-D organic free-form surface or solid.

Paths or Bezier Curves (vector) – A Bézier curve is a curved line or path defined by mathematical equations. It was named after Pierre Bézier, a French mathematician and engineer. Most graphics software includes a pen tool for drawing paths with Bézier curves. The most basic Bézier curve is made up of two end points, called “anchor points”, and control handles attached to each node.

Pixel – the smallest element of an image that can be individually processed in a video display system; looks like a square of color. Each pixel can either be 1-dimensional or have depth which determines how many colors a monitor can display.

Points – the smallest definable element in a polygon or 3d object.

Plug-in – is a software module that can be added to a program to extend its functionality. It's a bit like a program inside a program.

Polygon – is a 2d plane that is bounded by a closed path, composed of a finite sequence of straight line segments.These segments are called its edges or sides, and the points where two edges meet are the polygon's vertices.

Primitive (or Parametric Primitive) – are lines (segments of straight lines, circles and more complicated curves), as well as shapes (boxes, arbitrary polygons, circles).

PSD file format – this is the native format for photoshop. It saves all the data in the photoshop file. It can be quite large including all layers, channels, effects and resolution. More and more programs are accepting .psd as a importable file format.

PNG file format – “Portable network graphic” this is the native format for Fireworks. It has the option of transparency and a good format for importing graphics from photoshop to flash.

PDF file format - “Portable Document Format” PDF is the file format for representing documents in a manner that is independent of the original application software, hardware, and operating system used to create those documents. A PDF file can describe documents containing any combination of text, graphics, and images in a device-independent and resolution independent format. These documents can be one page or thousands of pages, very simple or extremely complex with a rich use of fonts, graphics, color, and image.

Raster image – a grid of individual pixels (rasters or bits) in rows and columns (called a bitmap). Raster files are resolution dependent which is usually determined when you scan, photograph or create the file originally.

Rasterize – The process of converting a vector image into a bitmap image.

Raytracing - is a technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light through pixels in an image plane and simulating the effects of its encounters with virtual objects. The technique is capable of producing a very high degree of visual realism, usually higher than that of typical scanline rendering methods, but at a greater computational cost. This makes ray tracing best suited for applications where the image can be rendered slowly ahead of time, such as in still images and film and television special effects, and more poorly suited for real-time applications like computer games where speed is critical. Ray tracing is capable of simulating a wide variety of optical effects, such as reflection and refraction, scattering, and chromatic aberration.

Resolution – the degree of sharpness of a computer-generated image as measured by the number of dots per linear inch in a hard-copy printout or the number of pixels across and down on a display screen

RGB color mode (Red, Green, Blue) – the color “space” or document type which is defined by three channels of red, green and blue produced by the color monitor. It is created by combining different intensities of each of the three colors. This type of color producing is called “additive primaries” because the light of the monitor display is added together to make the color you need. Most monitors have a “gamut”, or range, of 16.7 million colors. If you mix the colors you’d get white.

Selection – When a selection is active on an image, only that area is editible – the rest of the image is protected. The selection tools are used to edit areas or to cut, copy and paste images to different layers of the file.

Smart object – is an object that is imported into your working file and retains the connection to the original file. For example, if you brought a illustrator file into photoshop, you could double click on the imported file (in photoshop) and then it would launch illustrator to allow editing. Once it was saved (in illustrator), it would be updated back in photoshop.

Specular – is the bright spot of light that appears on shiny 3d objects when illuminated.

Spline – is a drawing method that enables you to draw basic lines or shapes using the Pen Tool. The types of splines are: Linear, Cubic, Akima, B-Spline, and Bezier.

Sub-selection tool – This tool selects lines and anchor points rather than the whole object like the selection tool.

Sweep – shape that is defined by pulling a spline along some other spline.

Texture mapping - is a method for adding detail, surface texture, or color to a 3D model.

TIFF file format -"Tagged Image File Format." A graphics file format created in the 1980's to be the standard image format across multiple computer platforms. The TIFF format can handle color depths ranging from 1-bit to 24-bit. However, not much compression occurs with this format so file sizes tend to stay large. This format supports layers, alpha channels, and file compression.

Timeline – a graphical representation of a chronological sequence of events. It represents the passage of time, broken into individual segments called “frames”.

Transparency – the level in which an object is see-through.

Tween – or Inbetweening. Is the process of generating intermediate frames between two images to give the appearance that the first image evolves smoothly into the second image. Tweens are the frames between the keyframes which help to create the illusion of motion.

UV Mapping – texture mapping technique that permits polygons that make up a 3D object to be painted with color from an image. The image is called a UV texture map, but it's just an ordinary image. The UV mapping process involves assigning pixels in the image to surface mappings on the polygon, usually done by copying a triangle shaped piece of the image map and pasting it onto a triangle on the object. The rendering computation uses the UV texture coordinates to determine how to paint the three dimensional surface.

Vector graphic – artwork that is composed of mathematical descriptions of a series of lines and geometric shapes. Vector graphics usually have a series of “anchor points” that are then connected with lines. Vector graphics are resolution independent; they can be freely scaled and are automatically output at the resolution of the output device.

Verticies – the points where two edges meet are the polygon

Viewport – the 2D rectangle used to project the 3D scene to the position of the default views or a virtual camera.

Wireframe – a visual presentation of a three dimensional or physical object used in 3D computer graphics. The object is projected onto the computer screen by drawing lines at the location of each edge.

WYSIWYG – what you see is what you get.