P

PAL: Stands for Phase Alternating Line —a standard for color television used in many European, African, and Asian countries.

PAL is defined by the frame size, a frame rate of 25 fps, as well as by the frame aspect ratio and pixel aspect ratio. Although there are various divisions within the PAL standard format which determine what frame size is used and what pixel and frame aspect ratios are used, the standard PAL video signal format sets the video to playback at 25 frames per second which contain 625 lines of pixels in each frame.
parameter: See property .
parent: A model or element that has been made the parent of another. For example, in the hierarchical structure, Marker1 is the child and Marker2 is the parent.

See also hierarchy and child .
parenting: The act of making one model or element the parent of another.
partial occlusion: A problem with optical motion data that often occurs if a sensor on a performer’s body has been placed too close to another sensor, or the sensor becomes partially hidden from one of the cameras during the capture session. The resulting data may display peaks, shifts, or noise.
patch: A type of tesselation, something to do with a model’s surface.
Phase Alternating Line (PAL): See PAL .
pitch: A rotation based on the movement up or down the Y-axis. For example an airplane banking up or down.
pivot: The point from which a selected object is transformed.

See also Auxiliary pivot .
pole vector: A part of an IK rotate plane handle that begins at the start joint, and along with the handle vector defines the IK handle’s reference plane.

The pole vector changes the orientation of the reference plane, so you can change the orientation of the joint chain directly. This is because the joint chain’s degree of orientation, or twist, is defined as the difference in orientation between the reference plane and the joint chain plane.

Also known as “up-vector” in other software packages.
pose: A snapshot in time of a selected character or object’s position.
property: Also referred to as an attribute or parameter, a value that quantifies a specific characteristic of an object, and can be animated. For example, the fog intensity of a light is a property.