3D Glossary

3D animation is the art of bringing three-dimensional models to life by rigging, posing, and keyframing them over time to create motion for film, games, and more.

3D modeling is the process of creating a three-dimensional digital model of an object or character in specialized software, used in games, film, product design, and AR/VR.

3D printing is an additive manufacturing process that builds a physical object layer by layer from a digital 3D model, turning geometry into a real, tangible part.

3D product visualization is the use of photorealistic 3D renders and interactive models to show products in e-commerce, marketing, and design before they physically exist.

3D rendering is the process of generating a 2D image from a 3D scene by simulating how light, materials, and a camera interact to produce a finished picture.

3D scanning is the process of capturing a real object or environment as digital 3D data, using cameras, lasers, or structured light to produce a point cloud or mesh.

A 3ds file is a legacy 3D Studio file format for meshes, materials, cameras, lights, and simple animation in many DCC and CAD workflows.

A 3MF file (3D Manufacturing Format) is a modern 3D printing format storing geometry, color, materials, and print settings in one file, built to replace STL.

An albedo map (base color map) is the PBR texture that defines a surface's pure color with no lighting or shadows baked in, the foundation of a physically based material.

Alembic is an open .abc 3D scene cache format for baked geometry, animation, cameras, and interchange between VFX and DCC tools.

Ambient occlusion (AO) is a shading technique that darkens creases, corners, and contact points where ambient light is blocked, adding depth and realism to a render.

An AMF file (Additive Manufacturing File Format) is an open, XML-based 3D printing format that stores geometry, color, and materials as a modern successor to STL.

Animation retargeting transfers motion between different character rigs so one walk, run, or gesture can drive many 3D characters.

Anti-aliasing reduces jagged edges and shimmering in 3D renders by smoothing high-contrast pixels along geometry, textures, and silhouettes.

Augmented reality (AR) overlays digital 3D content onto a live view of the real world, blending virtual objects with your actual surroundings in real time.

Auto-rigging is the automated generation of a skeleton and skin weights for a 3D character mesh, turning a static model into a posable, animation-ready asset without manual bone placement.

Baking in 3D is the process of pre-computing lighting, surface detail, or texture data from a high-resolution source and storing the result in a texture map applied to a lower-resolution mesh.

A bevel is a modeling operation that softens a sharp edge or corner by adding angled or rounded faces, improving realism and highlights.

A Bezier curve is a smooth parametric curve controlled by points and handles, widely used for paths, profiles, vector outlines, and animation splines.

A BLEND file (.blend) is Blender's native project format that saves an entire scene, including meshes, materials, rigs, animation, and settings, in one file.

Blend Shape is a mesh deformation method that morphs a model between stored target shapes for facial animation, corrective poses, and character expressions.

A bone is a rigging element in a 3D skeleton that drives mesh deformation, poses characters, and organizes animation controls.

A Boolean is a modeling operation that combines two meshes using union, difference, or intersection to merge, cut, or overlap shapes into new geometry.

A bounding box is a box-shaped volume that encloses a 3D object for selection, collision tests, culling, scaling, layout, and asset processing.

A bump map is a grayscale texture that fakes surface relief by perturbing how light hits a model, suggesting bumps and dents without extra geometry.

C4D, short for Cinema 4D, is Maxon’s native 3D scene file format for models, materials, animation, lights, cameras, and render settings.

Caustics are bright light patterns formed when reflected or refracted light is focused by shiny, glass, or liquid surfaces in 3D rendering.

Channel packing stores separate grayscale texture maps in red, green, blue, or alpha channels to reduce texture files and shader memory.

Control Rig is an animator-friendly rigging interface that uses handles, constraints, and solvers to pose characters, props, or mechanical parts.

A DAE file (Collada) is an open, XML-based 3D format that stores geometry, materials, animation, and complete scenes for exchange between 3D applications.

Decimation is a polygon reduction technique that removes vertices and faces from a 3D mesh to lower its polygon count while preserving the overall shape as closely as possible.

Depth of field is the camera effect that keeps a focus range sharp while making nearer or farther parts of a 3D scene appear blurred.

