I'm always seeing the word "node" in animation. Like, rendering "nodes" and "node-based" interface and so on. Can anyone explain in logic what is a "node"?
A node is an isolated individual something that constitutes a part of a larger system. One computer in a network is a node, one 'box' in a material editor is a node, and so on.
Node can mean a few different things. Maya, UDK, and Softimage all have node based material editors. Instead of writing or programing materials/shaders, you get these nodes or simple operations and controls you can mix and combine to make a complex material. I've also seen node based procedural texture generation and node…
i dunno... i would more describe a node as like... a bundle of information. using udk's material editor as an example, the multiply node seems like a really simple thing, it just means "multiply" right? but inside that node, there's likely a couple of lines of code. it's just simplified down so the end user doesn't have to…
Isn't it likely that the node systems in our computer applications are using the same terminology as graphs in mathematics, because of its fundamental design? There are paths/flows of information coming and going from/to difference nodes (vertices). I'm pretty sure the same terminology is used in things like subways,…
Yeah, they also use it within networking and computers and a node can be anything from a computer to a whole local network on a larger network. It really depends on it's context.
In most cases the term is used when you have a graph epresentation of something, like an animation or material graph. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Node_(graph_theory) Of course the term can be used even more generally than that as mentioned by others. Can't think of any right now that is not part of a graph. Maybe someone…
It's a general-purpose word that's useful and common just because it's so generic. In CG/games (and in most computer science) large, complex things are built out of smaller, less complex things. It's helpful to figure out ways to describe the organization of how these things work together to comprise the sum of their…