Mathematical Basics of Motion and Deformation

in Computer Graphics
SIGGRAPH 2014 Course Notes

Version 1.0
May 30, 2014
About the authors:

Hiroyuki Ochiai: Professor, Institute of Math-for-Industry, Kyushu University, Japan. He

received his Ph.D. in mathematics in 1993 from the University of Tokyo. His research interests
include representation theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras, algebraic analysis and group the-
ory. He has been joining the CREST project Mathematics for Computer Graphics led by Ken
Anjyo since 2010: http://mcg.imi.kyushu-u.ac.jp/

Ken Anjyo: R&D supervisor at OLM Digital. He has been credited as R&D supervisor for re-
cent Pokémon and several other movies. His research focuses on construction of mathematical
and computationally tractable models. Dr. Anjyo’s research includes recent SIGGRAPH and
IEEE CG&A papers on art-directable specular highlights and shadows for anime, the Fourier
method for editing motion capture, and direct manipulation blendshapes for facial animation.
He served as co-chair of the Digital Production Symposium 2012 (DigiPro2012), and was a
co-organizer of the 2013 Mathematical Progress in Expressive Image Synthesis symposium
(MEIS2013). He is also a VES member. http://anjyo.org
Contents
1 Introduction 5

2 Preliminaries: A few mathematical concepts 6

3 Rigid Motion 8
3.1 Rotation in 2D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Translation in 2D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.3 Reflections in 2D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3.4 3D rotation: axis-angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.5 3D rotation: Euler angle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
3.6 3D rotations: Quaternions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.6.1 Several equivalent definitions of quaternions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.6.2 Unit quaternions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
3.7 Dual quaternion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.8 Dual complex numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4 Non-rigid transformation 16
4.1 Several classes of transformations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
4.2 Semidirect product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.3 Decomposition of the set of matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

5 Exponential and logarithm of matrices 20

5.1 Exponential: definitions and basic properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5.2 Rodrigues’ formula and exponential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.3 Lie algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.4 Exponential map from Lie algebra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.4.1 Exponential on shears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
5.4.2 Exponential on 3D rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.4.3 Exponential map on square matrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.5 Loss of continuity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
5.6 The field of blending . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

6 2D Affine transformation between two triangles 27

6.1 Triangles and an affine transformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
6.2 Comparison of three interpolation methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

3
7 Global 2D shape interpolation 29
7.1 Formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
7.2 Error function for global interpolation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
7.3 Examples of local error functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
7.4 Examples of constraint functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

8 Parametrizing 3D Positive Affine Transformations 36

8.1 The parametrization map and its inverse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
8.2 The algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
8.3 Deformer applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
8.3.1 Probe-based deformer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
8.3.2 Cage-based deformer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
8.3.3 An application to Poisson mesh editing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

9 Further readings 42

4
1 Introduction
While many technical terms, such as Euler angle, quaternion, and affine transformation, are
quite familiar in our computer graphics community, their graphical meanings are sometimes
slightly different from the original mathematical entities, which might cause misunderstanding
or misuse of the mathematical techniques. Or, if we could have just a bit more curiosity about
pure mathematics (relevant to computer graphics, of course), it must be easier for us to explore
a new possibility of mathematics in developing a new graphics technique and/or tool.
This course presents an intuitive introduction to several mathematical basics that are quite
useful for various aspects of computer graphics, including curve/surface editing, deformation
and animation of geometric objects. We also try to fill the gap between the original mathe-
matical concepts and the practical meanings in computer graphics without assuming any prior
knowledge of pure mathematics. While this course limited the topics to matrices, we hope this
course will be understood so easily to realize the power of mathematical approaches through
many examples demonstrated in the course.
The organization of the course notes is as follows. We start with a brief introduction of a
few mathematical basic concepts that appear throughout this course. Next we explain the ba-
sic definitions regarding the matrix group. These mathematical concepts will be demonstrated
in the later application sections. In particular we provide several useful recipes for rigid mo-
tion description and global deformation, along with our recent work. Finally we show a list of
further readings, suggesting that the power of mathematical approaches in graphics cannot be
exhausted in this course.

This course is an update of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2013 Course: Mathematical Description
of Motion and Deformation: From basics to graphics applications. Based on the previous
course experience, we have further added several detailed explanations of mathematical ideas,
using illustrations and/or demo movies. A brief introduction of Lie theory and our latest work
demonstrations should also be new features of the updated course.

5
2 Preliminaries: A few mathematical concepts
Affine transformation (or geometric transformation) gives a basic mathematical framework for
geometric operations in computer graphics, such as rotation, shear, translation, and their compo-
sitions. Each affine transformation is then represented by 4 × 4-homogeneous matrix with usual
operations: addition, scalar product, and product. While the product means the composition of
the transformations, geometric meanings of addition and scalar product are not trivial. We often
want to have geometrically meaningful weighted sum (linear combination) of transformations,
which is not an easy task. These kinds of practical demands therefore have inspired graphics
researchers to explore new mathematical concepts and/or tools. Many works have been con-
ducted in this direction, including skinning [Chaudhry10], cage-based deformation [Nieto13],
motion analysis and compression ([Alexa02], for instance).
Along with the affine transformations, we use Euler angle, and quaternion for rotation. In
constrast, dual quaternion and axis-angle presentation are useful in rigid transformation (rota-
tion and translation altogether). These mathematical concepts have become quite popular and
have a success to some extent in our graphics community. In this section we therefore take a
brief look at the original mathematical meanings of these concepts related with matrices, which
will be useful when we reuse or extend the basic ideas behind those concepts. The mathemati-
cal definitions given below might be hard to make out at first. However, you’ll soon understand
them and why they are needed through the graphics applications in this course.

• Group:
Let G be a set associated with an operation “·”. If the pair (G, ·) satisfies the following
properties, then it is called a group. Or we would call G itself a group.:

1. For any a, b ∈ G, the result of the operation, denoted by a · b, also belongs to G.

2. For any a, b and c ∈ G, we have a · (b · c) = (a · b) · c.
3. There exists an element e ∈ G, such that e · a = a · e = a, for any element a ∈ G. (The
element is then called the identity of G).
4. For each a ∈ G, there exists an element b ∈ G such that a · b = b · a = e, where e is
the identity. (The element b is then called the inverse of a.)

As usual, R and C denote the set of all real numbers and the set of all complex numbers,
respectively. R or C is then a group with addition (i.e., the operation “·” simply means
+), and called commutative, since a + b = b + a holds for any element a, b of R or C.
In the following sections, we’ll see many groups of matrices. For example, the set of all
invertible square matrices constitutes a group with composition as its group operation.
The group consisting of the invertible matrices with size n is called the general linear
group of order n, and will be denoted by GL(n, R) or GL(n, C).

