We Don’t Really Need Quaternions in Geometric Modeling, Computer Graphics and Animation: Here Is Why

Fuhua Cheng; T. Lee Johnson; Anastasia Kazadi; Ethan G. Toney; Jonathan I. Watson; Alice J. Lin

doi:10.14733/cadaps.2023.1061-1073

We Don’t Really Need Quaternions in Geometric Modeling, Computer Graphics and Animation: Here Is Why

Fuhua Cheng, T. Lee Johnson, Anastasia Kazadi, Ethan G. Toney, Jonathan I. Watson, Alice J. Lin

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

It has long been believed that quaternions are more efficient to use for 3D rotations than ordinary rotation approach. It is also commonly believed that the geometric meaning of quaternions is more obvious. One can also easily recover rotation axis and rotation angle from the representation of a rotation quaternion. In this paper we present important features of ordinary rotation that are critical in judging which technique should be used in a particular application. We show that everything quaternion rotation can do, ordinary rotation can do as well and, actually, more efficiently, including interpolation of rotations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	1061-1073
Number of pages	13
Journal	Computer-Aided Design and Applications
Volume	20
Issue number	6
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.14733/cadaps.2023.1061-1073
State	Published - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 CAD Solutions, LLC.

Funding

author is supported by the National Science Foundation of China Research work of the first author is supported by the National Science Foundation of China (61572020).

Funders	Funder number
National Natural Science Foundation of P.R. China	61572020

Keywords

Computer Animation
Computer Graphics
Quaternion
Rotation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Computational Mechanics
Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design
Computational Mathematics

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10.14733/cadaps.2023.1061-1073

Cite this

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abstract = "It has long been believed that quaternions are more efficient to use for 3D rotations than ordinary rotation approach. It is also commonly believed that the geometric meaning of quaternions is more obvious. One can also easily recover rotation axis and rotation angle from the representation of a rotation quaternion. In this paper we present important features of ordinary rotation that are critical in judging which technique should be used in a particular application. We show that everything quaternion rotation can do, ordinary rotation can do as well and, actually, more efficiently, including interpolation of rotations.",

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doi = "10.14733/cadaps.2023.1061-1073",

language = "English",

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AU - Cheng, Fuhua

AU - Johnson, T. Lee

AU - Kazadi, Anastasia

AU - Toney, Ethan G.

AU - Watson, Jonathan I.

AU - Lin, Alice J.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - It has long been believed that quaternions are more efficient to use for 3D rotations than ordinary rotation approach. It is also commonly believed that the geometric meaning of quaternions is more obvious. One can also easily recover rotation axis and rotation angle from the representation of a rotation quaternion. In this paper we present important features of ordinary rotation that are critical in judging which technique should be used in a particular application. We show that everything quaternion rotation can do, ordinary rotation can do as well and, actually, more efficiently, including interpolation of rotations.

AB - It has long been believed that quaternions are more efficient to use for 3D rotations than ordinary rotation approach. It is also commonly believed that the geometric meaning of quaternions is more obvious. One can also easily recover rotation axis and rotation angle from the representation of a rotation quaternion. In this paper we present important features of ordinary rotation that are critical in judging which technique should be used in a particular application. We show that everything quaternion rotation can do, ordinary rotation can do as well and, actually, more efficiently, including interpolation of rotations.

KW - Computer Animation

KW - Computer Graphics

KW - Quaternion

KW - Rotation

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We Don’t Really Need Quaternions in Geometric Modeling, Computer Graphics and Animation: Here Is Why

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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