← Animation Glossary

Rendering

Rendering is the process of turning a 3D model or animation into a 2D image or video. The computer takes all the information about the 3D model and applies the lighting and materials to turn it into a final image or video that we can watch on our screens.

Please note that Rendering is not directly applicable to Brush Ninja.

Rendering in animation is an essential process that brings the 3D models and scenes to life. It is a complex procedure that involves the calculation of various visual effects, including lighting, shadows, reflections, and texture. The final output of rendering is the image or video sequence that contains all the visual information of the scene.

Rendering is a time-consuming process that requires significant computing power. The more complex the scene and the higher the quality required, the longer it takes to render. High-quality animations with many frames can take days, weeks, or even months to render on a single machine. As a result, studios often use render farms - clusters of powerful computers - to speed up the process.

Raytracing

One of the most common rendering techniques used in animation is ray tracing. Ray tracing simulates how light travels through a scene by tracing individual rays from a virtual camera and calculating how they interact with objects in the scene. This technique can produce highly realistic images with accurate lighting and shadows. However, it can also be computationally expensive, especially for scenes with many reflective surfaces.

Radiosity

Another popular rendering technique is radiosity, which simulates how light bounces between surfaces in a scene. Radiosity can produce soft and natural-looking lighting but requires careful setup and tuning to achieve realistic results.

Rasterization

Rasterization is another rendering technique commonly used in real-time applications such as video games. Rather than simulating how light interacts with objects in a scene, rasterization projects 3D models onto a 2D screen space and determines which pixels should be drawn based on their position and visibility from the camera. While not as physically accurate as ray tracing or radiosity, rasterization can produce fast and efficient results suitable for real-time applications.

The output of rendering can be used in various ways depending on the project requirements. For example, animations rendered at high resolutions are suitable for use in films or TV shows. Lower resolution animations may be used in video games or real-time applications where performance is critical. Architectural visualizations may require rendering with specific lighting conditions to simulate how a building will look at different times of day or under different weather conditions.

Rendering is an important step in the animation production pipeline. It involves complex algorithms and techniques that simulate how light interacts with objects in a scene to produce the final image or animation. Different rendering techniques offer varying degrees of realism and performance depending on the requirements of the project. Ultimately, rendering plays a crucial role in bringing 3D models and scenes to life, enabling creators to tell compelling stories and create immersive experiences for their audiences.

Animation Terms

2

2D Animation

3

3D Animation

A

Alpha Channel

Animation

Anti-Aliasing

Anticipation

Aspect Ratio

B

Bezier Curve

Bitmap

Blue Screen

Bone Animation

Bounce

Broadcast Standards

C

Camera Angle

Camera Shake

Cel Animation

Character Animation

Character Design Sheets

Claymation

Clean-up

Color Correction

Compositing

Composition

Concept Art

Cutout nimation

D

Depth of Field

Dialogue

Distributed Rendering

Dope Sheet

E

Easing

Emitter

Exaggeration

Eyedropper

F

Foley

Follow through

Forward Kinematics

Frame Rate

Frame

Freeze Frame

G

Ghosting

GIF File Format

Golden Ratio

Graph Editor

H

Hue and Saturation

I

Inertia

Infographic Animation

Inverse Kinematics

J

Joint

JPEG File Format

K

Keyframe Interpolation

Keyframe

Kinetic typography

L

Layers

Lens distortion

Level of Detail

Lighting

Line of action

Lip syncing

M

Matte painting

Morphing

Motion blur

Motion capture

Motion graphics

Motion path

Motion trail

Mouth shapes

MP3 File Format

MP4 File Format

N

Network rendering

O

Occlusion culling

Onion skinning

Overlapping action

P

Parallel rendering

Particle system

Persistance of Vision

Phonemes

Playback speed

Plot

PNG File Format

Pose-to-pose animation

Puppet animation

R

Render farm

Rendering

Resolution

Rigging

Rotoscoping

Rule of thirds

Run cycle

S

Safe zone

Scene

Screenplay

Script

Shot

Silhouette

Skeletal animation

Slow Motion

Smears

Sound Design

Soundtrack

Special Effects

Squash and Stretch

Staging

Stop Motion Animation

Storyboard

Straight-ahead Animation

T

Time Remapping

Timeline

Timing

Title Card

Title Sequence

Tweening

V

Vector graphics

Visemes

Voice acting

W

Walk cycle

WebM File Format

Weighting

Z

Z-depth

Icon for Brush Ninja Brush Ninja Make Animated Gifs
Icon for Code Ninja Code Ninja Make Art with Code
Icon for Emoji Art Emoji Art Make Emoji Art
Icon for Photo Collage Photo Collage Make Photo Collages
Icon for Comic Maker Comic Maker Make Comics