3D models are one of the essential building blocks of 3D computer graphics. Without them, there would be no computer animation, no "Toy Story," no "Wall-E," no big green ogre. There would also be no 3D gaming, and car commercials wouldn't look as great as they do now.
Autodesk Maya – Object Components (Vertices, Edges, Polygons)
Every object, character, and environment in any computer-animated film or 3D video game is made up of 3D models. In this guide, we’ll cover the major components of a 3D model, explaining faces, edges, vertices, and more.
A 3D model is a mathematical representation of any three-dimensional object (real or imagined) in a 3D software environment. Unlike a 2D image, 3D models can be viewed from any angle in specialized software suites, where they can be scaled, rotated, or freely modified.
There are two primary types of 3D models used in the film and gaming industries. The most obvious difference between them is the way they are created and manipulated (there are also differences in the underlying mathematics, but that is less important to the end user).
