An Elegant Intuitive Algorithm for Rotation about a Mobile Axis

Rotation Transformation is the backbone of visualization of 3D objects. Rotation transformations allow viewing objects from different angles. Rotations about the principal axes are straightforward whereas the rotation about an arbitrary axis is complex. In mobile environment, rotations is computed continuously as the objects move and is thus a costly operation. We give intuitive, constructive, and simpler than the existing methods for creating rotation transformation about mobile axis. It builds upon the intrinsic property of rotation about an arbitrary axis, not the angles the axis makes with the principal axes. We compare it with the existing proofs. Finally, we give an example by interactively creating an axis, and 3D object created by rotation of a mouse drawn polygonal curve. We hope that the application developers and practitioners will find it useful.