6
• Quaternion:
The original definition of quaternion by William Hamilton seems a bit different from the
one we use in graphics. In 1835 he justified calculation for complex numbers x + iy as
those for ordered pairs of two real numbers (x, y). He therefore wanted to find a new
concept of numbers in higher dimensions, rather than treating rotation around an axis. In
1843 he finally discovered it, referring to the totality of those numbers as Quaternions. In
the course notes, the set of quaternions is denoted by H: H = R + Ri + R j + Rk, where
we introduce the three numbers i, j and k satisfying the following rules:

i2 = j2 = k2 = −1
i j = − ji = k

H is then called an algebra or field (see [Ebbinghaus91] for more details). We also note
that, as shown in the above rules, it is not commutative. A few more alternative definitions
of Quaternions will also be given later for our graphics applications. In particular we’ll
see how 3D rotations can be represented with quaternions of unit length.

• Dual Quaternion:
In 1873, as a further generalization of quaternions, William K. Clifford obtained the con-
cept called biquaternions, which is now known as a Clifford algebra. The concept of
dual quaternions, which is another Clifford algebra, was also introduced in the late 19th
century. A dual quaternion can be represented with q = q0 + qε ε, where q0 , qε ∈ H and
ε is the dual unit (i.e., ε commutes with every element of the algebra, while satisfying
ε 2 = 0). We’ll see later how rigid motions in 3D space can be represented with dual
quaternions of unit length.

• Lie group and Lie algebra:

A Lie group is a group and smooth manifold (i.e. locally it is diffeomorphic to n-
dimensional open disk). The matrix groups, like GL(n, R) for instance, are examples
of a real(-valued) Lie group. The totality of quaternions of unit length constitutes another
Lie group. Although there is a general definition of Lie algebra, in this course we re-
strict ourselves to consider the Lie algebra associated with a Lie group. We then define
the Lie algebra as a tangent space at the identity of the Lie group. In this sense, the Lie
algebra can be considered as a linear approximation of the Lie group, which will be more
explicitly described for the matrix groups in the following sections.

7
3 Rigid Motion
In physics, a rigid body means as an object which preserves the distances between any two
points of it with or without external forces over time. So describing rigid motion means find-
ing the non-flip congruence transformations parametrized over time. For instance, in treating
a 3D rigid body X, we need to find the family S(t) of the non-flip congruence transformations
parametrized by t such that X(t) ≡ X, where X(t) denotes the position of X at time t. In the
following sections, a non-flip congruence transformation may also be called a rigid transfor-
mation. The totality of the rigid transformations constitutes a group, which will be denoted by
SE(n), where n is the dimension of the world where rigid bodies live (n = 2 or 3). So let’s start
with 2D rotation, a typical rigid transformation in R2 .

3.1 Rotation in 2D
A rotation in 2D centered at the origin is then expressed by a matrix
 
cos θ − sin θ
Rθ = . (1)
sin θ cos θ

Note that the angle θ is not unique. Rθ and Rθ 0 give the same rotation if and only if θ − θ 0 is
an integer multiple of 2π. The compositions of two rotations and the inverse of a rotation are
again rotations: Rθ Rθ 0 = Rθ +θ 0 , R−1
θ = R−θ . The totality of the rotations in 2D forms a group
(Also recall the definition of group in section 2). It is denoted by

SO(2) = {Rθ | θ ∈ R}. (2)

We also write as
SO(2) = {A ∈ M(2, R) | AAT = I, det A = 1}, (3)
where M(2, R) is the set of square matrices of size two, and det is the determinant. The trans-
pose1 of a matrix A is denoted by AT . The column vectors u, v ∈ R2 of a matrix A ∈ M(2, R)
form an orthonormal basis and the orientation from u to v is counter-clockwise if and only if A
is a rotation matrix. This means that an orthogonal matrix sends any orthonormal basis with the
positive orientation to some orthonormal basis with the positive orientation.
The result of the composition of several rotations in 2D does not matter the order. This fact
comes from the commutativity; Rθ Rθ 0 = Rθ 0 Rθ . Note that this never be true for 3D or higher
dimensional case.
1 There are several manners to write a transpose of a matrix; At is rather popular but we will use the notation At

to express the t-th power of a matrix A for a real number t, so that we want to avoid this conflict. Another choice
to write the transpose of a matrix A will be tA.

8
3.2 Translation in 2D
A translation Tb by a vector b ∈ R2 also gives a rigid transformation in 2D. The composition of
two translations and the inverse of a translation also are translations: Tb Tb0 = Tb+b0 , Tb−1 = T−b .
This can be rephrased as ‘the totality of translations forms a commutative group’ (recall sect
2. The translation Tb does not preserve the origin (unless b is a zero vector), so it cannot be
naturally expressed by a 2 × 2 matrix. A homogeneous expression can express both translations
and rotations in 3 × 3 matrices.
     0
a11 a12 b1 x x
a21 a22 b2  y = y0  . (4)
0 0 1 1 1

A successive operation of a rotation Rθ and a trans-

lation Tb maps a column vector x = (x, y)T ∈ R2 to
Tb (Rθ (x)) = Rθ x + b. In a homogeneous expression,
it is written as
     0
Rθ b x x
= . (5)
0 1 1 1

If we reverse the order of composition of a translation

Tb and a rotation Rθ , the result Rθ Tb is different from
Tb Rθ . To be more precise, we have

Rθ Tb = Tb0 Rθ with b0 = Rθ (b). (6)

Note that the rotation component Rθ does not depend

Figure 1: 2D rigid motion
on the order of composition, while the translation part
Tb or Tb0 does. This fact can be rephrased as ‘the rigid
motion group in 2D is the semi-direct product of the rotation group with the translation group’,
and can be denoted by SE(2) = SO(2) n R2 for short2 . Note that equation (6) can be written as

Rθ Tb R−θ = Tb0 , (7)

which is rephrased as ‘the group of translations is a normal subgroup of the rigid motion group’;
and is denoted by R2 / SE(2).
In the previous section, we discuss rotations centered at the origin. In general, the rotation
with angle θ centered at b ∈ R2 can be expressed by

Tb Rθ T−b . (8)
2 This notion will also be explained in Section 4.2.

9
This bears a resemblance to (7), but the role of rotations and translations are reversed.
Now we give a brief comment on complex numbers. Using the identification of C with R2
by z = x + yi ↔ (x, y)T , a rigid transformation in 2D can be expressed as
     0
α β z z
= , (9)
0 1 1 1

where α = eiθ = cos θ + i sin θ , and β = b1 + b2 i ∈ C.

3.3 Reflections in 2D
A reflection (flip) with respect to a line y = (tan θ )x through the origin can be expressed as
   
1 0 cos 2θ sin 2θ
Rθ R = . (10)
0 −1 −θ sin 2θ − cos 2θ

In complex variables, z 7→ eiθ e−iθ z = e2iθ z = ze−2iθ . A reflection is orientation-reversing trans-

formation which preserves the shape. The determinant of the matrix (10) is −1. The com-
position of two reflections is a rotation, and the resulting rotation depends on the order of
compositions of reflections:

cos 2θ 0 sin 2θ 0
  
cos 2θ sin 2θ
= R2θ −2θ 0 . (11)
sin 2θ − cos 2θ sin 2θ 0 − cos 2θ 0

The totality of rotations and reflections

form ‘an orthogonal group’ of size two,
which is defined by

O(2) = {g ∈ M(2, R) | ggT = I2 }. (12)

The totality of rotations, which is denoted

by

SO(2) = {g ∈ O(2) | det(g) = 1}, (13)

is a normal subgroup of O(2) with index

two: [O(2) : SO(2)] = 2. A reflection is not Figure 2: Connected components
usually considered to be a motion, since it
cannot be continuously connected with the identity transformation. In other words, O(2) is not
connected while SO(2) is connected. The set of reflections is another connected component of
O(2).

