2. Common Terminology

• Rendering: the entire process of drawing an image to the screen

• Vertex: a single 3D point (x, y, z)

• Face: Most often 3 vertices forming a triangle

• Transformations: moving one or more vertices in 3D space

• Translate: moving vertices along the x, y or z axis

• Rotate: revolving vertices around the x, y or z axis

• Scale: increasing/decreasing the distance of vertices from their center

• Modeling Matrix: mathematical structure for holding transformations

• View Matrix: another matrix for an observer's eye (or camera)

• Projection matrix: matrix for getting 3D scene projected into a small one-unit cube

• Rasterization: the final phase of rendering -- painting actual pixels on the screen