Cinector Glossary

Chroma Keying? Headlight? FPS? With this glossary, we would like to provide you with a small lexicon that explains the most important terms relating to the Cinector STAGE software and the areas of virtual production and 3D animation in a brief and easy-to-understand manner.

A B C D E F G H I K L M O P R S T V W

A

Advanced Mode

A working mode in the Cinector STAGE software that makes an additional selection of tools and options available. The advanced mode allows you to adapt existing templates as well as create your own templates and animate them freely.

Animation

Animation is a technique or process that gives movement to an inanimate object in cinematic sequences. An animation is created from the sequence of several individual images. From approx. 24 frames per second, a moving and fluid image is created for the viewer. 

Aspect Ratio

The ratio between the width and height of an image or screen. The following ratios are common in film and television productions: 16:9, 4:3, 3:2.

Asset

Assets are visual, sometimes also acoustic elements in a virtual production or 3D scene, such as objects, lighting, audio elements and much more.

Audio Delay

Every camera and every microphone sometimes has a slight delay in its data stream, which can vary from device to device. Thus, there may be an offset between image and sound in a played-out video (see also latency), which manifests itself, for example, in a lack of lip sync. The audio delay settings in the Cinector STAGE software determine by how many milliseconds the sound from the microphone should be delayed so that picture and sound are synchronised in the finished video. 

B

Background Calibration

With this function, the Cinector STAGE software determines the exact colour value of the background (greenscreen) that it is to remove later. During calibration, there must be no persons or objects in the picture, as this influences the determination of the colour value.

Bug

A bug is a software or programme error that causes the programme to behave incorrectly. If bugs are corrected by a subsequent update, this is referred to as bugfix or bugfixing.

C

Camera Adapter

See Capture-Card.

Caption

A caption is an insert in a video that provides information in the context of the video and the image content shown. In interview situations or when a person is shown, for example, this includes name, position and company. The belly band is usually displayed in the form of a strip in the lower third of the image.

Capture Card

Also called a video grabber and refers to a camera adapter that converts the HDMI signal of the camera into a USB signal. A capture card is connected between the camera and the laptop or computer.

Chroma Keying

Technical term from the film industry and video technology that can be translated as “colour-based image cropping”. Chroma keying is a popular method for cropping picture elements such as people, moving or stationary objects against a background. The background is based on a uniform key colour, which is usually green, blue or magenta.

Cinector

Coinage from Cinema and Director.

Content Creation

Content creation refers to the creation of multimedia content, e.g. in the form of videos or graphics.

Colour Fade

The colour fade is a filmic design option for a smooth scene transition. Between two scenes, the colour fades to a uniform colour for a fraction of a second. The method conceals a hard cut that would cause a noticeable image jump, especially in interview situations (or other scenes with people in the frame).

CPJ (Cinector Project Data)

File format of exported projects from Cinector STAGE for data exchange.

Chapter

An animated template in a Cinector STAGE project. A chapter usually consists of several pages.

D

Dau

An abbreviation from computer technology and software development that jokingly refers to the dumbest possible user. The user behaviour of a DAU plays a role especially in the development of user-friendly software features or workflows.

E

Easy Mode

One of the two working modes in the Cinector STAGE software. The simple mode allows you to work with a reduced user interface and limited functions. The focus is on the quick compilation, arrangement and filling of 3D scenes in a modular system. It is therefore particularly suitable for beginners and users.

Extended Reality (XR)

An umbrella term for Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) and all the similar, realities that these technologies bring.

F

FBX

File format for storing, transferring and visualising 3D models.

FPS

The abbreviation FPS stands for “frames per second”. The FPS value indicates how many images are displayed per second and how smoothly the moving image is perceived by the viewer. From approx. 24 frames per second, the viewer perceives a moving and fluid image.

G

Gizmo

The English placeholder word (“thing” or “dingens“) refers in the Cinector STAGE software to a useful auxiliary tool that allows you to touch, rotate, move or scale objects in space.

Green Screen

A solid and uniform green surface in production studios for colour-based image release. See also chroma keying.

Grid

The term grid refers to a grid or a lattice. In the Cinector STAGE software, the grid is an auxiliary grid that helps with the placement of elements such as images or 3D models in advanced mode.