10
3.4 3D rotation: axis-angle
So far, we have discussed 2D rotations and flips. We now consider a 3D rotation. Given a unit
vector u ∈ R3 and the rotation angle θ , the rotation is given by
x 7→ Rx = x0 = (cos θ )x + (sin θ )(u × x) + (1 − cos θ )(u · x)u. (14)
Also matrix notation
 
0 −u3 u2
R = I + (sin θ )  u3 0 −u1  + (1 − cos θ )(uuT − I). (15)
−u2 u1 0
If we choose an orthonormal basis {u, v, w} of R3 with the right orientation, that is, w = u × v,
then
u0 = (cos θ )u + (1 − cos θ )u = u, (16)
v0 = (cos θ )v + (sin θ )(u × v) = (cos θ )v + (sin θ )w, (17)
w0 = (cos θ )w − (sin θ )v. (18)
The rotation (14) is expressed as
   
u1 v1 w1 1 0 0 u1 u2 u3
R = u2 v2 w2  0 cos θ sin θ   v1 v2 v3  . (19)
u3 v3 w3 0 − sin θ cos θ w1 w2 w3
The totality of 3D rotations turns out to be
SO(3) = {g ∈ M(3, R) | ggT = I3 , det(g) = 1}. (20)
This is rather a significant fact. In other words, every special orthogonal transformation in 3D is
a rotation. (This fact is true only in 2D and 3D, and never be true for 4D or higher dimensions.
That is, for n > 3, most of elements in SO(n) have no rotation axis.) By this expression (20), the
composition of two rotations is also a rotation. Along with the fact that the inverse of a rotation
is also a rotation, we can say that “the set of rotations is a group”.

3.5 3D rotation: Euler angle

The second method to express 3D rotations is so-called ‘Euler angle’, the composition of three
successive rotations along the coordinate axes:
Rz (θ3 )Ry (θ2 )Rx (θ1 )
   
cos θ3 − sin θ3 0 cos θ2 0 sin θ2 1 0 0
=  sin θ3 cos θ3 0  0 1 0  0 cos θ1 − sin θ1  . (21)
0 0 1 − sin θ2 0 cos θ2 0 sin θ1 cos θ1
The feature of Euler angle method is;

11
 • A composition of 2D rotations, which is easy to make.

• This method respects the axis, so is not free from the choice of coordinates.

• Gimbal lock, which is a demerit of this method. See [Ebbinghaus91, Watt92].

• Not convenient for interpolation.

3.6 3D rotations: Quaternions

3.6.1 Several equivalent definitions of quaternions
Some deficiency of Euler angle is relaxed by using quaternions. We now here briefly recall the
quaternions. For more detail, see the references [Shoemake85] [Watt92] [Hanson06]. There are
(at least) five ways expressing quaternions:

(i) H = R + Ri + R j + Rk, the real 4-dimensional algebra.

(ii) H = C + C j, the complex 2-dimensional vector space with a multiplication rule.

(iii) A subalgebra of M(4, R), consisting of the matrices of the form

 
a −b −c −d
b a −d c 
 . (22)
c d a −b
d −c b a

(iv) A subalgebra of M(2, C), consisting of the matrices of the form

 
z −w
. (23)
w z

(v) The set of pairs (s, q) of real numbers s and 3-dimensional vectors q.

Each of these realizations has some advantage and disadvantage. For example, in the picture
(iii) and (iv) the multiplication rule is inherited from the matrix multiplication, so that the distri-
bution property q(q0 + q00 ) = qq0 + qq00 is quite obvious, while in the picture (i) the multiplica-
tion rule is defined as i j = k, so that the distribution property is non-trivial and to be examined
(though it is easy and straightforward). The expression (ii) is shorter than that of (i), while we
remark rather fancy relation w j = jw for w = C = R + Ri. The multiplicativity |qq0 | = |q| · |q0 |
of norms of quaternions follows from the property of derminant det(AB) = det(A) det(B) in
the picture (iv). The realization (v) is most directly related with the description of 3D motion

12
(e.g., 3D rotation by unit quaternion). It should be emphasized that these five realizations are
equivalent. We can choose and use an appropriate way according to each purpose from these
equivalent realizations in order to understand, prove some formulae, and/or improve, make a
code, etc. The notion of quaternions is generalization of complex numbers. Most significant
difference is the non-commutativity qq0 6= q0 q, in general. However, quaternions share many
nice properties, for example, quaternions form a ring (i.e., addition, multiplication), a vector
space (i.e., multiplication by a real number), a field (i.e., every non-zero element has its in-
verse).

3.6.2 Unit quaternions

+ c j + dk = a − bi − c j − dk ∈ R + Ri + R j + Rk = H. The
The conjugate is defined by a + bi √
absolute value is denoted by |q| = qq. The set of unit quaternions
H1 = {q ∈ H | |q| = 1} (24)
is a group by a multiplication3 . Any unit quaternion is of the form
θ θ
q = cos + (sin )u, (25)
2 2
where u is a unit imaginary quaternion. The multiplication p 7→ qpq−1 = qpq gives an action
of a unit quaternion q on H. This action preserves the imaginary quaternions
Im H = {bi + c j + dk | b, c, d ∈ R}. (26)
To be more explicit,
qpq−1 = (cos θ )p + (sin θ )u × p + (1 − cos θ )(u · p)u, (27)
which is equal to Rodrigues’ formula (14). This is an identity transformation if and only if
q = ±1. So, we obtain a surjective group homomorphism
H1 → SO(3), (28)
which induces an isomorphism
∼
H1 /{±1} → SO(3). (29)
We give a meaning of (25) and its application to an interpolation by the exponential map4 .
The exponential map gives the surjective map
θ θ θ
exp : Im H 3 u 7→ cos + (sin )u ∈ H1 . (30)
2 2 2
3 Thegroup H1 is also denoted by Sp(1), the compact symplectic group.
4 Comprehensive treatment of the exponential maps will be discussed in the later sections.

13
For given q0 , q1 ∈ H1 , the spherical linear interpolation is given by

sin((1 − t)θ ) sin(tθ )

slerp(q0 , q1 ,t) = q0 + q1 . (31)
sin θ sin θ
This expression is explicit and fast, but does not explain why. It is characterized by

slerp(q0 , q1 ,t) = slerp(1, q1 q−1

0 ,t)q0 , (32)
slerp(1, exp(θ u),t) = exp(tθ u). (33)

The first equality is understood as an invariance under the rigth-translation. The second equality
is understood so that the interpolation, t 7→ tθ u is chosen to be a linear interpolation on Im H.
We summarize the above discussions with the diagram:
log
SO(3) ← H1 −→ Im H
↓ slerp ↓ linear interpolation
1 exp
SO(3) ← H ←− Im H.

