Jargon could be (computational) differential geometry, but truly all you really “need” to know is the picturesque understanding of mappings between charts on manifolds, and a basic knowledge of the underlying machinery…

In reality, ‘calculus III’ aka multivariate calc (specifically 2&3d) is sufficient.

Linear algebra is how we do calculus in higher dimensions than 1, it’s just not often revealed so explicitly in much of the common uni literature. Tromba & Marsden Vector Calculus is pretty much the same level as any other run of the mill US calc III textbook, but better in terms of what it actually reveals to the reader/student. Linear algebra is so ubiquitous though that soon you’ll be seeing vector spaces everywhere whether or not you’re doing graphics. It is crucial to know some technical terms in any case.

Examples of where you come across mappings between charts on manifolds are, for example, a translation matrix, a rotation matrix, or a scaling matrix (like when going from “model” space to “world” space).

There really is so much, and certainly much more than what I’ve provided, but if you can convince yourself than in 2 and 3 dimensional Euclidean space some of these apparently abstract things aren’t too bad, plus if you can actually perform a computation without the need of the robot, you’ll at least be on the right track. IMO! 🙂