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Glossary
The words you'll meet in Auddomate and in rendering, explained in plain language.
A to F
| Word | Meaning |
|---|
| Ambient occlusion | A black-and-white pass showing how open each point is to its surroundings. See Passes |
| Aperture | How wide the lens opens. Wider apertures, with smaller f-numbers, give more depth of field blur |
| Bounce | One reflection of light off a surface on its way to the camera |
| Caustics | Bright patterns of light focused by glass, water or shiny metal onto another surface |
| Clear coat | A clear lacquer layer over paint or metal, like car paint |
| Denoiser | Cleans the remaining grain out of a render while keeping edges and textures sharp |
| Depth of field | The blur in front of and behind the point a lens is focused on |
| Dispersion | Glass bending each wavelength by a different amount, splitting light into color |
| Emission | Light given off by a surface, which turns it into a light source |
| EV | Exposure value. One EV, or one stop, doubles or halves the brightness |
| EXR | An image format that stores the real light values, for compositing |
| Fresnel | Surfaces reflecting more strongly towards their edges than head-on. The Fresnel pass shows it in black and white. See Passes |
| f-number, f-stop | The number that describes a lens's aperture, like f/2.8. Smaller numbers mean more blur |
| Field of view | How much of the scene the camera sees, set by the lens |
G to P
| Word | Meaning |
|---|
| glTF, GLB | The open standard for 3D files. GLB is the single-file version |
| Glare | Star-shaped rays on tiny, bright highlights, made by a lens's aperture blades |
| Glow | A soft halo spilling from the brightest parts of a picture |
| HDRI | A 360° photo of a real place, with its full range of brightness, used to light a scene |
| IOR | Index of refraction: how strongly a material bends light. 1.33 for water, 1.5 for glass. Change it under Scene → Materials. See Materials |
| Morph target | A changed version of a shape that can be blended in, like a squash or a smile. Called pose morphs in Cinema 4D and shape keys in Blender |
| Motion blur | Blur along the path of anything that moves while the shutter is open |
| Normal map | A texture that adds fine bumps and grooves without extra geometry |
| Opal | The spectral rendering engine inside Auddomate |
| Path tracing | Making pictures by following rays of light as they bounce around a scene |
| pbrt-v4 | The open-source reference renderer Auddomate is checked against |
| Point light | A light with no size that shines in every direction, like a bare bulb |
R to Z
| Word | Meaning |
|---|
| Rig, skin | Bones inside a model that bend its surface, like a character's skeleton |
| Roughness | How rough a surface is at a tiny scale. Low is polished and mirror-like, high is satin or matte |
| Sample | One round of light traced for every pixel. More samples, less noise |
| Samples per pixel (spp) | How many samples each pixel has received |
| Shutter angle | How long the shutter stays open in each frame, as an angle. 180° is the film standard |
| Spectral rendering | Rendering light as a spectrum of wavelengths, not just red, green and blue. See Rendering by wavelength |
| Spotlight | A light that shines in a cone, fading between an inner and outer edge |
| Sun | A light from one direction with parallel rays, the same strength everywhere |
| Turntable | A model spinning a full turn on its spot, under still lights |
