Shading refers to the depiction of depth perception in 3D models or illustrations by varying the level of darkness. Shading tries to approximate local behavior of light on the object's surface and is not to be confused with techniques of adding shadows, such as shadow mapping or shadow volumes, which fall under global behavior of light.
Two boxes rendered with OpenGL (Note that the color of the two front faces is the same even though one is farther away.)
The same model rendered using ARRIS CAD, which implements distance falloff to make surfaces that are closer to the eye brighter
Flat shading a textured cuboid
3D computer graphics, sometimes called CGI, 3-D-CGI or three-dimensional computer graphics, are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering digital images, usually 2D images but sometimes 3D images. The resulting images may be stored for viewing later or displayed in real time.
A 3-D rendering with ray tracing and ambient occlusion using Blender and YafaRay
A 3-D model of a Dunkerque-class battleship rendered with flat shading
During the 3-D rendering step, the number of reflections "light rays" can take, as well as various other attributes, can be tailored to achieve a desired visual effect. Rendered with Cobalt.
A 3-D rendering of a penthouse
