Art 172 > Foundations of Computer Graphics Animation > Terminology Page

Rotate

Rotate an object around its pivot point on any of the three axes in 3D space. Measurement is in degrees, clockwise rotations are positive.

Scale

Enlarge or shrink an object along any of three axes in 3D space. Proportional scaling requires scaling by the same amount in all dimensions. Scaling is measured as a multiplying factor of the original dimensions of an object. An object which initially is 12 mm tall, scaled by 0.5, will be 6 mm tall. Scaled by 2.5, the same object would be 30 mm tall.

Translate

Move an object forward or backward along any of three axes in 3D space. Movements are expressed in either positive or negative numbers depending on the direction relative to the origin of the scene or the pivot of the group an object is in.

Origin

Each scene has a world origin where all three vectors, x, y and z , intersect and have the value 0.

Pivot

The pivot is the local origin of an object, defining the convergence of all three axes and the point around which an object rotates