Part 3 – Essential Transformations

In this part, you will learn how to manipulate graphical elements primarily through translation, rotation, and scaling. This content makes use of the knowledge obtained in Part 2, Essential Trigonometry, by applying vector and triangle mathematics to solve the problem of moving, scaling, and rotating objects in a 3D environment. Of most importance to your success as a graphics programmer is the thorough examination of matrices and quaternions that will explain why graphics and game engines always work with 4D values. In addition, the perplexing set of coordinate spaces that are a large part of transforming a model’s 3D vertices into pixels on the screen will be demystified and built into the project.

In this part, we cover the following chapters:

• Chapter 12, Mastering Affine Transformations
• Chapter 13, Understanding the Importance of Matrices
• Chapter 14, Working with Coordinate Spaces
• Chapter 15, Navigating the View Space
• Chapter 16, Rotating with Quaternions