SCHOOL OF MOTION PRESENTS:

THE
ULTIMATE MOTION DESIGN

DICTIONARY
By: Ben Carmeli, Liam Clisham, Alan Demafiles, and Caleb Ward
Artwork by: Peter Pallag
Absolute Coordinates to Cycles Render Engine

A-C

Artwork by Janko Bartelink in Design Bootcamp at School of Motion.

Absolute Coordinates
The location of a point by way of distance or angles from
a fixed origin.
Adjustment Layer
A layer that affects all of the layers below it in the time-
line. An effect applied to an adjustment layer will adjust
all of the layers underneath.
Adobe Character Animator
An animation software designed to automate lip-syncing
and facial expressions in real-time.
After Effects
A 2.5D animation and compositing software used to cre-
ate Motion Graphics. The most popular Motion Graphics
software in the world.
Alembic
An open-source file format that has become almost uni-
versally readable. It’s great for passing animation be-
tween 3D applications or baking out particle systems.
Aliasing
The jagged effect that occurs along the edges of objects in
pictures.
Alpha Channel
Alpha channels tell your video software how opaque
(transparent) the pixels in your video should be. Alpha
channels are usually used when a video or image is in-
serted over other video/image elements.
Ambient Occlusion
AO for short, is a shading and rendering technique used
to determine exposure in a scene relative to ambient
lighting.
Anchor Point
The point around which transformations will happen.
Animatic
A rough video outlining the way in which a Motion
Graphic sequence will look before principle animation be-
gins. Animatics are typically used to pitch video ideas to a
client.
2
Animation
The process of storytelling through movement.
Anisotropy
Anisotropy can be seen on metal surfaces, especially
brushed metal. An anisotropic surface changes in appear-
ance as it rotates its view.
Anti-aliasing
A method for preventing the jagged effect of aliasing. Us-
ing surrounding areas, it blends color values between pix-
els.
Aperture
The iris of a camera lens. The larger an aperture, the
shorter depth of field becomes as well as a greater
amount of light. The inverse is true as well.
Arbitrary Output Variable
AOVs for short, are secondary images produced by a ren-
der engine. Often times called multiple passes. Example
secondary images are specular, z-depth, and motion vec-
tors
Area Light
A type of light that emits rays from a geometric area in-
stead of a single point. These types of lights are useful for
creating softer shadows.
Arnold
A 3rd-party render engine created by Solid Angle. Arnold
is an unbiased, CPU render engine.
Ashikhmin-Shirley
A BRDF model created by Michael Ashikhmin and Peter
Shirley in August 2000. It is super technical, and prides it-
self on being more physically accurate.
Aspect Ratio
Video/Image Width vs Height. The most common aspect
ratio is 16:9.
Asset
A file used to help with the process of Motion Design.
Common assets include textures, sound effects, and back-
ground plates.
3
Attenuation Beckmann
As light travels through air, its strength diminishes. The A specular highlight distribution model. Specifically
further the rays travel, the dimmer the light. This is at- micro-facet distribution.
tenuation.
Beeple
AVI The man. The myth. The daily king.
A video container/wrapper format used primarily by PCs.
Bend
Axis, Axes As it sounds, any deviations away from a straight line or
An Axis or multiple axes describe the origin and position position. Most 3D applications offer a bend deformer of
of an object in space, referenced by two intersecting sorts. After Effects also has a bend effect.
straight lines. XY, YZ, ZX
Bevel
B-Spline A bevel eliminates sharp edges from objects.
A B-Spline is a free-form curve defined by two axes. This
can be thought of as a simplified bezier curve. Bezier Curve
Named after Pierre Bezier, it is a technique for creating
Backface Culling curves.
A process that eliminates polygons facing away from the
active camera from being rendered. This can improve Biased
performance because less geometry needs to be ren- Biased rendering allows render engines to take shortcuts
dered. to increase production times while not compromising on
looks.

4
 are usually created in an image editing software like Pho-
Bit Rate
toshop.
The rate in which video is coded/decoded by a video play-
back software. Lower bitrates generally lead to smaller
Boolean
file sizes.
A modeling technique that takes overlapping objects to
create a new object using subtraction, union, or intersec-
Bitmap
tion.
A monochromatic raster image.

Boundary Box
Blender
A simplified cubic representation of a polygonal mesh or
An open source 3D software.
geometry.

Blending Mode
Box Modeling
The way in which color information from one layer is
A modeling technique using primitive shapes to create
passed on to other layers underneath. Blending modes
the basic foundational shape of a final model.
are typically used to stylize and image or video.

BRDF
Blinn-Phong
Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function. Using
This is a reflection model that uses a combination of dif-
four real-world variables to define how light is reflected
fuse reflection, specular reflection, and approximation of
on an opaque surface. The four variables are radiance, ir-
ambient lighting.
radiance, surface normal and incident light.

Boards
Brushes
Short for Storyboards. Boards are still images that outline
Design elements that used to simulate a paint or pen
the general design of a Motion Graphic sequence. These
stroke, or stylize a layer.

