S-T-U

S

Save Buddles: A misprint in a DAZ promo email (for "save bundles") that was turned into a righteously angry freedom campaign by the combined sarcasm of DAZ forumites (see "forumites").-(contributed by AJ Savill)
Scalar: A magnitude without direction, unlike a vector.
Also a quantity used to multiply vectors in the context of vector spaces. -(contributed by fixmypcmike and Khory_D)
Scanline Rendering: Rendering technique, or family of algorithms, that renders a scene one row of pixels (or scanline) at a time. It works on a row-by-row basis rather than a polygon-by-polygon or pixel-by-pixel basis.
Second Skin: 1- Usually a secondary texture layer or modification of the material zones of a figure done to produce the impression of "skin tight" clothing. Through proper use of transparency and displacement maps one can achieve a very convincing effect. Poor planning may just result in the figure looking as though they had a really big, poorly chosen tattoo.
2- That layer of funk which builds up on individuals who are opposed to proper bathing and reasonable personal hygiene. In some cases it has been known to build up to several layers/inches deep at which point it may detach (referred to as "Funk Budding") in large chunks, which will then scurry away and form new funk colonies. In some cases these colonies will morph themselves into a duplicate of the individual they budded from (also known as "Funk Buddies") and attempt to steal their identity. Up to 2% of identity theft cases are a result of second skin funk budding.
Seamless Tile: A texturing method in which an image(such as a JPEG of a rusty metal surface)which has been edited (using image editing software such as GIMP or Photoshop), so as to produce a version of the image where if one where to take a copy of it and place it alongside of another copy, one would not be able to tell where one(tile) began and the other ended. One simple example of this would be using an image of a small section of a brick wall to "tile" an entire brick structure. Often used in video games this process offers a quicker method of texturing a simple model.
Shade: is a 3D modeling, rendering and animation software program developed by E Frontier Japan and published by Mirye Software.Shade was first published in Japan in the late 1980s, making it one of the oldest 3D applications on Mac OS and Windows. E Frontier, a Japanese software company acquired Shade from its previous owner ExpressionTools in the late 1990s. E Frontier later acquired Curious Labs, the developer of Poser and marketed Shade through a subsidiary E Frontier America. E Frontier America sold its directly owned assets to Smith Micro.
Shader: A computer program used to determine the final surface properties of an object or image. This often includes arbitrarily complex descriptions of light absorption, diffusion, texture mapping, reflection, refraction, shadowing, surface displacement and post-processing effects. In real-time shading languages there are two different applications of shaders: vertex shaders and pixel shaders.
Shading ("Shader" or "shading algorithm"): The mathematical process of calculating how a model’s surfaces react to light. A variety of alternative algorithms can be used for the task, including Phong, Lambert, and Blinn shading models. Shaders are often built up as node-based shading trees, with each node controlling a specific aspect of the process.
A high-level rendering algorithm that determines how a 3D model responds to simulated light. Sometimes called a “shader.” Strictly speaking, a shader or shading algorithm is a piece of computer code that is part of a material definition. For example, the Blinn shading algorithm generically describes how highlights appear on surfaces. However, many 3D graphic artists use the term “shader” to refer to an entire material definition, including all of its component parts such as bitmaps.
Shader Window: (in Poser) an interface found in the material room where new custom materials can be created.
Shareware: Copyrighted software that is available on a free trial basis. After the trial period, users are expected to register the program and pay a fee to the developer. To enforce this, some programs are partially disabled, stop working after a set period of time, or contain "nag screens" that pop up frequently to encourage users to register. Registered users get a full-featured version of the program, documentation, or free updates. Shareware is available from several sources, including Web sites, centralized archives on the Internet, and local bulletin board systems. Shareware that doesn't involve a fee is called freeware. Software that is free of copyright, as well as free to users, is called public domain software.
Silo: A polygon/subdivision surfaces 3D modeling application created by Nevercenter. It has a focus on quick editing, a customizable interface , and a flexible workflow.
SketchUp: is a 3D modeling program marketed by Google and designed for architectural, civil, and mechanical engineers as well as filmmakers, game developers, and related professions.
Smart object: (in Poser) An object or prop that is parented to another object in the scene. Often referred to as a "Smart prop"as well.
Smoothing: A rendering algorithm which creates smooth-looking surfaces from mesh objects. Without smoothing, all polygonal objects would have a faceted appearance. Also known as edge smoothing or face smoothing. Smoothing is accomplished through the rotation of vertex normals.
Specular: Specular refers to the perfect, mirror-like reflection of light (or sometimes other kinds of wave) from a surface, in which light from a single incoming direction (a ray) is reflected into a single outgoing direction. Such behavior is described by the law of reflection, which states that the direction of incoming light (the incident ray), and the direction of outgoing light reflected (the reflected ray) make the same angle with respect to the surface normal, thus the angle of incidence equals the angle of reflection; this is commonly stated as θi = θr. This is in contrast to diffuse reflection, where incoming light is reflected in a broad range of directions. The most familiar example of the distinction between specular and diffuse reflection would be glossy and matte paints. While both exhibit a combination of specular and diffuse reflection, matte paints have a higher proportion of diffuse reflection and glossy paints have a greater proportion of specular reflection. Very highly polished surfaces, such as high quality mirrors, can exhibit almost perfect specular reflection.