3.7 Dual quaternion

For a set of numbers, denoted by R, its dual is defined to be R + Rε with the rule ε 2 = 0 and
εa = aε for a ∈ R. This idea can be applied for R = H successfully describing the 3D rigid
motions, that is, rotations and translations. As are quaternions, several equivalent realization of
dual quaternions is useful.

(i) H + Hε with ε 2 = 0.
 
z w
(ii) A subalgebra of M(2, H), consisting matrices of the form .
0 z

We define a dual quaternion z + wε to be a unit dual quaternion if |z| = 1 and hz, wi = 0, where
h·, ·i denotes the usual inner product. Every unit dual quaternion is a product of a unit quaternion
z and a unit dual quaternion of the form 1 + wε with w ∈ Im H. We identity a vector (x, y, z)T ∈
R3 with the dual quaternion 1 + (xi + y j + zk)ε ∈ H + Hε. Then, we define an action of a unit
quaternion q = z + wε on p = 1 + (xi + y j + zk) by qpq∗ , where q∗ = z − wε. The action of unit
quaternion z expresses a rotation in 3D, and the action of unit dual quaternion q = 1 + wε with
w ∈ Im H expresses a translation in 3D. See [Kavan08] for detail. The semi-direct structure
and the behavior of the exponential map on dual quaternions are understood both in the dual
quaternion picture and matrix realization picture, as is the case of quaternions.

14
3.8 Dual complex numbers
As is seen in the previous section, a unit dual quaternions can express an arbitrary 3D rigid
transformations, say, every element in SE(3). A 2D rigid transformation can be handled by
regarding the plane embedded in R3 and using unit dual quaternions. We here introduce a
new numbers, called anti-commutative dual complex numbers, which will give more concise
expression and faster computation of a 2D rigid transformation.
For two complex numbers p0 , p1 ∈ C, the combination p0 + p1 ε is called an anti-commutative
dual complex number (DCN, for short) and denoted by Č. The multiplication of DCN is defined
by
(p0 + p1 ε)(q0 + q1 ε) = (p0 q0 ) + (p1 q0 + p0 q1 )ε. (34)
Note that ε 2 = 0 as is usual dual numbers, and (p0 + p1 ε)(q0 + q1 ε) may not be equal to
(q0 + q1 ε)(p0 + p1 ε). We also define the conjugate and absolute values of DCN by
p0 + p1 ε = p̄0 + p1 ε, (35)
|p0 + p1 ε| = |p0 | (36)
Then DCN satisfies usual associative and distributive laws,
(ab)c = a(bc), a(b + c) = ab + ac, (a + b)c = ac + bc, (37)
so we can compute DCN as usual numbers. Similarly toe the unit dual quaternion numbers, the
unit anti-commutative complex numbers are of particular importance:
Č1 = { p̂ ∈ Č | | p̂| = 1} = {eiθ + p1 ε | θ ∈ R, p1 ∈ C}.
This is a group with inverse
(eiθ + p1 ε)−1 = e−iθ − p1 ε.
A unit DCN p̂ acts on R2 by identifying v ∈ C = R2 with 1 + vε ∈ Č:
p̂(1 + vε) p̂ = 1 + (p20 v + 2p0 p1 )ε,
that is v is mapped to p20 v + 2p0 p1 . For example, when p1 = 0, then p̂ = p0 = eiθ maps v ∈ C
to p20 v = e2iθ v, which is the rotation around the origin of degree 2θ . On the other hand, when
p0 = 1, the action corresponds to the translation by 2p1 ∈ C = R2 . Note that this gives a
surjective group homomorphism ϕ : Č1 → SE(2) whose kernel is {±1}. In other words, any
2D rigid transformation corresponds to exactly two unit DCN’s with opposite signs.
The following homomorphism
Č 3 p0 + p1 ε 7→ p0 + p1 jε ∈ H + Hε
is compatible with the involution and the conjugataion, and preserves the norm. Furthermore if
we identify v = x + iy ∈ C with 1 + (x j + yk)ε = 1 + v jε, the above map is commutative with
the action. From this embedding, DCN is realized as a sub-ring of dual quaternion numbers.
The properties of DCN and its applications are given in [Matsuda2004].

15
4 Non-rigid transformation
In this section, we discuss non-rigid transformations, i.e., matrices for deformations.

4.1 Several classes of transformations

GL is not a graphic library (joke) but a general linear group, consisting of invertible linear
transformations on Rn . These are usually expressed in terms of square matrices with non-zero
determinants.
GL(n) = GL(n, R) = {A ∈ M(n, R) | det(A) 6= 0}. (38)
An affine transformation is a map on Rn , which maps every line to a line. These are usually
expressed by a pair of an invertible square matrix and a vector in Rn . The matrix shows the
linear transformation and the vector does the translation. The set of all affine transformations is
written as Aff(n). This group can be also expressed in invertible square matrices of size (n + 1);
Aff(n) ⊂ GL(n + 1).
  
A d  n
Aff(n) := A ∈ GL(n), d ∈ R . (39)
0 1 

This realization is called a homogeneous ex-

pression. The composition of homogeneous
expression is nothing but a multiplication of
two matrices.
If the determinant of a matrix of GL(n)
or Aff(n) is negative, then the corresponding
transformation changes the orientation of ob-
jects. We denote the set of orientation preserv-
ing transformations by

GL+ (n) = {A ∈ GL(n) | det(A) > 0},

  
+ A d  + n
Aff (n) = A ∈ GL (n), d ∈ R .
0 1 
Figure 3: Inclusions of Lie groups
We here summarize the inclusion relations of
these sets of transformations in Figure 3.
Here we add some explanations. In each
left-right edge, the object on the left is an index two subgroup of the object on the right. The
object on the left is ‘connected’ while the object on the right is ‘disconnected’. In each vertical
edge, the object on the top is the semi-direct product of the object on the bottom with the

16
translation group Rn . In each front-behind edge, the object on the front is the subset of rigid
transformations of the object on the behind.
The motion group (or Euclidean motion group), denoted by SE(n) is a map on Rn preserving
the length, angle, and orientation. Each element of the motion group can be expressed as a
pair of a rotation and a translation. The congruence group, denoted by E(n), is the set of
transformations which preserves the shape, but may change the orientation. A reflection is a
typical example of congruence transformation which does not belong to SE(n). These classes
of transformations are ‘groups’: The successive composition of transformations belongs to the
same class of transformation, and the inverse transformation also does (See Section 2.) All
these eight types of groups are non-commutative for n = 2, 3 except for SO(2).
A bounded and closed subset of a vector space is called compact in terms of topology.
The set of all rotations is bounded, while the set of all translations is unbounded. In these
eight classes of groups, SO(n) and O(n) are compact, while other six classes of groups are not
compact. The notion of connected and arcwise connected is equivalent in our cases. A maximal
connected subset is called a connected component. We cannot continuously interpolate two
elements in a different connected components. For example, a flip and the identity cannot
interpolate in GL(n).