5
Bucket Cap
A visual representation of the area that is currently being The closed sides of an object. Such as the top and bottom
rendered by an engine. of a cylinder.

Bump Map Cartesian Space

An image that creates an illusion of three-dimensionality Positions using a three-coordinate system; x, y and z; re-
of a surface, such as protrusions and cavities by recalcu- lating to a central origin.
lating the normals of an object. This does not change the
mesh itself, allowing for high levels of detail without high Caustics
polygonal counts. The specular reflection or refraction of a light creates pat-
terns, as seen when light passes through a glass tumbler
Cache or wine glass.
Any amount of memory that being used to save calcula-
tion so that they do not have to be made again. This is par- Cel
ticularly useful in simulations. A transparent sheet of film material that can be drawn
on, used in the production of cartoons.
CAD
Computer-Aided Design. CAD software is often used for Center of the World
mechanical design and architecture. The absolute center of a 3D scene. Also referred to as the
Origin.
Camera Mapping
Taking a flat, 2D image and projecting it onto 3D geome- Chamfer
try, adding approximations of real 3D shapes and vol- The creation of blunt edge shapes.
umes to the flat image.

6
Child
An object that is influenced by another object (known as
the "parent").
Chromatic Aberration
Also known as "color fringing", is an optical anomaly that
occurs when a lens is unable to converge all wavelengths
of color to the same focal plane.
Cinema 4D
A 3D software used to model, texture, light, and animate
3D objects and scenes. Cinema 4D is the software of
choice for most modern Motion Designers.
Cineware
A tool that allows After Effects artists to import 3D objects
from Cinema 4D into After Effects.
Clone Stamp
A tool that copies pixel information from one area to an-
other using a brush. Primarily used in Photoshop.
Cloner Object
A cloner object inside of Cinema4D allows you to create
multiple clones of objects that can be affected by various
Effectors. Effectors can be used to offset positions, change
colors, modify objects, and more.
Codec
An algorithm used to package a video file. Codecs are typi-
cally used to reduce a video file size.
Collapse Transformations
A setting in After Effects that allows a precomposed com-
position to retain it's transformation information when
precomposed.
Color Correction
The process of adjusting the color of an image or video to
fix any color or exposure issues that may have resulted
from on-set error or camera limitations.
Color Depth
The number of bits (value steps) used to represent color.
The bits are divided into red, green and blue (as well as
7
an optional alpha channel). There are 8-bit, 16-bit, 24-bit
Creative Cloud
and 32-bit color depths.
Adobe's collection of creative applications and cloud serv-
ices. Notable Creative Cloud apps include After Effects,
Color Grade
Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Illustrator.
The process of stylizing the color of a video or image.

Cube (Box)
Compositing
A primitive object. Your 3D application may call them
The process of combining digital elements together to cre-
cubes or boxes.
ate visual unity.

Cycles Render Engine

Composition
An open source render engine created by the Blender
1. A single sequence of layers. 2. The canvas in which Af-
Foundation that utilizes both CPU and GPU capabilities. A
ter Effects projects are created. 3. The arrangement of de-
port of this render engine has been created by Insysidum,
sign elements in a frame.
called Cycles 4D.

Continuously Rasterize
A setting that tells After Effects to analyze a vector object
or nested composition every frame to remove pixelation.

CPU Render Engine

A render engine that uses the power of a CPU or multiple
CPUs to render a scene.

8
 Data Mapping to Keyframe

D-K

Artwork by Mina Markovic in Design Bootcamp at School of Motion.

Data Mapping Direct Lighting
Using data to map drive attributes in a 3D program. Light rays that have traveled in a straight line from a
These attributes can range from the position of objects to light source to a surface.
colors.
Directional Light
DCC A light that is focused and aimed in a particular direction.
"Digital Content Creation". Tools like Cinema4D, Houdini, Think of a spotlight.
Maya, etc.
Disc
Decay A circular primitive object.
The decrease in light intensity with distance. The further
away from a light source, the less intense its rays become. Disk Cache
See Inverse Square. A storage database that holds temporary files used to
playback and render Motion Graphic sequences.
Depth of Field
A blurring effect caused by camera optics. The total dis- Displacement Map
tance in which a point of focus appears sharp. In Motion Use to to modify the actual mesh of an object (as opposed
Graphics, depth-of-field can be simulated using various to a bump or normal map) to create high levels of detail
applications. such as wrinkles.

Diffuse Dope Sheet

The essential color of an object that is shown under pure A summary of important information in a 3D application.
white light. Often times it shows keyframes, a curve editor, hierar-
chies, and more.