Specularity: A surface property of an object that determines the way in which highlights appear on that surface.
Spline: Piecewise parametric polynomial curve. Splines are a representation of curves that are often used to approximate complex shapes through curve fitting and interactive curve design.
Spotlight: Spotlight is a light with both location and direction. A spotlight sends out a cone of light defined by the spotlight angle, and illuminates only objects within that cone. Spotlights also have attenuation, as well as a parameter that controls whether the spot of light is sharply defined or has smooth edges. These 4 types of lights are listed in order of computational complexity; the more lights you have the more work the computer has to do.
SreeD: In Poser an option used to enable software rendering that,although slower than the OpenGL option,produces higher quality previews.
STUDIOSTART: A cryptic Couponic offer of "97% off one of seven bundles - Not combinable with other offers"... legend has it this was the original riddle posed by the Sphinx. It is said that when Oedipus correctly named the 7 bundles the Sphinx committed suicide, throwing herself from a high rock. Brave Oedipus rescued the Bundles from the dying Sphinx and hid them amongst other bundles here:
http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/daz-3d-bundles?cat=614&startitem=0&_m=d
It is believed 5 of the original 7 were: Millennium Horse Bundle, Dinosaur Bundle, Fantasy Creature Bundle,Modern Apartment Bundle and Sci Fi Sets and Vehicles. It is not clear as to what the other two are or whether there are now more....
Subdividing: Is used to add more geometry to a mesh. It creates new vertices on subdivided edges, new edges between subdivisions and new faces based on new edges. If new edges cross a new vertex is created on their crossing point.
Subdivision: Subdivision Surface is a tool or command which subdivides your model.
A common subdivision algorithm smooths out curves, and allows you to make complicated smooth surfaces (eg people, plants, etc) with very few faces.
Sub Surface Scattering (SSS): Sub Surface Scattering is a mechanism of light transport in which light penetrates the surface of a translucent object, is scattered by interacting with the material, and exits the surface at a different point. All non-metallic materials are translucent to some degree. In particular, materials such as marble, skin, and milk are extremely difficult to simulate realistically without taking subsurface scattering into account.
2-The effect of light penetrating a surface and illuminating the inner layers. Very important to consider when simulating realistic skin and most other organic materials.
Subdivision Surface: Also known as Sub-Ds, subdivision surfaces are surfaces created using a technique midway between polygon and NURBS modelling. They consist of an underlying polygonal base mesh, which is automatically subdivided by the software to create a smoothed final form. Sub-Ds combine much of the power of NURBS surfaces with the intuitive characteristics and ease of use of polygonal modelling tools.
Supersampling: An antialiasing algorithm which internally renders at high resolution, then averages pixel values for a lower resolution output. Significantly improves some textures at the expense of longer render times. Also known as oversampling.
Surface of Revolution: A modeling technique which creates radially symmetrical 3D objects by revolving a spline around an axis. Commonly employed to create objects such as bottles. Also known as a lathe.

T

Tessellation: The process of converting geometry into a set of polygons and accompanying information such as color, translucency, texture, etc.
Texture mapping: The process of assigning (mapping) an image (texture) to a 3D surface. This allows a complicated colouring of the surface without requiring additional polygons to represent minute details.
Texel (texture element): Similar to a pixel, which is the base unit of a graphic, a texel is the base unit of the textured portion of a graphic. Computer graphics use a technique called texture mapping to apply a 2D surface to a 3D object. Texels are the elements that make up the texture map.
Texel Density: -(contributed by Valendar) Texel refers to one pixel on a texture map.
The amount of a 3D object's surface actually covered by one pixel of a texture map of a given dimension, often in proportion to the rest of the scene. An object whose texture map is 1024x1024 has one fourth the texel density of the same object with a texture map at 2048x2048 (four times the number of pixels in the map). A poorly mapped object with lots of white, empty space will have a much lower texel density than a more properly mapped object, assuming same dimensions on the textures. And an elephant with a 1024x1024 texture map will have a much lower texel density than a mouse with a 1024x1024 texture map, assuming both mouse and elephant are in proportion to each other. If two objects in a scene have radically different texel densities, the one with the lower density can look pretty bad, even if it would look decent on its own.
Alternatively, this can also be used to refer to the size of the texture density combined with the final render size. As an example, one notorious example in the game industry was a texture sheet turned in for an arrow in one unnamed video game. For an object that would have been on-screen less than a few frames at a time, and little more than three to five pixels wide at the largest, the artist turned in a 2048x2048 highly detailed texture map. By comparison, most of the character models in that game had only either a 256x256 or a 512x512 map. A map far too large for what would be displayed on the screen (like the arrow, above) wastes considerable resources, while a map too small (trying to use, say, 256x256 maps on V4 for a face closeup) can result in horrible quality and blurred details.-(contributed by Valendar)

