 Rotation about Arbitrary Axis

• This is similar to 2D rotation about an arbitrary

point. The general procedure is as follows:
Steps:
1. Perform transformations which align rotation
axis with one of coordinate axis (x, y, z)
2. Perform rotation about the axis
3. Do inverse of (1)
Steps:
1. Translate the axis(line) to coincide with the
axis to which it is parallel
2. Rotate the object by required angle.
3. Translate the object back to its original
position
Make the arbitrary axis coincide with one of the
coordinate axes.
Consider an arbitrary axis passing through a point
(x0, y0 ,z0)
Procedure:
1. Translate (x0, y0 ,z0) so that the point is at
origin
2. Make appropriate rotations to make the line
coincide with one of the axes, say z-axis
3. Rotate the object about z-axis by required
angle
4. Apply the inverse of step 2
5. Apply the inverse of step 1
 The rotation axis id defined with two
coordinate points P1 and P2 and unit
vector u is defined along the rotation of
the axis as
 The overall transformation matrix for
rotation about an arbitrary axis then can
be expressed as the concatenation of five
individual transformations:

where
 There are two possible orientations for a
cartesian screen reference system.
A) Standard coordinate orientation with the
coordinate origin at the lower left corner of the
screen.
B) Standard coordinate orientation with the
coordinate origin at the upper left corner of the
screen.
 x
y o

o x y

A) B)
 Thereare two types of three dimensional
reference system according to the
orientation for the coordinate axes:
• Right Handed system.
• Left handed system.
 Curlthe fingers of your right hand
around the z-axis in the direction of a 90°
counterclockwise rotation from the positive
x-axis to the positive y-axis.

• Then, your thumb

points in the positive
direction of the z-axis.
The three coordinate axes determine
the three coordinate planes.
• The xy-plane contains
the x- and y-axes.
• The yz-plane contains
the y- and z-axes.
• The xz-plane contains
the x- and z-axes.
These three coordinate planes divide
space into eight parts, called octants.

• The first octant,

in the foreground,
is determined by
the positive axes.
 Many people have some difficulty
visualizing diagrams of 3-D figures.

 Thus, youmay find it helpful to do

the following.
Look at any bottom corner of a room
and call the corner the origin.
 The x-axis runs along the intersection
of the floor and the left wall.
 The y-axis runs along that of the floor
and the right wall.
 The z-axis runs up from the floor toward
the ceiling along the intersection of the
two walls.
 You are situated in the first octant.
 You can now imagine seven other rooms
situated in the other seven octants.

• There are three on

the same floor and
four on the floor below.
• They are all connected
by the common corner
point O.
Now, if P is any point in space,
let:

• a be the (directed) distance from the yz-plane to P.

• b be the distance from the xz-plane to P.

• c be the distance from the xy-plane to P.

 We represent the point P by the ordered
triple of real numbers (a, b, c).

 We call a, b, and c the coordinates of P.

• a is the x-coordinate.
• b is the y-coordinate.
• c is the z-coordinate.
 Thus, to locate the point (a, b, c), we can
start at the origin O and proceed as follows:

• First, move a units along the x-axis.

• Then, move b units

parallel to the y-axis.

• Finally, move c units

parallel to the z-axis.
The point P(a, b, c) determines a
rectangular box.