10
DUIK Element 3D
An industry-standard, free character rigging tool in After A paid plugin from Video Copilot that empowers After Ef-
Effects. fects artists to model and import 3D objects directly in Af-
ter Effects.
Dynamics
A branch of Motion Graphics that deals with the physics Elements
of digitally simulated objects. Dynamics are simulations A digital file used to enhance a Motion Graphic sequence.
that calculate how an object should act in the real world.
For example, how a sphere may bounce. Emission
The emission of light rays from an object or material.
Ease
To smooth. Usually referring to the smoothing of a key- Environment Map
frame. A map used to simulate reflection of the world without us-
ing any ray tracing.
Edge
A straight line connecting two points on a polygon. Essential Graphics
An Adobe Workflow that allows Premiere Pro users to
Edge Loop edit After Effects projects.
A method used when modeling to create a loop of multi-
ple polygons. Explainer Video
A branch of Motion Graphics that uses visual elements to
Effects educate an audience.
A tool that can be applied to an object or layer to manipu-
late the way it looks or interacts in a timeline.

11
Export Falloff
1. To save a video file. 2. To send a project file to another Fall off can also mean Decay. However, it can also be used
application. as a representation of how intense an effect is at various
positions. How quickly the intensity moves from 0 to 100
Expression or any other values.
A snippet of Javascript used to perform utility tasks in Af-
ter Effects. Field of View
The range of view from top to bottom, left to right. A
EXR larger FOV allows for more of a scene to be viewed. The
A versatile 32-bit file format. This format is fantastic for inverse is also true.
compositing.
Fill Light
Extrude One or more lights used to assist in lighting a scene. They
To create a three-dimensional object from a two- are often less intense than the key light.
dimensional shape or plane.
Fillet
F-Curves The rounding of the edges on an object.
Cinema4D's graph editor.
Floating Values
Face A value scale starting with 0 and ending with 1. This scale
A shape made by a bounding points that makes a poly- is extremely precise, for example 0.12575.
gon.

12
Flowchart Fractal Noise
A visual representation of the nesting structure of videos, An effect in After Effects used to simulate cloudy and dis-
images, layers, or effects, in a series of timelines or com- torted noise. One of the most widely-used effects in After
positions. A visual workflow diagram. Effects.

Fluid Solver Frame

Fluid simulations using any number of softwares such as
X-Particles, Real Flow, Houdini and others.
Focal Length
The distance between the optical center of a lens and the
sensor (if it were a real camera). Focal lengths are in mm,
such as 50mm, 100mm, etc. The smaller the focal length
the wider the lens.
Font
A single typeface weight and style. (i.e. 24pt Bold Hel-
vetica Neue)
FPS (Frames Per Second)
Also called frame-rate, it is the speed at which a frame of
animation or video is played back. Often 24, 30, or 60 FPS.
A single image taken from a video.
Frame Rate
The number of frames shown each second of a video.
(See FPS)
Fresnel
The observation that the amount of reflectance seen on a
surface is dependent upon a viewers angle.
Gamma
A gamma value is the luminance value in a video or still
image.
Geometry
The total points of an object. For example, a basic cube or
box has eight points. Geometry can be composed of any-
thing with one or more points.

13
GGX
A shading model for refraction through rough surfaces.
Global Illumination
Without getting super technical, global illumination (or
GI),  is a calculation of how light bounces off surfaces and
onto other surfaces. Without global illumination, the cal-
culation only accounts for the surfaces directly hit by a
light's rays.   Gradient ramps allow you to easily interpolate between
Glow
A common motion graphics post-effect, this is meant to
simulate the real-life phenomenon of light interacting
with the lens of a camera producing glows or light flares
over captured footage
Gouraud Shading
This is a shading model that applies to objects in your
viewport. This mode averages the normals of individual
faces of your objects so the surfaces seem smoother.
GPU
An electronic circuit used to increase the graphics per-
formance of a computer processor.
GPU Render Engine
Any renderer which leverages the computational power
of a computer's graphics card as opposed to its CPU. GPU
renderers tend to be synonymous with increased speeds.
Octane, Redshift, and Cycles are just some of the many in-
creasingly popular GPU renderers.
Gradient Ramp
different color and greyscale values using a small num-
ber of control knots. These interpolated values can then
be used to drive shading parameters like reflection
strength or roughness, or even animations.
Grain
Visual noise in a video or image. Grain is typically used to
simulate the noise produced by a camera when shooting
on celluloid film.
Graph Editor
An diagram used to manipulate and visualize animation
movement via a 2D chart.
14
Graphics Card
A device that takes information from the CPU and turns it
into pictures or video.
Greebles
Refers to the technique of giving a model the impression
of complexity by adding simple, usually random, surface
details. This term originated from VFX artists designing
props for the original Star Wars trilogy.
Green Screen
A bright green background that can be easily keyed using
modern compositing applications.
Greyscale Gorilla
A popular Cinema 4D training website offering free and
paid tutorials as well as a suite of plugins for Cinema 4D.
Grid
A visual guide that uses consistent spacing to help a Mo-
Graph artist when designing a composition.
Guide
A visual tool used to help a user with layout and design.
H264
A popular codec used to significantly reduce a video's file
size. H264 is typically only used when uploading a video
to the web.
Hand Tool
A tool that allows a Motion Designer to move around a
composition.
Hard Drive Disk (HDD)
A data storage device that uses a rotating disk to store in-
formation. HDD devices are typically much slower than
SSDs.
Hard Surface Modeling
Any kind of modeling of objects that are mechanical in na-
ture, or otherwise characterized by precise and sharp
beveled edges.
HDRI
High Dynamic Range Image. These images accurately
store real-world light values which can then be used in
3D to more easily recreate realistic lighting conditions.
15
High-Res
High Resolution, Any pixel dimensions that are greater
than the common resolution size.
Highlight
Often associated with reflection, highlights form on re-
gions of the surface where the light reflects most strongly
based on the viewing angle of the camera. Highlights of-
ten do a nice job of defining the form of an object.
Hotkey
A keyboard key, or sequence of keys, that can be pressed
to perform an action in a software.
Houdini
A high-end 3D animation software that specializes in
simulation and dynamics processing.
HPB
Rotational axis for Heading, Pitch and Bank.
Illustrator
1. The most popular 2D vector-graphic editing software in
the world. 2. A person who draws.
Index of Refraction
IOR for short. This is a real-world property of metallic
and dielectric materials that governs the way they reflect
and bend light.
Indirect Lighting
Light rays that have bounced off of a surface, scattered,
reflected or focused before reaching another surface.
Interactive Preview Region
A render window you can overlay atop your viewport so
that it re-renders anything within its bounds. This is use-
ful when doing anything that requires a lot of iteration,
as it can be faster to see the updates this way than doing
a Picture Viewer render
Inverse Square
Inverse square law describes how the intensity of light
weakens over distance. This is super important in setting
up realistic lighting in a 3D program
Kerning
The distance between two different letters.
16
Key
To remove a colored background.