4.2 Semidirect product

We see that the composition of a rotation,
a translation, and the inverse rotation is an-
other translation (see, Figure 3).
Rα Tβ R−α = TRα (β ) . (40)
In general, this fact is related with the no-
tion of ‘normal subgroup’ and ‘semi-direct’
product of subgroups.
Let G be a group. The following con-
cepts for G are used to describe the rela-
tions among the matrix group appeared in
the course notes:
(i) A subset H of G is called a subgroup
if H is closed under the composition
and the inversion,
Figure 4: Translations are normal
(ii) A subgroup H of G is called a nor-
mal subgroup if the composition g ◦
h ◦ g−1 of any h ∈ H and g ∈ G belongs to H.

17
For example, the set R3 of translations is a normal subgroup of SE(3), while the set SO(3) of
rotations centered at the origin is a subgroup of SE(3) but not normal.
Let G be a group, H a subgroup of G, and K a normal subgroup of G. (For example,
G = SE(3), H = SO(3), K = R3 .) If the map
H × K 3 (h, k) 7→ hk ∈ G (41)
is a bijective, then G is the semi-direct product, denoted by H n K. Note that hkh−1 ∈ K for any
h ∈ H and k ∈ K, but is not necessarily equal to k. If both H and K are normal subgroups of
G, and hk = kh for all h ∈ H and k ∈ K, and the map (41) is bijective, then G is called a direct
product group H × K. Note that hk = kh if and only if hkh−1 = k. Motion groups and affine
transformation groups are typical examples of semi-direct product groups:
SE(n) = SO(n) n Rn , (42)
E(n) = O(n) n Rn , (43)
Aff+ (n) = GL+ (n) n Rn , (44)
Aff(n) = GL(n) n Rn . (45)
This decomposition can be interpreted as, for example, the translation part of a motion has
its own meaning, which does not depend on the choice of coordinates and scaling, but a rotation
part has some ambiguity, depending on the choice of the origin and that of the coordinates.

4.3 Decomposition of the set of matrices

Other than (semi-)direct product, several decompositions of matrices are widely used in com-
puter graphics. Here we summarize the decompositions which will appear in the later sections.

• Polar decomposition, A = RS, where R is a rota-

tion matrix and S is a positive definite symmetric matrix
(see Figure 5). The product map
SO(n) × Sym+ (n) 3 (R, S) 7→ RS ∈ GL+ (n) (46)
is bijective.
Note that if we reverse the order
SO(n) × Sym+ (n) 3 (R, S) 7→ SR ∈ GL+ (n) (47)
then it is still bijective, however gives the different map.
We also note that the set Sym+ (n) is not a group; ac-
tually, the product of two element in Sym+ (n) is not
necessarily symmetric.
Figure 5: Polar decomposition
18
 • Diagonalization of positive definite symmetric
matrix: Every positive definite symmetric matrix X is written as X = RDRT = RDR−1 , where
R is a rotation matrix in 2D and D is a diagonal matrix whose diagonal entries are all positive.
Actually, the diagonal entries of D is the set of eigenvalues of given X. In general, the map

SO(n) × Diag+ (n) 3 (R, D) 7→ RDRT ∈ Sym+ (n) (48)

is surjective. Note that this map is not injective. If (R, D) and (R0 , D0 ) expresses the same X,
then there exists a permutation matrix P such that D0 = PDPT . Here a permutation matrix is,
by definition, a matrix which has unique non-zero entry 1 in each row and each column. The
inverse and the product of permutation matrices are also permutation matrices. Furthermore, if
D has a distinct diagonal entries, then P is unique. This means that the expression X = RDRT is
not unique, but the freedom choices exist only in the order of eigenvalues of X in the diagonal
entries in D.

• Singular value decomposition (SVD): Every ma-

trix A ∈ GL+ (2) can be written as A = Rα DRβ , where
Rα , Rβ ∈ SO(2) and D is a diagonal matrix with positive
diagonal entries (see Figure 6). In general, the product
map

SO(n) × Diag+ (n) × SO(n) → GL+ (n) (49)

(R0 , D, R) 7→ R0 DR

is surjective. This SVD is a combination of the po-

lar decomposition and the diagonalization of positive
symmetric matrix. In fact, if we denote by A = R0 S
the polar decomposition of A, and by S = RDRT , then
the expression A = (R0 R)DR gives SVD. (Notice that
Figure 6: SVD
R0 R ∈ SO(n).) This enables us to compute SVD by
polar decomposition and the iagonalization of positive
symmetric matrix. On the other hand, when we have
SVD A = R0 DR, then A = (R0 R)(RT DR) gives polar decomposition of A.
Similarly, SO(n) × Diag(n) × SO(n) → GL(n) is also surjective. Note that SVD is called
Cartan decomposition in mathematical literature. In this point of view, the compactness of
SO(n) and commutativity of Diag(n) is significant.

19
5 Exponential and logarithm of matrices
5.1 Exponential: definitions and basic properties
The exponential of a square matrix A is defined to be
∞
1 1 1
exp(A) = ∑ n! An = I + A + 2 A2 + 6 A3 + · · · , (50)
n=0

where A0 = I is the identity matrix. We’ll refer to (50) as the matrix exponential, for short. This
is motivated by Taylor expansion of the usual exponential function
∞
1 1 1
ex = ∑ n! xn = 1 + x + 2 x2 + 3! x3 + · · · . (51)
n=0

The series exp(A) converges for an arbitrary A rapidly, as does the usual exponential function.
However, this infinite series expression is not so efficient for actual numerical computations.
For a computation, we can use several useful properties: for a diagonal matrices we have
   a 
a 0 0 e 0 0
exp 0 b 0 =  0 eb 0  , (52)
0 0 c 0 0 e c

and a rotation    
0 −θ cos θ − sin θ
exp = . (53)
θ 0 sin θ cos θ
In general, the conjugate invariance
exp(P−1 AP) = P−1 exp(A)P (54)
enables us to reduce the computation of the exponential map for these two cases.
As is Euler’s formula in complex numbers
cos θ + i sin θ = exp(iθ ) = eiθ (55)
which gives an intimate connection between exponential function and trigonometric functions,
the exponential expression (53) of a rotation is not unique; θ + 2nπ(n ∈ Z) gives the same rota-
tion. This feature makes the inverse complicated; the logarithm is multi-valued. The logarithm
might be defined to be the inverse of the exponential as is the case of the real scalar-valued
function
exp : R → {y > 0} = R>0 . (56)
However, by the same reason of the logarithm of complex numbers, the logarithm of matrices
is not unique. Moreover, the non-commutativity of matrices causes further complications. We
will discuss this issue again in later sections.

20
5.2 Rodrigues’ formula and exponential
Every 3D rotation is expressed by Rodrigues’ rotation formula:
 
0 −x3 x2
sin |x| 1 − cos |x| 2
Rx = exp(A) = exp  x3 0 −x1  = I + A+ 2
A , (57)
|x| |x|
−x2 x1 0
q
where |x| = x12 + x22 + x33 is the norm of a vector x = (x1 , x2 , x3 ) ∈ R3 . The matrix Rx shows
the rotation around the axis through x, and with angle |x| if |x| ∈
/ 2πZ. If |x| ∈ 2πZ then Rx = I,
the identity matrix. The set so(3) of skew-symmetric, that is, the transpose is its minus, 3 × 3
matrices is regarded as ‘Lie algebra’ of SO(3), which will be briefly described in the next
section.

