A GLOSSARY OF ANIMATION TERMS

Hand drawn and digital animation has its own vocabulary, which can be confusing to those new to the
field. Here are some common 2D and 3D animation terms you may encounter. If you’re not familiar with
the word glossary itself, by the way, it simply means a dictionary of words relating to a particular subject
– in this case, digital modeling. Let me know if there are words I should add to this list.

Alpha channel
Computer images have three or four color channels, which are grayscale images representing the in-
tensity of colored ink or light at particular places on the screen. These are RGB (Red-Green-Blue) for
work that is intended to be shown by light emitting media such as monitors or projectors, and CMYK
(Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Black) for light absorbing media such as printed paper. An alpha channel is only
needed for an RGB image and is an additional channel that describes transparency; this is needed for
combining layers of images in post processing.

Ambient occlusion (or AO)

In 3D animation, a simple means of lighting a 3D scene based not on light but on shadows. An AO lit
scene assumes even illumination from every part of a hemisphere surrounding the objects and calcu-
lates how much illumination should be removed based on what other parts of the scene shadow the
element being rendered. A pixel in the final image that represents the top of a tall cone in the scene will
see almost all of the surrounding hemisphere and be lit the brightest. A pixel representing part of face in
a deep cave facing the camera will see a tiny fraction of the surrounding hemisphere and be lit the least.
Too much AO will look flat and uninteresting, but it is a fast way to start lighting a scene before adding
directional light.

Anti-aliasing
A computer rendering post processing technique that changes the color of some image pixels defining a
sharp inclined edge so that it looks less jagged or “stair stepped”. The color change in each pixels of the
anti-aliased image depends on the number of surrounding pixels sampled and the two colors involved.
Anti-aliasing against a transparent background also involves varying degrees of transparency in the rele-
vant pixels and needs at least an 8-bit alpha channel in the image format.

Aspect ratio
The proportion of width to height of an image or video/animation. There is an excellent history of aspect
ratio in the cinema and television at http://youtu.be/3CgrMsjGk7k. The whole Filmmaker IQ YouTube
channel is worth seeing if you’re interested in learning about cinema history, technology, and technique.
Armature
In 3D animation, an arrangement of bones (any of which can be rigid or flexible) that make up the equiv-
alent of a skeleton. Each bone influences, through weight painting, the way its movement moves nearby
vertices. The complex process of making and adjusting an armature to animate a mesh for particular
actions is known as rigging, and is a separate profession in the animation community.

Array
A pattern of objects made from one original. Arrays can be 1D, 2D, or 3D and either rectangular (laid out
in straight lines) or polar (laid out in circles). In Blender arrays are initially instances of the original object
and the Array modifier must be applied to edit any element individually. It’s important to remember when
you do this that the split off meshes still keep the original object’s local origin location and this should
generally be reset with Object-Transform-Origin to Geometry.

Banding
The 8-bit part of the image at the left is attempting
to show the smooth gradient on the right, but with-
out sufficient colors it can only show them as bands
of flat color. You’ll notice that each band appears
to be a gradient in itself; in fact if you cover up the
surrounding colors you’ll see it is in fact solid. This
optical illusion is called Mach banding.
The central image shows how the same range
of colors can more convincingly show a gradient
by being scattered (“dithered”) at different densities
across the image.

Bezier
Pronounced bay-zee-eh, this is the last name of a French mathematician who discovered a family of
geometric curves that allow users to adjust short sections of the curves without affecting the rest. This
is of enormous importance in the graphic design and digital modeling industries and is the foundation
of NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline) modeling. Bezier interpolation is the classic easy-in-easy-out
principle of 2D animation.

Boolean operations
There are four main Boolean operations in 3D modeling: Union (addition), Intersection, Difference A-B
(subtraction), and Difference B-A (subtraction). For the first two the order of selection is not important but
for subtraction whether A or B is selected first matters; in other words the subtraction operation is not
commutative (if you remember your math classes); that is, it matter which order you select the objects.
Boolean operations are only reliable with solid models that have no holes in the surrounding surface and
have face normals that consistently point outwards. The result of a Boolean operation can be animated
in Blender but you have to remember to make the target mesh invisible to the camera or it will appear in
the final animation. You may also want to apply an Edge Split modifier to the result to clean up the ap-
pearance of the edges.
Bump map
A bump map produces the same effect as a normal map but moves the vertices of the mesh according
to the gray value of the map image. For this to happen there has to be geometry present and this re-
quirement for a dense mesh is one reason bump maps have been largely discontinued in favor of normal
maps, which work with low resolution geometry. Bump maps do affect the outline of objects, however,
which normal maps do not. Bit depth
Another term for color depth.

