| Term | Definition |
| Coordinate System | It is the basis for defining and locating in space all objects in a computer graphics scene. It has an origin and some axes emanating from such origin. The axes are usually oriented at right angles to one another. |
| Cartesian Coordinate system | A system where a point is located in space by a set of three coordinates representing the distance along three perpendicular axis labeled X, Y, Z. |
| World (Global) Coordinates | The space in which objects are described |
| Local Coordinate System | It is used to define the geometry of an object independent of the global system |
| View Coordinate system | It locates objects in 3D space relative to the location of the observer |
| Normalized Device Coordinate (NDC) | For the purpose of a standard approach to all graphics equipment, the notion of NDC has been invented, so graphics patterns can be discussed using a standard coordinate system (range from -1 to 1 or from 0 to 1) independent of any particular graphics device. |
| Homogeneous Coordinates | The representation of n component vector by (n+1) component vector is called homogeneous coordinates (e.g. P(x,y)=P(x,y,1)) |
| Term | Definition |
| Vector | In computer graphics, a vector is just a fancy math term for a direction and a length. "Two miles east" is an example of a vector. A vector is also sometimes said to describe a displacement. A displacement is just a distance traveled in a particular direction. |
| Unit vector | A vector of length, or magnitude, 1 |
| Dot Product | A mathematical operation of two vectors that produces a scalar |
| Point | It is just a dot. In CG the smallest thing we can draw directly is a pixel. A point is often drawn as one pixel, but we might also use a small clump of pixels |
| Polygon | Is a bunch of line segments connected end to end in a closed loop |
| 2D | Stands for two-dimensional. Two-dimensional objects are always flat because they have only two dimensions: width and height |
| 3D | Stands for three-dimensional. Three-dimensional objects exist in a volume and have dimensions of width, height, and depth. For example, a rectangle drawn on a piece of paper is 2D, whereas a cardboard box is 3D |
| X-Axis | The horizontal axis which represents width. |
| Term | Definition |
| Y-Axis | The vertical axis which represents height. |
| Z-Axis | The axis which represents depth |