Visualization and animation of 3D vector data

Explore different ways to animate a set of 3D vector data. A general vector that is a function of time is created, and a quaternion that transforms from a fixed unit vector to that changing vector is calculated, and both are visualized.

See also AnimateCube, AnimateVectors, Animator, PlaybackControls, Plot3D, Plot3Vector, SliderBar, AnimQ, U2Q, Unit

Plot3Vector
Animator
AnimateVectors
AnimQ
AnimateCube
Plot3D with slider bar
Another Plot3D with a slider changing the view

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%   Copyright (c) 2017 Princeton Satellite Systems, Inc.
%   All rights reserved.
%--------------------------------------------------------------------------
% Since version 2017.1.
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nPts = 201;
t = linspace(0,10,nPts);
x = [sin(t);cos(t);zeros(1,nPts)];
r = [sin(t);cos(t);t/10];
u = Unit(rand(3,1));
q = U2Q( Unit(r), repmat(u,1,nPts) );

Plot3Vector

Not an animation, but a useful way to visualize a time-varying vector

Plot3Vector( t, r, 'AnimationDemo: Plot3Vector' );

Warning: Ignoring extra legend entries.

Animator

Add an animation menu to a figure with a 3D plot of the data

Animator( [], r );

AnimateVectors

Animate one or more time-varying vectors. Uses Coordinates to create the black background with the colored axes. You can replay the animation using the "Animate" menu.

AnimateVectors( x, 'm', r, 'r' );

AnimQ

Animate a quaternion, which is functionally similar to AnimateVectors except the coordinate axes themselves will rotate.

AnimQ( q );

AnimateCube

Animate a quaternion history using a recangular prism to represent a physical object like a satellite. If the time is appended after the quaterion, it will also be displayed as text at the top of the figure. The playback controls are a separate window that allow you to replay or step the animation.

tag = AnimateCube( 'run', [1 2 3], [q;t] );
callback = @(x) AnimateCube( 'update', tag, [q(:,x);t(x)] );
PlaybackControls( 1, nPts, 1, callback, 1, 'AnimateCube Controls' );

Plot3D with slider bar

The slider can "animate" anything you can write a callback for, in this case moving a marker on the line, similar to Animator.

[h,hL] = Plot3D(r,'X','Y','Z');
hold on;
hM = plot3(0,1,0,'r*','markersize',12);
y = get(h,'position');
callback = @(x) set(hM,'xdata',sin(x),'ydata',cos(x),'zdata',x/10);
SliderBar( 0, 10, 0, callback, [], [.1 0 .8 .1], h );

Another Plot3D with a slider changing the view

[h2] = Plot3D(r,'X','Y','Z');
hA = gca;
callback = @(x) view(hA,35,x);
SliderBar( -90, 90, 0, callback, 'Slider View', [.1 0 .8 .1], h2 );


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% $Date$
% $Id: 8f08749564c5897192724611d3f23089fab94122 $