Channel
Image formats are divided into channels, which are grayscale images used to define the intensity of each
primary color. For RGB light emitting images these are red, green, and blue; for CMYK light absorbing
images they are cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. Some formats can only hold three channels and are
unsuitable for high quality printing for this reason, as the conversion to CMYK in the printer driver will
introduce inaccuracies. Some other formats, particularly the common JPG, can not add channels such
as alpha (transparency) or Z (depth). The best format for storing such information is PNG, and the abbre-
viation for a four channel RGB PNG file with alpha is RGBA.
Channels have an additional characteristic called color depth. This refers to the number of bits
used to define the color or transparency of each bit in the channel. 8-bit RGB color needs 24 bits for
each pixel; 8-bit RGBA needs 32. Wider range, more accurate color, uses 12 or 16 bits for each chan-
nel, but produces much larger files for the same pixel resolution.

Codec
Short for Compressor/Decompressor, this is a mathematical process which analyzes the frames in an
uncompressed animation or image sequence and uses several techniques to reduce the file size of the
resulting animation. The two most important are Spatial Compression and Temporal Compression. The
first reduces the size of a selection of single frames by using techniques similar to that in JPG compres-
sion; the second reduces the size of an animation file by removing data that is common to sequences of
frames between that first set of frames.

Color depth
The number of bits (basic units of information) used to define the color of a single pixel in an RGB image.
1-bit color is black and white and 8-bit (which can define 256 colors) was a standard on early comput-
ers. Today the minimum is generally 24-bit, which allows for 256 shades of red, green, and blue to create
just under 17 million colors. 32-bit adds an extra alpha channel for 256 shades of transparency.

Compression
Data compression is widely used for images, sound, and video/animation. For images there is a division
between lossless compression, in which the original image is perfectly recreated, and lossy compression,
in which a certain amount of data is permanently lost during the compression/decompresson process. A
GIF image uses lossless compression, while a JPG image uses lossy compression.
For video/animation there is a further division between static compression and temporal com-
pression. Static compression reduces the amount of data in individual frames (generally using the JPG
technique). Temporal compression identifies parts of neighboring frame images that do not move be-
tween those frames and replaces them with one common element. Temporal compression is at its most
effective when one element in a scene is moving against a fixed background; in other words the camera
is stationery. Static compression is most effective when there are large areas of flat color in a scene, such
as evenly lit blocks of color like walls and furniture; some styles of animation that use flat color can also
be well compressed using this technology.
Diffuse color
The color of an object defined as having no reflection or glossiness. Another word for the glossiness
component of an image is specular.

Diffuse map
The color of an object as defined by an image applied through a UV map.

Dithering

Mixing differently colored dots or pixels from a small selection of possible colors to simulate a color not in
the available range. This is commonly done to expand the limited range of colors in formats such as GIF.
Early computers used dithered patterns of black and white pixels to create shades of gray.

Edge
In 3D modeling and animation, a line between two vertices. Edges are vectors; in other words there is a
direction associated with the edge as it moves from one vertex to the next. This is sometimes indicated
with arrowheads drawn on the edge.

Edgeloop
A series of edges that go fully or partly around a polygonal model. The placement and continuity of ed-
geloops is particularly important for 3D models that will be animated and is called the model’s topology.

Face
A surface made up of three or more edges, though edges can exist without a face being defined be-
tween them (a hole). All three edges must flow in the same direction around a face for it to be properly
defined and the direction of this flow determines the direction of the face normal.

Falloff
The way in which an operation such as selection reduces in value the further vertices are from the center
of the selection tool. Falloff can also refer to the soft edged nature of a digital paintbrush.

Frame
A single image in an animation or video. Common FPS (frames per second) rates are 24, 25, and 30.
The illusion of animation from still images (known as persistence of vision) starts around the 12 FPS
point, though the precise value depends on the individual and the images.

Fresnel
Pronounced “fren-el” as the S is silent, this is an effect named after Augustin-Jean Fresnel, an early
nineteenth century French physicist best known for the flat Fresnel lens. Fresnel effects in computer
rendering, however, refer to the increasing reflectivity of a surface the more acutely you view it. Normal to
a metal plate, for example, there may be very little reflection, but if you look at a glancing angle along its
surface the reflected image is now sharp and brightly colored. For a transparent material such as glass
the material is more transparent the closer to normal one views it so that the edges are mirror like while
the center is clear.

