Visualizing the math that powers 3D character animation
Hi everyone! I'm the author of this project. I wrote it because I think that the math that makes characters move in games and movies is incredibly beautiful, and I wanted to give others a glimpse into it. It's crazy to think that quaternions, an abstract mathematical tool discovered by William Rowan Hamilton in 1843, would be so perfectly suited to solve hard problems in the world of 3D character animation more than a hundred years later. The story of how he discovered quaternions is also beautiful. Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia: "Hamilton was looking for ways of extending complex numbers…
Visualizing the math that powers 3D character animation launched on June 13, 2022 with 238 votes, #93 of 3,005 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 4 years on.
In plain words
This project visualizes the mathematics behind 3D character animation in games and movies. Created by an author interested in making complex mathematical concepts accessible, it explores how quaternions—an abstract mathematical tool developed in 1843—solve modern animation problems. The project examines the elegant math underlying character movement and demonstrates the unexpected connection between historical mathematical discoveries and contemporary computer graphics applications.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
Hi everyone! I'm the author of this project. I wrote it because I think that the math that makes characters move in games and movies is incredibly beautiful, and I wanted to give others a glimpse into it. It's crazy to think that quaternions, an abstract mathematical tool discovered by William Rowan Hamilton in 1843…
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