5.3 Lie algebra

In the course notes, we will not discuss a Lie al-
gebra axiomatically but consider it as a linear ap-
proximation of a group. In fact, the exponential
map gives a local diffeomorphism(= one-to-one,
onto, smooth) between a neighborhood of the ori-
gin of the vector space and a neighborhood of the
identity of the group (the set of transformations)5 .
The Lie algebra of a Lie group is a linear ap-
proximation of a group at the origin. In general,
the Lie algebra of a matrix group G ⊂ GL(N) is Figure 7: Lie algebra as a tangent space
defined to be the tangent space (see Figure 7) of
G at the origin of G. Equivalently, the Lie algebra
is the collection of elements in M(N, R) of the form

0 d 
ϕ (0) = ϕ(t) (58)
dt t=0
for any curve ϕ : R → G with ϕ(0) = I.
For example, let us compute the Lie algebra of the Lie group SO(n). For any curve ϕ :
R → SO(n), the image should satisfy ϕ(t)ϕ(t)T = In . By differentiating with Leibnitz rule, we
obtain
dϕ(t)T 
 
d T
 dϕ(t) T T
0 = ϕ(t)ϕ(t)  = ϕ(t) + ϕ(t)  = A+A ,
dt t=0 dt dt t=0
5 More precisely, the group means a Lie group in this context, or a matrix group, continuous group, in a classical

terminology.

21
where we put A = ϕ 0 (0) for short. This shows the Lie algebra of SO(n) is the set of matrices A
with AT = −A.
In general, the Lie algebra corresponding to a given Lie group is denoted by the correspond-
ing ‘mathfrak’ letters; for example, the Lie algebra of SO(3) is denoted by so(3), that of GL(n)
by gl(n). In a similar way as described above, we obtain a few more examples of Lie algebras:
• The Lie algebra of the group of translations in 3D is R3 . In this case, the Lie group and
the Lie algebra is isomorphic, so that the Lie algebra is also R3 .
• The Lie algebra of the group of positive real numbers R>0 is R. Note that the group law
for R>0 is multiplicative, while that for R is additive.
• The Lie algebra of GL(n) and GL+ (n) is gl(n) = M(n, R),
• The Lie algebra of O(n) and SO(n) is so(n) = {A ∈ M(n, R) | AT = −A}.
• The Lie algebra of the group of unit quaternions is the set of imaginary quaternions.

5.4 Exponential map from Lie algebra

In our context we consider the Lie group as a matrix group. Suppose g is the Lie algebra of a
matrix group G. The exponential map (50) therefore gives a map from g to G.
exp : g → G. (59)
This map actually gives a local diffeomorphism (= one-to-one, onto, smooth) between a neigh-
borhood of the origin of the vector space and a neighborhood of the identity of the group (the
set of transformations). We therefore note that the exponential map is neither surjective nor
injective in general. However, as described below, restricting the domain of definition for the
exponential map gives us a useful tool for our graphics applications.

5.4.1 Exponential on shears

We first consider the following exponential maps:
exp : sym(n) → Sym+ (n), (60)
exp : diag(n) → Diag+ (n), (61)
where
Sym+ (n) = {X | symmetric, positive definite},
sym(n) = {A | symmetric},
Diag+ (n) = {X | diagonal matrices with positive diagonal entries},
diag(n) = {A | diagonal matrices}

22
Fortunatenly in these cases, each of the exponential maps gives a bijection(= one-to-one onto
map). However, we note that Sym+ (n) is not a group, and that sym(n) is not a Lie algebra.
We can summarize the situation in Table 1.The explicit form of (61) has been given in (52).
The relation between (60) and (61) has been suggested in (48): exp(RXRT ) = R exp(X)RT for
R ∈ SO(n) and X ∈ diag(n).

Table 1: Properties of Sym and Diag

group vector space commutative

Sym+ (n) no no no
sym(n) no yes yes
Diag+ (n) yes no yes
diag(n) no yes yes

The role of linearity (vector space) and of commutativity is discussed in section 5.6. Both
Sym+ (n) and Diag+ (n) are convex open subsets of vector spaces.

5.4.2 Exponential on 3D rotation

The exponential map gives a surjection(= onto map):

exp : so(3) = {A | skew-symmetric} → {X | rotation} = SO(3). (62)

5.4.3 Exponential map on square matrices

The exponential maps

exp : {square matrices} → GL(n) (63)

exp : {A | trace(A) = 0} → {X | det(X) = 1} = SL(n) (64)

are neither surjective nor injective. Note that the polar decomposition can be considered as a
non-linear and non-commutative counter part of a linear and commutative natural decomposi-
tion, in the level of vector spaces, into symmetric and skew-symmetric matrices.

5.5 Loss of continuity

The axis of rotation is a natural invariant of 3D rotation. It is not continuous at the origin
of SO(3). This fact has a relation with the failure of the local diffeomorphic property of the

23
Figure 8: The exponential map of SO(3)

24
exponential function. We will explain with some notations: Let B = {x ∈ R3 | |x| ≤ π}. Then
the exponential map restricted to B gives a surjective map

exp : B → SO(3). (65)

It is diffeomorphic on the interior

exp : {x ∈ R3 | |x| < π} → {R ∈ SO(3) | det(R + I) 6= 0}. (66)

On the boundary, it is two-to-one covering map

exp : {x ∈ R3 | |x| = π} → {R ∈ SO(3) | det(R + I) = 0}. (67)

These two (rather distinct) behaviors are understood in a uniform manner (see Figure 8): the
map
exp : {x ∈ R3 | 0 < |x| < 2π} → {R ∈ SO(3) | R 6= I} (68)
gives the two-to-one covering map (everywhere smooth, so that the local inverse does exist
uniquely). Slightly more generally, for every integer n ≥ 1,

exp : {x ∈ R3 | 2(n − 1)π < |x| < 2nπ} → {R ∈ SO(3) | R 6= I} (69)

also gives the two-to-one covering map. This map factors through the map (28):
∼ 2:1
{x ∈ R3 | 2(n − 1)π < |x| < 2nπ} → {q ∈ H1 | q 6= ±1} → {R ∈ SO(3) | R 6= I} (70)

On the other hand, the exponential map on the complement is factored as

{x ∈ R3 | |x| = 2nπ} 3 x 7→ (−1)n ∈ {q ∈ H1 | q = ±1} → {I ∈ SO(3)}. (71)

Figure 8 illustrates these maps. The first map shows the degeneration of spheres {x ∈ R3 | |x| =
2nπ}, which looks like circles in the figure, to a point. By the degeneration (candy-wrapping
operation), we obtain H1 from tube-like body {x ∈ R3 | 2(n − 1)π ≤ |x| ≤ 2nπ}. The second
map collects the isomorphic H1 ’s for n = 1, 2, . . . into one piece. The left and right most points
in the third stage are 1 and −1 in H1 , which were the joint points on the second stage. The third
map is the map (28).
We also understand this phenomena by the following animation: consider the rotation
around x-axis with 360 degree and after that the rotation around y-axis with certain degree.
It seems to be a continuous move, but we do not have a continuous logarithmic lift of this mo-
tion. After the first rotation, the transformation (matrix) ‘remember’ the axis of rotation, so that
the sudden change of the rotation axis from x-axis to y-axis is considered to be a discontinuous
move. We can prove that if the move is C1 (continuously differentiable, that is, the velocity is
continuous), then the logarithmic lift exists even the transformation go through the identity.