Key Light
A term from photography, the key-light is the term for a
light, typically illuminating the front of your subject defin-
ing its form and dimension. You will often find it helpful
to start lighting your scene with the key, and then placing
additional lights anywhere else you'd like to fill in detail.

Keyboard Shortcut
A keyboard key, or sequence of keys, that can be pressed
to perform an action in a software.

Keyframe
A specific value in time. A cornerstone feature in modern
animation softwares.

17
 L-System to Purge

L-P

Artwork by Victoria Blair in Design Bootcamp at School of Motion.

L-System
A kind of procedural system for generating complex
spline structures. L-systems use a simple kind of code-
language to describe how the spline propagates with
each iteration. The L-system can be found within the
Mospline object when set to Turtle mode.
Layer
A single element in a timeline or canvas.
Layer Styles
Universal stylization of a layer that happens after the ef-
fects, masks, mattes, and keyframes have been applied.
Leading
The distance between two stacked lines of type.
Level-of-Detail (LOD)
Represented as a percentage (100% being full detail) this
setting can simplify your 3D scene for faster previewing
and navigation by reducing dense geometry.
Linear
1. Keyframes without any easing applied. 2. In 3D, linear
refers to the color space of the viewport and render. Lin-
ear results in colors and lights that respond more natu-
rally and is therefore the preferred process for working
in a 3D program, before color correction is applied in a
compositing program.
Logo Resolve
A Motion Design sequence that ends with a logo.
Logo Reveal
A Motion Design sequence that transitions to a logo.
Lossless
Uncompressed or perfect quality.
Lossy
Compressed or less-than-perfect quality.
Low Res
Low Resolution, typically anything below 1920 x 1080 pix-
els is considered Low Resolution. Low-Res files are best
suited for quick preview renders
19
Low-Poly Modeling Mask
Typically refers to a popular kind of aesthetic in 3D A path that is used to cut out or add visual information to
which embraces the faceted look created by the consti- a layer.
tute polygons of 3D models rather than trying to hide
them Match Moving
The process of tracking and replacing physical objects
Luminance with digital elements.
A channel of Cinema4D's native material system. Any tex-
ture (bitmap or procedural) applied in the luminance Material
channel will generally be unaffected by lights or shadows A set of properties (governing aspects such as the color of
in the scene, giving it the appearance of being light- your object to how transparent it is) that define how your
emitting. model will render in your scene

LUT Matte
Look-Up Table. These files contain information that trans- A reference layer used to map the transparency of an-
forms the colors of an image to match a set profile. These other layer.
are normally used in post to color-grade 3D renders, but
some render engines allow you to view the render with Maya
the LUT applied right in the Picture Viewer. A high-end 3D modeling and animation software used at
the highest levels of Hollywood. Maya is known for its ro-
Macro bust character rigging tools.
1. An extreme close-up shot 2. An automated process usu-
ally initiated by a keyboard shortcut.

20
Media Encoder Motion Blur
A video encoding software included in the Creative A simulation of the blur captured when recording move-
Cloud. ment on a video camera.

MIP-Mapping Motion Design

A type of image-filtering applied to textures to minimize
the moire effect that can arise when a pattern is tiled
many times and viewed at a low angle. This filter is ap-
plied by default when you load an image into a C4D mate-
rial.
Conveying information through combining movement,
design, color, and sound.
MOV
A video container/wrapper native to Apple computers.