A diffuse map is a texture that stores a material’s visible surface color for non-shiny lighting in legacy and real-time 3D workflows.

A displacement map is a texture that physically moves a model's geometry in or out at render time, creating true 3D surface detail that normal and bump maps only fake.

Draco compression is Google's open-source mesh compression scheme for 3D geometry that dramatically reduces the file size of GLB and glTF models for faster web and mobile delivery.

DWG, short for drawing, is a native AutoCAD CAD file format for 2D drafting, 3D geometry, layers, blocks, dimensions, and design metadata.

DXF means Drawing Exchange Format, a CAD exchange file used for 2D drawings, layers, curves, annotations, and limited 3D geometry.

An edge loop is a connected ring of edges that runs around a 3D mesh, defining its form and controlling how the surface deforms during animation.

An emission map is a PBR texture that defines which parts of a surface emit light independently of scene lighting, enabling glowing screens, neon signs, and lit panels on 3D models.

Extrusion extends profiles, edges, or faces into 3D geometry, forming walls, letters, pipes, panels, and raised details in polygon or CAD workflows.

FBX (.fbx) is a proprietary Autodesk 3D format for models, materials, rigs, and animation. It is the industry standard for exchange in game and film pipelines.

Forward kinematics, or FK, computes a rigged chain from parent joints to child joints for predictable posing in character animation and mechanical motion.

Fresnel is the view-angle reflectance effect in PBR shading, named after Augustin-Jean Fresnel, making glancing surfaces look more reflective.

G-code is machine instruction code for 3D printers, CNC mills, laser cutters, and other computer-controlled fabrication machines.

Gaussian splatting is a technique that reconstructs a scene from photos as millions of colored 3D blobs for photorealistic, explorable views in real time.

In 3D, geometry is the vertices, edges, and faces that define an object's shape and structure, distinct from the textures and materials applied to its surface.

GLB (.glb) is the binary form of glTF, a compact self-contained 3D file that bundles geometry, PBR materials, textures, and animation for web and real-time delivery.

Global illumination, or GI, simulates indirect light bouncing between surfaces for realistic shadows, color bleeding, and ambient lighting in 3D renders.

glTF (GL Transmission Format) is an open standard for transmitting and loading 3D models with PBR materials, animation, and scenes on the web and in apps.

HDRI (high dynamic range image) is a 360-degree environment image with real-world light values, used to light and reflect 3D scenes for photorealistic illumination.

A height map is a grayscale image that stores elevation values for terrain, displacement, parallax effects, and surface relief in 3D workflows.

High poly is a 3D model built from a very large number of polygons, often millions, to capture fine detail for sculpting, close-ups, and normal-map baking.

IGES means Initial Graphics Exchange Specification, a legacy neutral CAD format for exchanging wireframe, surface, and solid geometry.

Image based lighting, or IBL, uses HDR environment images to light 3D scenes with realistic ambient light, reflections, and material response.

Image to 3D is AI technology that turns one or more 2D photos into a fully textured 3D model, reconstructing geometry and materials from a single reference image.

Inverse kinematics (IK) is an animation method that positions a chain of joints from its end point, so moving a hand or foot automatically bends the whole limb.

A keyframe marks an important pose or value at a specific point in time, and the software automatically generates the in-between frames to create smooth motion.

KTX2, Khronos Texture 2.0, is a texture file format for compact GPU textures, mipmaps, cubemaps, and Basis Universal delivery.

LOD (level of detail) is an optimization technique that swaps a 3D model for simpler versions as it recedes from the camera, keeping real-time scenes fast without quality loss.

Low poly refers to 3D models built with few polygons, optimized for fast real-time performance in games, AR, and the web, and often used as a stylized art style.

A manifold mesh is a watertight 3D surface with no holes, non-manifold edges, or self-intersections — a requirement for 3D printing and many geometry processing operations.

A mesh is the network of vertices, edges, and faces that defines the surface of a 3D model. It is the fundamental structure behind almost every 3D object.