Frame animation
A simple animation technology that uses individually drawn frames. This includes traditional drawn ani-
mation as well as Photoshop’s frame animation option. The animator must use their skill and experience
to create smooth transitions across frames.

GIF
An old web image format (dating from 1987) that is undergoing a revival due to its versatility, ability to
include transparency, animation capability, and lossless compression. Photoshop’s frame based anima-
tion feature can be exported as GIFs. The acronym stands for Graphic Interchange Format, commonly
pronounced with a hard G as “Giff”.

Glow map
A grayscale image that defines the areas of a UV map that will appear to glow when rendered.

Grayscale image
An image limited to shades of gray. These shades can include 100% white and 100% black. A channel
in an RGB or CMYK color image is a grayscale image defined as one of the component colors.

Index of Refraction
Known in Blender as IOR in the Transparency panel of the Materials tab in Properties, this property of
a transparent object refers to the amount light is bent on entering that material at anything other than a
normal (90 degree) angle. The speed of light is not constant, but slows when traveling through anything
other than a complete vacuum. There is a list of indices of refraction at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_
of_refractive_indices. Note that like vertex/vertices, the plural of index is indices.

Ink and Paint

A term used to define a type of hand drawn frame animation. Paint is used to create backgrounds, with
gradients and shading. Ink, with its flat color character, is used to create the animated characters and
objects in front of the background. In traditional Hollywood animation studios an inked outline was cre-
ated by lead animators which was then filled in by less skilled individuals. The use of common ink colors
meant that each frame looked identical, apart from movement, to the others. Because inked outlines
were painted on the back of the transparent celluloid sheets (known as cels) the later solid color fills
could be slightly inaccurate without that being seen from the front.

Instance
A live linked, identical copy of an object. Changing any property of one instance in a scene will change all
other instances of that object the same way; this is useful if you have twenty chairs in a room, for exam-
ple, and want to make each slightly taller and a different color. Not every animation program supports
instances, however. Photoshop and Blender do, the former by using Smart Objects and the latter by
sharing meshes between objects.
Because instances refer to the same object data they need little more information than the origi-
nal; a thousand instanced trees in a 3D modeled forest, for example, will result in a far smaller and more
editable file than a thousand individual tree elements. This is often done using a particle system.

Interpolation
The mathematical estimation of the values between two specified values. The default interpolation meth-
od for many animation programs is Bezier (start slow, speed up, slow down); others are Linear (same
speed between set values) and Constant (an instant jump from the previous keyframe value to the next).
Computer generated interpolation replaces human “inbetweeners” in animation, and allows one person,
or a small group, to make animations previously only possible for large studios.

Keyframe
A frame in an animation where at least one property of at least one object in the scene is precisely de-
fined. The name comes from traditional 2D drawn animation, where the key frames of a scene were
drawn by the master animator and the in-betweens drawn by less skilled artists called inbetweeners. The
process of interpolating keyframes became known as tweening.

Layer
As the name suggests, a layer is a group of graphic items that can not only be shown or hidden, but
can appear above or below other layers. In 2D software such as Photoshop and Illustrator layers can be
thought of as sheets of transparent plastic laid one on top of the other. Each sheet can contain images
and text, and can be more or less transparent. Any layer can also affect the appearance of layers below
in other ways, by blurring them for example. Layers can also be switched on and off, and reordered. In
3D software such as Blender, by contrast, layers are used only to group scene elements. Objects in layer
1 do not block out objects in layer 2, but either or both can be hidden or shown independently.

Local coordinates
In 3D modeling, the XYZ coordinates that are specific to an object, and that change when that object is
moved or rotated.

Local view
Not to be confused with local coordinates, the local view of an object or objects hides everything else
in the scene, even when rendering. Local/global view is toggled with the slash key on the keypad and if
activated unintentionally is a common cause of confusion to those new to Blender.
Manifold surface
A surface in which every edge is next to two faces. In other words there are no holes in the surface. A
manifold surface completely encloses a volume and can therefore be used for Boolean operations, struc-
tural analysis, and 3D printing.

Mask
The process of defining part of an image or video sequence as transparent by using the light and dark
areas of a second image (the mask). A mask performs the same function as an alpha channel but may
not be saved as part of the image file.

Mesh
A generic term for a polygonal surface that can be open or closed. A closed mesh defines a volume and
can have solid properties such as density and elasticity.