Mocha MP4
A professional spline-based tracking software. A free ver- A video container/wrapper that works on Apple and PC
sion is included in After Effects. devices.

MoGraph Multipass
Short for Motion Graphics. Allows you to output specific components of the final ren-
der. For example, you could have a pass that contains
MoGraph Tools only the reflectance data in your scene or a pass of just
The collection of effectors and generators within the Mo- the normals. These can be used in the compositing stage
Graph Module of Cinema4D. These tools allow for the pro- to modify the look of your render with a great level of
cedural animation of hundreds or thousands of objects in control.
a variety of ways

21

N-Gon
A polygon composed of more than 4 points. These serve
well to cap complex holes in polygons but do not tend to
react predictably under subdivision, hence their bad rep
among 3D modelers.
Nested Comp
A composition inside another composition. It's like a tur-
ducken, but for Motion Designers.
Nodes
Nodes generally accept one or more inputs, perform
some kind of operation on that information, and then out-
put the modified data. These are the foundation of pro-
grams like Houdini and Nuke, as well as node-based shad-
ers. The visual representation of how the data is proc-
essed in a node network makes them a great option for
rigs or any other kind of procedural operation and itera-
tive design.
Noise
1. Visual distortion added to a video or image. Whereas
grain is typically used for stylization, noise is typically
used for utility. 2. Mathematically-generated pseudo-
random patterns. The procedural nature of this noise
means that it can be made to contain very fine levels of
detail and are unconstrained by texture resolution.While
this is often used in texturing for natural looking pat-
terns, it can also be used to drive MoGraph animation.
Noises (Perlin, Alligator, Sparse Con-
volution)
Variations and improvements of the original Perlin noise,
these introduce further controls to refine the final look
and appearance of the produced pattern.
Non-planar
Refers to a polygon whose 4 (or more) points do not lie on
a single 2D plane. These are basically harmless but can
cause undesired shading artifacts in your viewport
Normal Map
A 2D texture that can be used to describe the pixel-level
orientation of a surface. This is a useful way of enhancing
the detail of an object without the cost of millions of poly-
gons.
22
Normals
These define the direction that a polygon is 'facing'. This
can be very important for proper shading.
Nurb
Non-Uniform Rational B-Spline. Anything attached to this
term (which is used less nowadays) is generally referring
to a geometric surface, specifically one generated in some
way from a Spline input. Examples include: Lofts, Lathes,
and Sweeps.
Octane
Very popular unbiased GPU renderer developed by Otoy
with plugins for most 3D packages.
Open VDB
Open VDB is a versatile format for storing sparse voxel
grid data. These have been used in a wide variety of cases
for fluid simulations, particle effects, and even complex
meshing. The technology is open-source and developed
by Dreamworks Studios
Optical Flares
A plugin developed by Video Copilot that allows users to
easily add lens flares into their compositions.
Orbit
A navigation in the 3D viewport where the camera re-
volves about a fixed point in your scene.
Oren-Nayer
A shading model for realistic diffuse surfaces. Simulates a
very fine rough surface
Organic Modeling
Often sculpted models of subjects of a biological nature.
Think flowing, smooth surfaces, like an ear for example.
Orthographic
A type of view you can use to navigate your 3D scene.
This view removes any distortion that might be caused by
a perspective view (where objects further away appear
smaller) and is therefore useful in certain modeling situa-
tions.
23
Parallax
A optical effect where objects closer to a camera move at
faster speed than objects further away from a camera.
Parametric
Parameter-based. This refers to objects whose appear-
ance is dependent on any number of variable parame-
ters. For example, imagine a Cylinder being affected by a
Bend deformer. Altering the strength of the bend de-
former actively changes the appearance of the cylinder.
Therefore, the Bend deformer (and its influence on the
cylinder) are considered parametric.
Parent
Usually an object or null which acts as the origin point
for all transformations of the child objects. Often materi-
als, tags or other properties on of the Parent can be inher-
ited by the child (ya know, like how you have the milk-
man's eyes).
Parenting
Connecting a layer's transformation data to another
layer.
Particles
In 3D, particles are often simply points of data containing
information like position, velocity, orientation, etc. Be-
cause they lack geometry, millions of particles can be ma-
nipulated in a scene with relative ease.
Pen Tool
A tool used to draw paths and masks.
Persistence of Vision
An audience's biological tendency to fill in gaps in move-
ment information. It's how a sequence of images can be
perceived as a video.
Perspective
This view-type is closer to how humans perceive objects
in real life, where objects further away appear smaller.
This is the default view-type in a Cinema4D viewport.
Phong
A shading model intended to approximate smooth sur-
faces that would otherwise appear faceted due to the low
amount of polygons.
24
Photorealism or Photometric Ren- Pickwhip
A tool that links one layer or parameter to another.
dering
Rendering with the strict intention of producing photore-
Pitch
alistic renders using data taken from real light sources
This refers to a rotation that occurs about an object's lo-
and surface properties. This is most popular in architec-
cal X-Axis.
ture and industrial design.

