vtkQuaternionInterpolator

Section: Visualization Toolkit Rendering Classes

Usage

This class is used to interpolate a series of quaternions representing the rotations of a 3D object. The interpolation may be linear in form (using spherical linear interpolation SLERP), or via spline interpolation (using SQUAD). In either case the interpolation is specialized to quaternions since the interpolation occurs on the surface of the unit quaternion sphere.

To use this class, specify at least two pairs of (t,q[4]) with the AddQuaternion() method. Next interpolate the tuples with the InterpolateQuaternion(t,q[4]) method, where "t" must be in the range of (t_min,t_max) parameter values specified by the AddQuaternion() method (t is clamped otherwise), and q[4] is filled in by the method.

There are several important background references. Ken Shoemake described the practical application of quaternions for the interpolation of rotation (K. Shoemake, "Animating rotation with quaternion curves", Computer Graphics (Siggraph '85) 19(3):245--254, 1985). Another fine reference (available on-line) is E. B. Dam, M. Koch, and M. Lillholm, Technical Report DIKU-TR-98/5, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.

To create an instance of class vtkQuaternionInterpolator, simply invoke its constructor as follows

  obj = vtkQuaternionInterpolator

Methods

The class vtkQuaternionInterpolator has several methods that can be used. They are listed below. Note that the documentation is translated automatically from the VTK sources, and may not be completely intelligible. When in doubt, consult the VTK website. In the methods listed below, obj is an instance of the vtkQuaternionInterpolator class.