Mesh compression reduces 3D model file size by encoding vertices, indices, normals, UVs, and other mesh attributes more efficiently.

A metallic map is a grayscale PBR texture that tells a shader whether each part of a surface behaves as a metal or a non-metal, controlling how reflections and color interact with light.

A mipmap is a chain of smaller, prefiltered texture images that GPUs sample to reduce shimmering, improve cache use, and render distant surfaces faster.

Motion capture, or mocap, records real movement and converts it into animation data for digital characters, creatures, cameras, and props.

An N-gon is a polygonal mesh face with more than four sides, often created by fills, booleans, bevels, or cleanup operations.

A normal map is an RGB texture that fakes surface detail by changing how light hits a model, adding bumps, dents, and grooves without adding polygons.

NURBS means Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines: precise curve and surface math used for CAD-style smooth, editable 3D models.

OBJ (.obj) is a simple text-based 3D geometry format storing vertices, faces, and UVs. It is one of the most widely compatible 3D file types across software.

An opacity map is a grayscale or alpha texture that controls transparency in 3D materials, from cutout leaves to glass decals and hair cards.

Open Volumetric DataBase is a sparse volume format and library for storing smoke, fire, clouds, fog, SDFs, and other 3D voxel data efficiently.

Parametric modeling defines 3D geometry with dimensions, constraints, and feature history so designers can edit models by changing parameters.

Path tracing is a physically based rendering method that simulates light by tracing rays from the camera through the scene, computing realistic global illumination, soft shadows, and caustics.

PBR (physically based rendering) is a shading standard that models how light hits real-world materials, so surfaces look realistic under any lighting.

Phong shading is a foundational shading model that interpolates surface normals across a polygon to produce smooth, per-pixel lighting with distinct ambient, diffuse, and specular components.

Photogrammetry is the technique of reconstructing a 3D model from overlapping photographs, turning photos of a real object into accurate textured geometry.

A PLY file (Polygon File Format) is a 3D format storing meshes or point clouds with per-vertex color, widely used for 3D scanning and photogrammetry output.

A polygon is a flat, closed shape, usually a triangle or quad, that forms one face of a 3D mesh and joins with thousands of others to build a model's surface.

A primitive is a basic 3D shape such as a cube, sphere, cylinder, or plane used as a starting point for modeling, layout, and procedural assets.

A procedural texture is an algorithm-generated surface pattern that can create scalable color, bump, roughness, or noise detail without a painted bitmap.

A quad is a four-sided polygon face used in 3D meshes for clean topology, deformation, subdivision surfaces, and modeling workflows.

Rasterization converts 3D triangles into screen pixels or fragments, making it the core real-time rendering method used by GPUs and game engines.

Ray tracing is a rendering technique that traces light paths to create realistic shadows, reflections, refractions, and global illumination.

Remeshing is the process of reconstructing a 3D model's topology to produce a clean, uniform quad or triangle mesh at a target polygon count, replacing irregular or dense geometry.

Retopology is the process of rebuilding a model's surface with cleaner geometry, turning dense scans or sculpts into optimized meshes ready for animation and games.

Rigging is the process of building a digital skeleton of bones and controls for a 3D model, defining how it bends, poses, and moves so it can be animated.

A roughness map is a grayscale PBR texture that controls how sharp or blurry reflections are across a surface, defining where a material looks glossy versus matte.

Screen space reflection (SSR) is a real-time rendering technique for approximating glossy reflections using visible screen pixels and depth data.

Digital sculpting is a way of modeling that treats a 3D mesh like clay, letting artists push, pull, and carve millions of polygons to create highly detailed organic forms.

A seamless texture is a tileable image map whose edges align so it can repeat across 3D surfaces without visible borders or pattern breaks.

A shader is a small program that runs on the GPU to calculate how a surface looks, setting the color, lighting, and effects of every pixel in a 3D render.

Shadow mapping is a real-time shadow rendering technique that uses a depth texture from a light to decide which surfaces are lit or occluded.

A skeleton in 3D animation is a hierarchical system of bones that defines the articulation structure of a character, driving mesh deformation through skin weights when posed or animated.