The Millennium Cube: An April Fools day forum notification: "Ultimate Morphing Hi-Res Millennium Cube ps_af001", released into the wilds of DAZdom in 2003, AFAIK, followed up by an expansion pack
http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=3746&start=0&sid=7f4704a14182ed001447f2106738ba63
in '04.-(contributed by ajsavill)

Tiling: The process of duplicating a texture across the surface of an object. Tiling textures must be created so that the edge of one aligns perfectly with that of its neighbour, otherwise the result is a series of ugly seams. High- frequency textures are those in which patterns repeat at short intervals over an object’s surface; low-frequency textures are those in which the intervals are larger.
Tri: A face (polygon) made of Three edges.

Triangulated Irregular Network: A surface comprised of triangles, each derived from irregularly spaced points.
TrueSpace: (styled as trueSpace) is a freeware 3D computer graphics and animation software developed by Caligari Corporation, bought-out by Microsoft. As of May 2009, it has been officially discontinued, but with some 'unofficial support' up to February 2010, at least.
Tone mapping: A technique used to approximate the appearance of high dynamic range images in media with a more limited dynamic range. Print-outs, CRT or LCD monitors, and projectors all have a very limited dynamic range.
Essentially, tone mapping addresses the problem of strong contrast reduction from the scene values (radiance) to the displayable range while preserving the image details and color appearance important to appreciate the original scene content.
Toast: Euphemism for male reproductive organs. Not everyone knows that this word inspired the very lovely Channing to create a freebie "toast" prop,
http://www.sharecg.com/v/29945/Poser/Channings---Toast-and-Jam-with-TC-textures
which is, confusingly, actually a piece of toast.-(contributed by ajsavill)
Probable origin:Blame Ikyoto (that's always a good place to start anyway). He made a comment about Michael 4 including a toaster when people were discussing what was going to be included with the figure and some people extrapolated to the idea of toast = genitals.-(contributed by Richard Haseltine)
Translucent: Translucent materials allow light to pass through them only diffusely,they cannot be seen through; contrary to popular belief, translucency does not include see-through colored objects.
Transform: The mathematical reassignment of points to new locations. It's the abbreviated form of transformation. The three transforms are position (aka translation), rotation, and scale. These transforms control the location and orientation of objects in 3D graphics applications.
Triangulation: The process of converting polygons with more than three points into groups of triangles for rendering purposes.
Trimangulated: The result of a mesh being mangled upon export or import by evil vertice gnomes and bad CGI mojo. Used in a sentence- Oh GDFS! My model got trimangulated!! I hate (insert application name)!!!
Trilinear Texture Filtering: Like its less sophisticated cousin, bilinear texture filtering, trilinear filtering is a complex technique used by 3D graphics cards to make movement through rendered landscapes realistic even in fast-moving games.

U

UCS: User Coordinate System.

Unflatable (var. unflateable) Pony: A dummy product put up briefly by DAZ staffers in July 08 for testing new web sales features. It was priced at a very reasonable $1000 (Platinium Club: $490). This was seemingly followed by an upgrade, Unflatable Pony II,The cause of much merriment and a number of threads demanding the unflatable creature's release, add-on requests and some really rather good jokes.
http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=1705620&sid=9930bdc3d6b4c8bc4724ee4e2b37d826
-(contributed by ajsavill)

UPS: "Uninterruptible Power Supply." or "United Parcel Service". Take your pick.
URL: "Uniform Resource Locator."

UV Mapping: This refers to the process of re-parameterize a 3D object with dimensions X, Y and Z into a 2D plane with coordinates U and V. Most texturing requires this step because it tells the program HOW to apply a 2D image map onto a 3D object.
UV Texture Co-ordinates: The co-ordinate system used for assigning textures to polygonal models. Since UV co-ordinate space is two-dimensional, one of several projection methods must be used to ‘unwrap’ the UVs from the model and lay them flat on a plane. Once unwrapped, the UV map may be screengrabbed and exported to a paint package for texture painting.