Pivot Point
Photoshop
All 3D objects have an axis center. This acts as the point
A photo editing software used for design, compositing,
about which all Position, Scale and Rotation transforms
drawing, image utility, and photo manipulation.
occur. These can be thought of as anchor points.

Physically Based Rendering (PBR)

Pixel
This is an idea that promotes the use of real-world physi-
The most fundamental part of a 2D image. A pixel typi-
cal values in the creation of materials to govern their ap-
cally contains one color value, which when arranged in a
pearance. Think of it as the difference between using a ge-
grid with other pixels create an image. Not to be reduc-
neric Fresnel shader as opposed to inputing an IOR value.
tive or anything, but literally all we do is tell pixels which
color to be, trippy huh?
Physical Render
Physical Render is a native Cinema4D rendering solution
Pixel Aspect Ratio
for achieving realistic photographic effects such as Depth
The shape of the pixels in your video. A square pixel has
of Field, Motion Blur, and more. Conveniently, it works
a Pixel Aspect Ratio of 1:1.
with the same lighting and materials settings as Standard
Renderer.

25
 essed to determine how those points connect to form the
Planar
surface of the object.
Often used to describe polygons whose points all lie
within one plane.
Point Light
A 3D light whose rays originate from a single infinitely
Plane
small point in space and travel outward in all directions.
A Cinema4D geometry primitive, this is a flat rectangle
These are technically unrealistic as no light source is infi-
with parametric width and height subdivisions.
nitely small, but can be useful for lighting a 3D scene.

Playhead
Polygon
The tool used to indicate your video's point in time.
The two-dimensional surface defined by 3 or more non-
overlapping points. Polygons are the building blocks
Plugin
(err.. planes rather) of 3D models.
A third-party application that can be loaded into another
software.
Portfolio
A collection of a Designer's work.
PluralEyes
A tool used to sync multiple video feeds together in post-
Precompose
production.
The process of turning a layer or group of layers into a
nested composition.
Point Cloud
Imagine a 3D torus. Now delete all the edges and poly-
Preset
gons that make it up. What you're left with are the uncon-
An effect or effects with a set of saved values.
nected vertices that make up that shape. 3D scan data is
often collected raw as point cloud data, and then proc-

26
Primitive ProRender
Primitives refer to the set of base parametric objects you AMD-developed GPU renderer recently included with
can create as starting points for modeling or to use as Cinema4D R19. While still early in development, ProRen-
models themselves. These often feature controls for reso- der is one of relatively few GPU renderers not dependent
lution in the form of segments, and controls to set the size on NVIDIA's proprietary CUDA technology.
and proportions.
Puppet Tool
Procedural A tool used to warp certain points of a video or image.
Rule-based'. This umbrella term can refer to animation,
shading, or a number of other aspects of a 3D program. Purge
Think of it like this, what if instead of manually keyfram- To remove and erase.
ing an object to move up 50 cm, we said "as this effector
moves over this cube, move up 50 cm"? By itself these
two animations might look identical, but if we apply this
one rule to 300 objects, we've now saved ourselves about
600 keyframes. That is just one specific example, proce-
duralism is a much much broader idea and is the founda-
tion of node-based tools such as Houdini.

Projection Mapping
Displaying a Motion Graphics sequence on an irregular
viewing surface like a building or statue.

27
 Quads to Syntheyes

Q-S

Artwork by Alex Ann in Design Bootcamp at School of Motion.

Quads
Four-point polygons. These are considered ideal when
modeling objects as they subdivide very neatly and pre-
dictably, and lend themselves well to forming good edge
loops.
Radiosity
A Global Illumination used to determine the light contri-
bution as light rays bounce off of diffuse surfaces.
RAM (Memory)
The amount of temporary storage that your computer
can use to read and write temporary information. After
Effects uses your RAM to playback temporary video files.
Range Mapping
A method of conforming a set of values from one range to
another (example: converting 0.50 in a range of 0-1 to 9
in a range of 6-12). This becomes very important when
trying to connect the animation of two disparate values,
like rotation with and translation, for example.
Raster Graphics
Graphics that use pixels.
Ray Tracing
A rendering technique that tracks the path of a light ray.
Redshift
A biased production-focused GPU renderer. It offers art-
ists a high degree of control over rendering to allow for a
lot of optimization.
Reel
A short video highlighting a Motion Designers work.
Reflectance
A channel in Cinema 4D's material system. Reflectance
was introduced in R16 as a way to bring C4D materials
into something closer to a PBR workflow where both dif-
fuse and Specular reflections are more realistically con-
sidered.
Refraction
The bending of light as it passes thru different mediums
(ie air to water). As the ray's speed changes during its
travel, its direction changes.
29
Refraction Index Resolution
The measurement of the amount of refraction for a given The width and height of your video or image. HD resolu-
medium tion is 1920 x 1080.