25
5.6 The field of blending

Figure 9: Blend in a convex set

A vector space is, by definition, closed under the interpolation (1 − t) × p + t × q and the
blend w1 p1 + w2 p2 + · · · + wk pk . In a curved space (such as a group), the interpolation and the
blend may not belong to the space again.
The space where we blend or interpolate something should be a linear space or a convex
subset of it (see Figure 9). In this sense, the set of rotation matrices is not appropriate, so
that it will be replaced by the set of skew symmetric matrices. The set of positive definite
symmetric matrices is an open convex subset of the set of symmetric matrices. It sounds not
bad for blending, but still the set of symmetric matrices will be better. This is why we once
move from one curved space to the other by the exponential function (see Figure 10). We
also remark that the addition + in the expression w1 p1 + w2 p2 + · · · + wk pk is a commutative
operation: a + b = b + a. If the space loses this commutativity, then the interpolation and the
blend may not be straight forward. The linearity and commutativity are therefore the key to the
interpolation and blending. Note that an interpolation can be considered as a special case of
blending; a blend of two things, and weights is in between 0 and 1. So the non-commutativity
is relaxed for interpolation, but non-linearity still exists.

Figure 10: Interpolation by linearization

26
6 2D Affine transformation between two triangles
6.1 Triangles and an affine transformation
As a simple case, this section deals with interpolating
the two affine transformations.We note that interpolat-
ing affine transformation itself may have other interest-
ing applications; see, for example, [Shoemake94b] and
[Alexa02].
First of all, recall that there is a unique affine trans-
formation that maps a given triangle to another one. Figure 11: Interpolation of triangles
Specifically, suppose that we are given three points
(x1 , y1 )T , (x2 , y2 )T , and (x3 , y3 )T ∈ R2 forming a trian-
gle, then there is a unique affine transformation
    
x1 − x3 x2 − x3 x3 x1 x2 x3 1 0 0
y1 − y3 y2 − y3 y3  = y1 y2 y3   0 1 0 (72)
0 0 1 1 1 1 −1 −1 1
which maps three points (1, 0)T , (0, 1)T , (0, 0)T ∈ R2 into the given three points in this order. In
other words, the set of three points forming a triangle is a principal homogeneous space of the
affine transformation group Aff(2). Suppose that we are given three points (x1 , y1 )T , (x2 , y2 )T ,
and (x3 , y3 )T ∈ R2 and want to map them onto (x10 , y01 )T , (x20 , y02 )T , and (x30 , y03 )T ∈ R2 in this
order. Then the following 3 × 3-matrix
 0 0 0  −1
x1 x2 x3 x1 x2 x3
 = y01 y02 y03  y1 y2 y3  (73)
1 1 1 1 1 1
 
a1,1 a2,1 dx
is of the form a1,2 a2,2 dy , and represents the requested affine transformation. We de-

0 0 1
note the group of the two-dimensional affine transformations by Aff(2), which are represented
by 3 × 3-matrices of the above form. Note that all the entries ai j , dx and dy are linear in en-
tries of x0j ’s. This observation is important in global optimization (see section 7.2). We call
 
a1,1 a2,1
A= as the linear part and d = (dx , dy )T as the translation part of  and consider
a1,2 a2,2
them separately for interpolation. Interpolating the translation part can be neglected (see the
discussion in section 7.2). We focus on interpolation of linear transformation here. In gen-
eral we may assume that transformation is orientation preserving, that is, it does not “flip” 2D
shapes. We denote the group of the orientation preserving linear transformations by GL+ (2),
which are represented by matrices with positive determinants.

27
6.2 Comparison of three interpolation methods

Figure 12: (left) linear interpolation; (right) exponential interpolation

We now introduce and compare the following three interpolation methods between the iden-
tity matrix and a matrix A ∈ GL+ (2).
• AL (t) := (1 − t)I + tA, linear interpolation.
• AP (t) := Rtθ SL (t) = Rtθ ((1 − t)I + tS), see [Alexa00].
• AE (t) := Rtθ St = Rtθ exp(t log S), see [Kaji12].
A homotopy of a linear transformation A ∈ GL+ (2) is a series of matrices A(t) parametrized
by time t ∈ R such that A(0) = I and A(1) = A, where I is the identity matrix. These three
AL (t), AP (t), and AE (t) satisfy these properties.
The first one AL gives a linear interpolation in the space of all square matrices M(n). This
means that the interpolated matrices can be degenerate (not regular) so that the shape collapses.
Both the second and the third interpolations AP and AE use the polar decomposition A = RS
([Shoemake94b]), we interpolate the rotation part and the symmtric part independently, and
then get the interpolation of A by multiplying the individual interpolations. In both cases AP
and AE , the rotation factor R = Rθ is interpolated as the angle of the rotation varies linearly.
Note that we can take the angle θ to be −π < θ ≤ π, but θ has choice up to modulo 2π,
which may cause a problem. We will discuss this issue in section 7.2. The interpolation at t
(t ∈ R) is the t-th power of matrix R, that is, Rt = Rtθ . (This is a simple interpolation example
in a Lie group through linear interpolation in its Lie algebra.) As for symmetric factors S, two
interpolations AP and AE have the different strategy; AP interpolates linearly on S while AE
does linearly on log(S). If we see the special case A = S ∈ Sym+ (2), then SP (t) = (1 − t)I + tS
and SE (t) = exp(t log(S)) = St . The difference between these two methods is illustrated in
Figure 12. The method AE (t) uses both the polar decomposition and the exponential map, and
it can be seen as a combination of the ideas in [Alexa02] and [Shoemake94b].