Modifier
A non-destructive operation in Blender that allows animatable and reversible changes to an object. The
order in which modifiers are applied to an object (known as the stack) can make a large difference in the
result. Confusingly, the word “apply” also refers to making a modifier’s changes permanent.

Ngon (or N-gon)

A face with more than four edges. Blender has no limit to the number of edges in an Ngon, though gen-
erally the fewer edges there are around a face the better.

Node
A vertex where more or less than four edges meet. Nodes in other than relatively flat areas of a mesh
create rendering problems, so their reduction to a minimum and location in flat, immobile, or hidden ar-
eas of the mesh is part of good topology.
[The word also refers to the rectangular transformation features in the Node Editor].

Normal
The direction at ninety degrees to a surface. Normals are vectors, and point in one direction; often prob-
lems with rendering a model can be traced to inconsistent normal directions on neighboring faces. When
several vertices are coincident (ie, at the corners of adjacent faces) they can be rendered with normals
parallel to the faces they are part of (in this case the model looks faceted) or with an average value of all
the vertex normals at that point (the model looks smoothly shaded). The actual geometry in both cases is
the same. If the vertices of a face are running counter clockwise, then the normal is upwards.

Normal map
Frequently used in game graphics, a normal map is an efficient way to simulate a high resolution model
by adjusting the way that light is reflected and shadowed on a low resolution model based on a 2D im-
age. Arriving light rays are rotated in three axes relative to the face normal by referring to the three color
channels (red for local X; green for local Y; blue for local Z) of the colored normal map. The building of a
normal map requires a high resolution 3D model, a corresponding low resolution 3D model, and building
a map based on the differences between their geometry.
NPR
Non-photorealistic rendering. This covers stylized and cartoon style rendering

NURBS model
The name stands for Non-Rational Uniform B-Spline and refers to the surface edges of the model being
defined by 3D equations that accurately define a 3D curved surface between them. A typical NURBS
model is made up of many surfaces that flow into each other with defined continuity (position, tangency,
or curvature) and is commonly used in the engineering/design community to develop shapes that can be
manufactured to any degree of precision required. The math is somewhat similar to subdivision surfaces,
but in a subdiv surface control is through the cage polygon, whereas with NURBS surface the cage is
generally invisible and control is done directly on the surface. Blender has some NURBS capability but a
specialist program such as Rhinoceros or SolidWorks is preferable.

Origin
The point in 3D model space where the XYZ coordinates are (0, 0, 0).

Orthogonal
A straight-on view or direction, from the Greek ortho (correct) and -gon (angle). Orthogonal directions are
generally referred to as right, left, side, front, back, top, or bottom.

Orthographic
A view or rendering that does have any distortion due to
perspective (from a camera lens, say). These are generally
orthogonal views (see above) but not always. Exploded engi-
neering drawings are often made in oblique orthographic view.
The advantage of orthographic views is that lengths and often
angles are undistorted by distance and can be measured or
accurately compared. Orthographic comes from the Greek
ortho (correct) and -graphic (image).

Parametric modeling
This is the ability to define a feature (say, the radius of an edge fillet) by dimension so that, for example,
all quarter inch fillets on an object can be changed to half inch instantly. Blender is not a parametric mod-
eler, though some modifiers perform a similar function. Parametrics are typically a feature of engineering
type NURBS modelers such as SolidWorks and Pro Engineer. Rhinoceros can incorporate parametric
features with the Grasshopper plug-in.

Particle system
A means of distributing objects in space and time. Particle systems are valuable both for static models
(randomly distributing rocks and trees in a scene, for example) and in animation (simulating sparks and
explosions).
Pivot point
The point, usually at the geometric center of an object, where operations such as rotation and scaling
are centered. When Blender is in Edit mode the pivot point stays in place as the vertices are moved and
this is one way to change its relative position. The pivot point of an object can also be redefined as the
location of the 3D cursor, and for groups of objects the geometric center of the group. In other 3D soft-
ware the pivot point is sometimes known as the local origin.

PNG
A widely used and convenient image format; the name stands for Portable Network Graphic, often pro-
nounced “ping”. As the name suggests, this was developed for Web graphics and has largely replaced
the older GIF and JPG formats. Standard PNG files cannot include animation like GIF but do include an
alpha (transparency) channel. This alpha channel can be 8 or 24-bit. They are currently the most versatile
way to save animation frames for editing and post processing.