Region of Interest Rig

A tool in After Effects that allows users to focus on a spe-
cific portion of their composition.
Relative Coordinates
Locations in space defined by their distance away from a
given point.
Render
1. The process of saving a video or image, specifically one
that requires an extensive amount of computing power.
2. The creation of a photorealistic or non-photorealistic
2D image from a 3D scene, taking into account shaders,
materials, lighting.
Render Pass
A separate portion of a final render that isolates certain
attributes of an image.
A character or object that has been setup for animation.
Rigging
The process of creating controls for a character so that it
can be animated/deformed.
Rigid Body Dynamics
A physics simulation that calculates collisions on geome-
try that do not deform.
Roll
Rotation around the front to back axis of an object.
Rotoscoping
Removing or isolating an object from a video sequence.
One of the most tedious tasks in Motion Design.

30
Roughness Screenshot
A material property that defines how much irregularity A single frame taken from a Motion Graphics or video
the surface has. Rougher surfaces appear duller. software.

Samples Script
The number of rays that a renderer uses to create an im- 1. A code sequence that performs a task. 2. A complete
age. Lower samples can result in more noise, grain & jag- text outline of a video.
gedness.
Seams
Scalar The lines where UV geometry is joined together.
Scalar refers to a value that is defined by one number. Of-
ten, scalar values will describe the strength of something, Sequence
like an effector. Scalar values exist in contrast to vector A single timeline.
values, which are defined by three numbers (like posi-
tion, or color) Shader
An algorithm used to simulate texture or lighting in a 3D
Scatter application.
To distribute objects or clones over surface geometry.
Done with Cinema 4D's Cloner in object mode, with Oc- Simulation
tane's Scatter object, or with X-Particles emitter set to Ob- A reproduction of real-world behaviors through mathe-
ject shape. matical algorithms & equations. In 3D these are com-
monly used to model characteristics of hair, cloth, liquid
and fire.

31
Snapshot
A screenshot of a single frame that can be used for frame
comparison in After Effects.
Solid State Drive (SSD)
A data storage solution with no moving internal parts.
SSDs tend to be much faster than HDDs.
Specular
The amount of reflectivity a smooth surface has. Specular
highlights are the bright spots of reflected light seen on
shiny surfaces
Sphere
A perfectly round geometrical object in 3d space. The 3d
equivalent of a 2d circle.
Spline
A line that connects a series of vertices in 3D space. Be-
cause it has no depth, it has no renderable geometry
Spot Light
A type of light that emits from a single point outward in a
single direction, typically characterized by a cone shape.
Squash and Stretch
An animation principle used to simulate the natural way
in which objects compress and contract when impacting
other objects.
sRGB
A standardized Red Green Blue color space used widely
to describe a wide range of the color spectrum.
Standard Render
The default native render engine inside Cinema 4D and is
a fast, stable CPU based biased renderer
Stereoscopic 3D
Two images rendered together from slightly different per-
spectives (mimicking our left and right eyes) that give the
illusion of depth when viewed.
Storyboard
A visual script that outlines a videos key components.
Substance Softwares
A suite of texturing applications developed by Allego-
rithmic allowing users to paint directly on 3d models
32
(Substance Painter) and procedurally create highly de-
tailed & photo-real materials (Substance Designer)

Subsurface Scattering
The effect of light penetrating slightly transparent sur-
faces that is then scattered and exits at a different angle
than where it entered. The effect is used to depict photore-
alistic renderings of skin and wax.

Supersampling
Used to bake textures with increasing levels of antialias-
ing. Use it to render smooth speculars & high resolutions
at the cost of increased render times

Syntheyes
A professional match-moving and video tracking soft-
ware.

33
 Taper to Z-Brush

T-Z

Artwork by Tiago Duarte in Design Bootcamp at School of Motion.

Taper
A deformer object that allows for an object to narrow or
widen at one end
Template
A project file designed to be easily manipulatable. Tem-
plates are typically used by non-designers.
Tessellation
Divides a mesh into smaller tiles. In Cinema4D this is a
GPU enabled feature that allows realtime displacement to
be displayed in the viewport.
Texture
1. A still, visual element used to add visual complexity to
a composition or object. 2. A 2D image (bitmap or proce-
dural) used in mapping a 3D object & describes the sur-
face's various properties including height, normals, specu-
larity, and reflection.
Texture Map
The application of a texture to 3D geometry by way of
various projections.
Three Point Lighting
A standard lighting layout that uses a key, fill, and back-
light to make a subject or object pop.
Timecode
Number based information about the current time of a
video.
Timeline
1. The place in which layers and keyframes are added
and adjusted. 2. A linear representation of time for a
scene that can also display keyframes and audio wave-
forms
Title/Action Safe
Guides used to help a Motion Designer know where they
can add text elements without fear of the text being cut
off.
Toon Shader
A non-photorealistic shader that enables renderings that
look like various styles of art.
35
Track Triplanar
Using a computer software to follow movement in a A texture mapping projection method using 3 planes that
video. allows for removal of texture stretching and seams.