Skinning binds a 3D mesh to a skeleton with vertex weights so characters, creatures, and props deform correctly during animation.

A smoothing group controls which polygon faces share smoothed normals, making a mesh look rounded or faceted without changing its geometry.

Specular is the component of a shading model that represents direct, mirror-like reflections of light sources on a surface, producing the bright highlights that make materials look shiny or glossy.

A specular map is a texture that controls highlight strength and specular color on a 3D surface, often in legacy or specular-gloss workflows.

A spline is a smooth curve defined by control points, used to create paths, profiles, guide rails, animation tracks, and precise 3D shapes.

A STEP file (ISO 10303) is a neutral CAD format that stores exact, editable solid and surface geometry for exchanging precise engineering models between programs.

An STL file (stereolithography) is a 3D format storing a model's surface as a triangle mesh, with no color or texture. It is the long-standing standard for 3D printing.

A subdivision surface is a smooth surface generated by repeatedly dividing a low-poly cage mesh, letting artists model organic shapes from simple, editable base geometry.

Subsurface scattering, or SSS, makes translucent materials look real by simulating light that enters, scatters internally, and exits nearby.

Tessellation divides or approximates 3D surfaces into connected polygons so models can be displayed, sculpted, simulated, or exported reliably.

Text to 3D is AI technology that generates a complete, textured 3D model from a written prompt, turning a natural-language description into usable geometry in minutes.

A texture atlas packs many textures or UV islands into one image to reduce material changes, improve batching, and keep 3D assets efficient.

Texture compression reduces texture memory, bandwidth, and download size by storing GPU-readable images in compact block-compressed formats.

Texture mapping is the technique of applying 2D images onto a 3D model's surface to define its color and detail, using UV coordinates to control exactly where each image lands.

Tone mapping converts high dynamic range renders into displayable images while preserving detail, contrast, color, and a cinematic look.

Topology is how a 3D model's vertices, edges, and faces are arranged and flow across its surface, determining how cleanly it deforms, subdivides, and renders.

Triangulation converts polygon faces into triangles so 3D meshes render, deform, simulate, and export more predictably across tools and engines.

A trim sheet is a reusable texture atlas of strips, panels, and details used to texture hard-surface 3D assets efficiently.

USD (Universal Scene Description) is Pixar's open framework and file format for composing, layering, and exchanging large 3D scenes across a production pipeline.

USDZ (.usdz) is Apple's zero-compression 3D file format built on Pixar's USD standard, powering AR Quick Look on iPhone and iPad.

UV mapping is the process of unwrapping a 3D model's surface onto a flat 2D plane so textures can be painted and applied accurately, like unfolding a papercraft model.

A vertex is a single point in 3D space defined by X, Y, and Z coordinates. It is the most basic building block of a mesh, where edges meet to shape a model.

A vertex normal is a direction vector stored at a mesh vertex to guide smooth lighting, shading, and surface appearance in 3D models.

Virtual reality (VR) immerses a user in a fully computer-generated 3D environment through a headset, replacing the real world with an interactive digital space.

Volumetric lighting is a rendering technique that makes light visible in fog, smoke, dust, or atmosphere for beams, haze, and god rays.

A voxel is a value on a regular 3D grid, the volumetric equivalent of a 2D pixel, that represents an object as stacked cubes of data rather than polygons.

VRML, Virtual Reality Modeling Language, is a legacy web 3D scene format for geometry, materials, viewpoints, animation, and interactive .wrl worlds.

WebGL is a browser API that enables real-time 3D graphics in web pages by giving JavaScript direct access to the GPU through an OpenGL ES-based interface — no plugins required.

Weight painting is the process of assigning influence values to a mesh's vertices that control how much each bone in a skeleton moves that part of the mesh during animation.

A wireframe is a skeletal view of a 3D model that shows only its edges and vertices, revealing the underlying polygon structure without surfaces or shading.

X3D, or Extensible 3D Graphics, is an ISO web 3D format for interactive scenes, geometry, animation, materials, and metadata.