Polygonal model
A computer model built up from flat faces (typically three or four sided). If the 3D shape defined by these
polygons makes up a watertight shell (ie, has no holes) it is said to be a manifold surface and can define
a solid object with volume, weight, center of gravity, etc. To be rendered properly the normals of the fac-
es must all face outwards. Polygonal models can not be used to define accurate curved models, though
they are widely used for 3D printing low resolution prototypes in plastics and metals. Poly models are
easy to build, render, and animate.

Post processing
Whatever is done to an animation or image sequence after it has been rendered. Common post pro-
cessing operations include depth of field, cartoon shading, color correction, and environmental effects
such as rain and lighting glare.

Posterizing
Another word for banding.

Proxy
A low resolution model used in animation development. A proxy figure will share the same rig as the final
high resolution model and will replace it until the final rendering process. Using proxies saves memory
and makes animating faster. A simple way to make a proxy in Blender is to use a low count subdivision
model in the preview and a high count subdivision in the render.

Quad
An abbreviation for quadrilateral, or a four sided face. A well built model that is made from quads has
continuous edges that follow the contours of its surface and will provide good topology for animation
and UV mapping.

Ray tracing
A technique for generating an image by tracing the path of light through the pixels of the image plane
(camera) and simulating its interaction with the scene objects in its path. This is the reverse of reality,
where light comes from a source and interacts with objects before encountering the camera. Ray tracing
produces high quality images that can simulate many optical effects such as reflection, refraction, and
caustics. It is slower than raytracing, so ray traced materials and shadows should be kept to a minimum.
Refraction
The ability of a fully or partly transparent object to distort light rays traveling through it by slowing them
down. Refraction is the basis of lenses and prisms, and can be accurately simulated in Blender by using
the IOR (Index of Refraction) control element in the Material tab.

Rendering
The process of turning a 3D digital model, with its associated textures, lighting, and a virtual camera, into
a 2D image. Images can be photo realistic, cartoon style, hand sketch style, or any combination of these
depending on the computational processes used to combine the lighting with the geometry and the
image textures.

Rendering engine
A rendering engine can refer to software that renders HTML script into readable pages, but in computer
modeling/animation contexts means the software that converts the data in a 3D digital scene into a 2D
image. Rendering engines can be internal (included in the modeling software) or external (a separate
piece of software). Blender has two rendering engines: the default renderer and Cycles. Examples of ex-
ternal rendering engines include VRay, Brazil, Keyshot, and Octane. Experts can often tell which renderer
a particular image was made as they all have slightly different characteristics.

Resolution
The term used to define the number of pixels along the X (width) and Y (height) axes in an image or
video/animation. This is a function of aspect ratio, the ratio of X to Y. Old style television was 4:3, current
high definition (HD) is 16:9, but there are many others, often associated with a particular video or film
format.

Rigging
The process of creating the controls for an armature that in turn controls a mesh. This not only includes
creating the bones that make up the armature, but also defining each bone’s influence on surrounding
vertices, limits to the bones’ rotation and movement, the way that one bones controls the next, and the
amount of flexibility in the bone itself. A finished rig is entirely composed of graphic elements; the original
bones and armature will be hidden. To avoid inaccurate creasing around joints, the angle between two
bones may also control a shapekey that adjusts the mesh separately.

Scanline rendering
A method of rending an image of a 3D scene that operates line by line, working down the image, to
determine what is nearest the camera. Scanline rendering is efficient for small scenes but does not
compare well to other methods as the complexity of the scene increases. Blender’s default renderer is a
mixed scanline/ray trace system.

Shader
A shader combines the material, texture, lighting, and shadow information at a pixel in the rendered im-
age to create a final result that may appear shiny, matte, cartoon shaded, photorealistic, or translucent.
Shaders have a major impact on how objects look after rendering.

Shapekey
An animatable change in a mesh defined by moving vertices relative to a start arrangement called the
basis. Shapekeys allow subtle changes of expression for character emotion and speech.

Specular
The shiny quality of a surface as shown by highlights on an object. Specular lighting can be rendered
separately for maximum control in post processing, and precisely defined on a 3D surface by using a
grayscale specular map based on the UV map for that object.

Spline
A mathematically defined curve that can be controlled by handles and is often used in animation to de-
fine the shape of an object or the path that it will follow. This is often referred to as a Bezier (pronounced
bay-zee-eh) curve after the mathematician who developed the concept.

Subdivision
The mathematical process by which a low resolution, generally face extruded, model is smoothed to
appear organic while retaining the simplicity and editability of the basic block model. Subdivided models
are not suitable for some mesh based operations such as sculpting in Blender and have to be applied
(turned into basic faces) for these processes to work.