H

Hardware-Encoding

Hardware encoding is a process in which a large part of the complex calculations for video creation are outsourced to special chips on the graphics card. Many graphics cards, such as the NVIDIA GeForce series, support this process. Hardware encoding ensures stability when playing out a video from Cinector STAGE.

Headlight

The headlight serves to better illuminate the green screen. The light from the headlight falls on the person to be illuminated from above and from behind, making them stand out more clearly from the background (green screen). In addition, the light simulates a natural incidence of light, such as sunlight or room lighting, and later provides a more realistic look in the virtual scene.

I

Installer

A programme that executes the installation of a software or application.

K

Keying

See Chroma Keying.

L

Latency

Latency is when there is a delay between sound and picture so that they are not perceived as synchronous. The delay occurs between a signal being sent, passing through all the devices involved in the signal flow and being received at its destination.

Launcher

The launcher window of the Cinector STAGE software. In the launcher you can log in with your login data and download and install updates of the software.

M

Moiré Effect

When wearing small-checked, narrow-striped or other linearly patterned clothing, depending on the type of camera and resolution, an undesired overlapping of texture patterns can occur (so-called moiré effect). For the viewer, this results in an unpleasant flickering in the final shot. 

O

One-Shot Production

A one-shot production is a filming technique in which all scenes are filmed in just one take. Cinector STAGE also follows the approach of a one-shot production, in which the conception of the video takes place in preparation and no post-processing, such as cutting or dubbing, is necessary. Useful auxiliary functions, such as a rewind function or a teleprompter, help the user to record in one go.

OBJ

File format for storing, transferring and visualising 3D models.

P

Page

A page represents different states of objects in the Cinector STAGE software. Differences between pages, such as the orientation of the camera or the size and position of objects, are automatically animated. Pages can be grouped into chapters.

Plug & Play

A computer-technical term that means something like “plug in and go”.

Post-Production

All post-production of video material, e.g. in the form of cutting, dubbing, adding effects and much more.

Prefab

Chapter template in the Cinector STAGE software.

Presenter

Remote control for keyboardless control of a presentation, e.g. Cinector STAGE or PowerPoint, typically via Bluetooth connection and USB.

R

Rendering

The digital process of creating an image or video content based on 2D, 3D and lighting information. The process can take several minutes or even hours to create each image. Real-time rendering is the term used when the process occurs at real-time speed, e.g. 24, 30 or 60 frames per second.

Render Priority

If 2D objects overlap or overlap in three-dimensional space (which is physically impossible), the computer must determine an order in which the objects are rendered. By moving objects to the foreground or background, the user sets the render priority, i.e. the display priority for the computer.

S

Self-Illuminating

A setting that gives 2D objects, such as images, a radiance so that they stand out from their surroundings.

Setup Wizard

The Cinector STAGE setup wizard guides the user through the configuration of the camera, microphone, interface and language when the programme is started for the first time.

Skip-Back Function

A function in the Cinector STAGE software that enables the correction of slips of the tongue during the live recording of a video. A chapter is recorded again without starting the entire recording from the beginning. The software automatically cuts out slips of the tongue during the recording and conceals the cut with a colour fade.

T

Teleprompter

An auxiliary function in the Cinector STAGE software that enables the moderator to read a speaker’s text during the video recording. This gives the viewers the impression of constant eye contact and free speech in the finished video.

Theme

In the Cinector STAGE software, the 3D environment in which the user creates and edits his project is called a theme.

Timeline

The timeline is the timeline of a project. It shows all chapters of a project in their chronological order.

Two-Phase Recording

The two-phase recording function of the Cinector STAGE software makes it possible to play out a high-quality video even on less powerful computers. If the function is activated, the video file is not written in real time but in a later step.

V

Video Grabber

See Capture-Card.

Virtual Production

A virtual production uses technology to connect the digital world with the physical world in real time. In this process, real film recordings (e.g. of a speaker or presenter) merge with virtual scenes.

W

White Balance

White balance is used to adjust the camera image to the colour temperature of the light at the shooting location. In the process, the camera is given which measured values correspond to neutral white.

White Screen

See colour blend.

WYSIWYG

The abbreviation WYSIWYG stands for “What You See Is What You Get” and refers to a real-time display. This means in a software or a programme, all changes and adjustments can be followed by means of live preview and in real time during editing.

Communication that delivers.

We show you how to set new standards in corporate communication with Cinector STAGE.