Transparency Tumble
The ability of an object's material to allow light to pass To rotate an object around multiple axes. To do this on a
through selected Cinema 4D object, drag in-between the rotation
tool's axis handles.
Transparency Grid
A grid used to convey transparent areas in a composition. Tween
The process of interpreting the data between two key-
Trapcode Form frames.
A plugin by RedGiant that creates grid patterns around
3D objects in After Effects. Twist
A deformer object that allows for a curling around an ob-
Trapcode Particular ject's axis. In Cinema 4D, different deformations are possi-
The industry-standard particle generation plugin created ble via three modes.
by Red Giant.
Typeface
Triangulation A certain design of fonts that includes every type of
The process of triangulating or converting an object's se- weight.
lected polygons or n-gons in to triangles.
Typography
A section of the design industry that focuses on text.

36
 nates do for 2D & 3D textures with values ranging from 0
Unbiased
to 1.
Describes a render engine that takes no approximations
or shortcuts in its calculation of a render, often at the cost
Vector
of speed when compared to biased solutions
In Cinema 4D, this data type holds 3 components to de-
scribe object position, rotation, color & point coordinates.
Unity
A cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Tech-
Vector Graphics
nologies
Graphics that use computer algorithms, rather than pix-
els, to create an image. Vector Graphics can be scaled up
Unreal
without pixelation.
A cross-platform game engine developed by Epic Games

Versioning
Unwrapping
Saving a project file so that it is compatible in previous
The process of unwrapping 3D geometry into a flat 2D UV
versions of the software.
space for the purposes of texture mapping.

Vertex
UV
The point where two or more edges meet.
A map that contains a flattened, unwrapped version of
3D geometry. UV map allows for 2D textures to be placed
Vertex Map
on corresponding parts of the mesh.
A map that stores a level of influence from 0-100% for
any given point. It can be used to limit or restrict defor-
UVW
mations on geometry.
The coordinate system for textures. Much like what XYZ
coordinates do for geometry in 3D space, UVW coordi-

37
Viewport
One or more windows with which to view a 3D scene in-
cluding perspective and various orthogonal views (i.e.,
top, left, front)
Volume
The space contained inside a 3D shape, with length,
width & height. Volume can also refer to data stored in
3D grids in such file formats such as Open VDB to create
effects such as smoke, fluids & clouds.
Volumetric Fog
An effect recreating dense atmosphere & typically de-
rived from types of noise
Volumetric Light
Beams of visible light and shadows when casting light
through an atmospheric environment.
Voronoi
A diagram of cells that can be used to fragment an object
using a Voronoi Fracture Object.
Voxel
Short for volumetric pixel. Much like a pixel represents a
value on a 2D grid, Voxels represent points in 3D space.
VRay
A 3rd party hybrid CPU + GPU renderer created by Chaos
Group for a number of 3D applications.
Walk Cycle
A loop showcasing how an animated character walks.
Ward
A type reflectance model for specular highlights named
after Gregory Ward. For materials, Ward is best suited for
soft surface such as rubber or skin.
Warp Stabilizer
A tool used to stabilize shaky footage in After Effects and
Premiere Pro.
Weight Map
A map that stores values across the points of an object. In
rigging, this map stores the percentage of influence of
joints on geometry.
38
Weld
A modeling operation that connects two or more selected
points and consolidates them into one.
Wet Map
A map that stores information left by particles after con-
tact with surface geometry to simulate the look of wet-
ness.
White Balance
The color balance of a video or image.
Wireframe
1. A grid-based rendering of a 3D or 2D object. 2. A repre-
sentation of a 3D model where only lines and vertices are
shown.
World Coordinate System
A system that uses a group of numbers to indicate the po-
sition of points or geometry relative to the center of a
scene (0,0,0).
X-Axis
The horizontal line in a coordinate system designating
the left & right of the world or object. Seen as a red han-
dle in Cinema 4D
XParticles
A 3rd party particle system plugin developed by Insy-
dium used to simulate particles, cloth, fluids, smoke and
fire
Xpresso
Cinema 4D's visual expression system. Used to create com-
plex, automated object interactions visual thru use of con-
nected nodes.
Y-Axis
The vertical line in a coordinate system designating up
and down of the world or object. Visually color colored
green in Cinema 4D
Yaw
Rotation around the vertical axis of an object.

39
Z-Axis
The line in a coordinate system designating depth of the
world or object. Visually color colored blue in Cinema 4D
Z-Depth
1. A computed distance from a camera. Z-Depth is typi-
cally calculated in 3D applications. It is also crucial for
creating depth mattes, which are important for realistic
compositing work. 2. A rendered 2D image pass contain-
ing the depth information of a shot, typically a 16-bit or
higher greyscale image. Often used for calculating depth
of field using 3rd party compositing plugins.
ZBrush
A digital sculpting tool developed by Pixologic.
(Bonus) Numbers Section
2D
A style of design that features flat design elements with-
out 3D depth. Popular styles include explainer videos,
logo reveals, and cartoon character animation.
2.5D
2D design elements in 3D space.
3D
Any design element with depth. 3D elements are usually
created in 3D software like Cinema 4D.
3D Coat
A 3D application touted for it's ability to perform UV un-
wrapping.

40
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