Timeline
A horizontal window, generally placed at the bottom of the screen in a horizontal format, that shows
scene animation on a time axis. Keyframes appear as diamonds or dots. A timeline animation uses key-
frames with interpolation to control aspects of change in the scene, and only became possible with the
use of computers in the animation process to replace human “inbetweeners” in animation studios.

Topology
The way in which an arrangement of edges and faces in a polygonal model define a form. Good topolo-
gy reduces the chance of that model having rendering problems and increases the ease and predictabil-
ity by which it can be animated with an armature. For human figures, good edgeloop topology generally
follows and crosses the lines of the muscle groups. As many faces are possible are quads (four sided)
and as few vertices as possible have less or more than four edges meeting at them. Particularly in the
computer game industry, good topology also uses as little geometry as possible. Two ways to increase
apparent detail include normal and specular mapping.

Tri
An abbreviation for triangular face. Tris have three vertices and three edges, and are always planar. They
are the simplest computational way to represent solid 3D forms.

Tweening
Short for “in-betweening”, this is the process of creating intermediate drawings between keyframes. For
hand drawn animations this is generally undertaken by secondary animators, leaving the lead anima-
tors free to define the “key” frames throughout a scene. In computer animation this work is done by the
software, which uses a variety of mathematical methods, defined by the animator, to do the work of a
tweening crew.

Unwrapping
The process of slicing and adjusting the shape of a 3D surface to best display a 2D image that will be
shown on it.
UV map
A 2D graphic that defines how a flat graphic will be shown on a 3D object. UV mapping can be automat-
ic, a preset option, or carefully defined point by point. A good UV map can replace high resolution mod-
eling for interactive game animation as it can instantly adjust shininess, glow, reflections, and shadowing
as if they came from a much higher resolution (and slower) 3D model.

Vertex
A point in 3D space defined by XYZ coordinates (note that the plural of vertex is vertices). Vertices differ
from simple points by having a normal direction (which is parallel to that of the face they are part of) and
a color. Vertices exist independently of edges and can be extruded to create them.

Vertex group
A selection of vertices in a mesh. Vertex groups can be used for many purposes, including pinning a
cloth to a surface, assigning materials, and distributing objects across a surface. Weight painting creates
a vertex group with smoothly distributed values. Directly selecting vertices generally means every vertex
has a value of either 0 (unselected) or 1 (selected).

W
When a 3D model is UV unwrapped the horizontal direction in the flat map on the screen is the U and
the vertical is the V. In some cases (generally normal mapping) you need to define a strength facing in-
wards and outwards. This direction is defined as W, and as with the Z direction in world and local space,
represented as shades of blue.

Weight painting
The process of assigning a value (generally between 0 and 1) to each vertex in a mesh. Weight painting
is done with a brush that has a strength, size, and falloff curve. Weight painting is useful in distributing
elements across a mesh, such as trees in a landscape or hair on a head.

Wireframe
A display mode where only the edges of a mesh are shown. This often makes it easier to select elements
of the mesh such as vertices and edges, though at the cost of some visual ambiguity between front and
back of the object. Blender has a hybrid shaded/wireframe style available in Edit mode. Wireframe was
the earliest type of computer generated form representation.

World coordinates
The constant XYZ axes of a scene. In the Blender default layout these are indicated by the tripod graphic
in the lower left corner of the 3D window.

X-sheet
Known as the Dope Sheet in Blender, this was traditionally a record of all the frames in a hand drawn ani-
mation with their transitions and associated sound. In Blender the Dope Sheet is sometimes referred to
as “the Timeline on steroids” and is the most convenient way to adjust timing in an animated scene. One
or more key frames can be moved, scaled, deleted, or duplicated.

XYZ
This refers to the three orthogonal (mutually perpendicular) directions of three-dimensional space. In
Blender the screen in Front view represents an XZ view, but some programs define it as XY. The three
additive primary colors Red-Green-Blue are always used to represent the XYZ axes.

Z Channel
Sometimes known as the Z buffer, this refers to the local Z axis
of a camera, and is a channel of information in an image format
that stores the distance of each rendered pixel from the camera
plane. Z channel information is most often used to control depth
of field (focusing) on particular elements in the scene. It can also
be used to define mist.

Z fighting
A characteristic pattern in a render when two surfaces occupy the same location and the rendering en-
gine cannot decide which to place on top of the other.

Chris Yonge - 20151020