28
7 Global 2D shape interpolation
Rather than a simple triangle case in the previou section, we deal with more general 2D shape
interpolation techniques, where we are given two input shapes: source and target. We then
assume that each shape may be compatibly triangulated6 . This means that we assume that each
shape is triangulated, and that one-to-one correspondence is established between the triangles
of the source and target shapes.
There are many approaches, including those mentioned earlier, for 2D shape interpolation
under the above assumptions. A typical scenario of these approaches came from the seminal
work of [Alexa00]: We first define a homotopy of affine maps for each pair of the corresponding
triangles of the source and target objects, such that it connects the identity map and the local
affine map that gives a bijection between the corresponding triangles. Let us call this homotopy
local. Next we construct the homotopy that gives global interpolation between the source and
target. This homotopy is defined as a family of the piecewise affine maps, each of which is
derived from the affine maps of the local homotopy through a certain energy minimization
process. This scenario works well and has inspired many research works. However, from a
practicality viewpoint, there remain many things to be improved and polished. For example, the
following practical aspects of the methods should be addressed: (a) controllability - how to add
constraints to get a better result?; (b) rotation consistency -how to treat large rotations (> 180
degrees)?; and (c) symmetry - Can we make it possible that the vertex paths for interpolation
from shape A to shape B are the same as from B to A? Recently [Baxter08] gave a formulation
of rigid shape interpolation using normal equations, presenting the algorithms that meet these
requirements.
This section presents a mathematical framework for the above homotopic approaches using
affine maps. We start with analyzing the local affine map directly, and introduce a new local ho-
motopy between the affine maps. We also present the algorithms to achieve global interpolation,
each of which minimizes an energy function with user-specified constraints. It is also discussed
how the algorithms meet the above practical requirements. We demonstrate that our mathe-
matical framework gives a comprehensive understanding of rigid interpolation/deformation ap-
proaches. In particular we illustrate the power of this framework with the animation examples
obtained by several different constraint functions.

7.1 Formulation
We now describe the source and target shapes which are compatibly triangulated more explic-
itly. To make it, we denote the source shape made of triangles by P = (p1 , . . . , pn ), (pi ∈ R2 ),
6 In
general, when the two shapes are given without boundary matching nor compatible triangulation, we would
need a preprocess to establish them. As for this issue, [Baxter09] is a good reference describing the most relevant
techniques along with their own approach.

29
where each pi is a triangle vertex. Similarly we denote the target shape by Q = (q1 , . . . , qn ), (qi ∈
R2 ), which are the triangle vertices. The triangles are denoted by τ1 , . . . , τm , where τi =
{i1 , i2 , i3 } is the set of the indices of the three vertices. Hence, the i-th source (respectively,
target) triangle consists of pi1 , pi2 , and pi3 (respectively, qi1 , qi2 , and qi3 ) for i1 , i2 , i3 ∈ τi .
Through sections 6.1 and 7.2, our local and global interpolation techniques are summarized
as follows:
• (from triangle to affine transformation) For each pair of the source and the target triangles
corresponding to τi , we initially get the affine map, denoted by Âi , that maps the initial
triangle to the target triangle, where Âi ∈ Aff(2) is a 3 × 3-matrix.
• (local interpolation of linear part) We then construct a homotopy between the 2 × 2 iden-
tity matrix and the linear part Ai of Âi (i.e., from I2 ∈ GL+ (2) to Ai ∈ GL+ (2)). The
homotopy is parametrized by t, with 0 ≤ t ≤ 1. The collection {Âi | i = 1, 2, . . . , m} of
affine maps Âi ’s can be considered as a piecewise affine transformation from P to Q (see
its precise definition in section 7.2).
• (global interpolation via error function) We next construct a global homotopy between the
inclusion map P ,→ R2 and the piecewise affine transformation from P to Q, which will
be denoted by {B̂i (t) ∈ Aff(2) | i = 1, 2, . . . , m} with t ∈ R in section 7.2. It is obtained by
minimizing a global error function regarding the linear part Bi (of B̂i ) and Ai along with
the user-specified constraint function.
We have been explained the first and the second procedure. We now explain the final procedure.

7.2 Error function for global interpolation

To achieve global interpolation between the two shapes, we have to assemble local translations
considered in the previous section. In our context, this means that we represent a global trans-
formation as a piecewise affine transformation. More precisely, we consider a collection of
affine maps
B(t) := {B̂i (t) ∈ Aff(2) | i = 1, 2, . . . , m}, (0 ≤ t ≤ 1)
such that B̂i (t)’s are consistent on the edges. More precisely, B̂i (t)pk = B̂ j (t)pk for all t when-
ever k ∈ τi ∩ τ j . We put B(t)pk = B̂i (t)pk for k ∈ τi . Let vk (t) := B(t)pk , (1 ≤ k ≤ n) be the
image of the initial vertices P. The following observation is vital in this section. The piecewise
affine transformation B(t) which maps pk ’s to vk (t)’s is uniquely determined by (73) and its en-
tries are linear with respect to vk (t)’s. Therefore, giving B(t) and giving vk (t)’s are equivalent
and we identify them and interchange freely in the following argument. See also Section 6. We
also assume naturally that
• B(t) interpolates P and Q, i.e., vk (0) = pk and vk (1) = qk for all k.

30
 • Bi (t) is “close” to Ai (t), where Bi (t) is the linear part of B̂i (t) and Ai (t) is the local
homotopy obtained in the previous section.

• Each Bi (t) varies continuously with respect to t.

We will give a framework to obtain global interpolation from given local homotopies. For
a moment we consider a fixed t. We then introduce two more ingredients other than local
homotopy data;
• a set of local error functions

Ei : M(2, R) × GL+ (2, R) → R≥0 , (1 ≤ i ≤ m).

• a constraint function
C : (R2 )n → R≥0 .

The local error function Ei is positive definite and quadratic with respect to the entries of the
first factor M(2, R). Intuitively, it measures how different the given two local transformations
are. The constraint C is also positive definite and quadratic. It controls the global translation.
Furthermore, with this function, we can incorporate various constraints on the vertex path as we
will describe later.
If we are given local error functions for each triangle τi , (1 ≤ i ≤ m) and a constraint func-
tion, we combine them into a single global error function
m
Et (B) := ∑ Ei (Bi (t), Ai (t)) +C(v1 (t), . . . , vn (t)),
i=1

where we regard B(t) (or more precisely, the entries of Bi (t) which are linear combinations
of vk (t)’s) as indeterminants to be solved. For each t, the minimizer of Et may have positive
dimension in general, however, one can modify the constraint function C such that it becomes a
single point, as we see by concrete examples later. The single minimizer B(t) is the piecewise
affine map that we take as a global interpolation method.

Efficiency of finding the minimizer: We show that finding the minimizer of a global error
function is efficient enough. Since the global error function is a positive definite quadratic
form, it can be written as a function of v(t) = (v1 (t)x , v1 (t)y , . . . , vn (t)x , vn (t)y )T ∈ R2n as

E(v(t)) = v(t)T Gv(t) + v(t)T u(t) + c,

for some (2n × 2n)-symmetric positive definite matrix G, u(t) ∈ R2n , and c ∈ R. We see that
v(t) = − 21 G−1 u(t) is the minimizer. Note that G is time-independent and we need to compute
G−1 just once for all frames (see [Alexa00]).

31
7.3 Examples of local error functions
In the above point of view, we have a flexibility to choose error functions. For example, we can
take

EiP (Bi (t); Ai (t)) := ∑ ||Bi(t)pk − Ai(t)pk ||2. (74)

k∈τi
EiF (Bi (t), Ai (t)) := ||Bi (t) − Ai (t)||2F , (75)
EiS (Bi (t), Ai (t)) := min
s,δ ∈R k∈τ
∑ kBi(t)pk − sRδ Ai(t)pk k2 , (76)
i

EiR (Bi (t), Ai (t)) := min kBi (t) − sRδ Ai (t)k2F . (77)
s,δ ,∈R

where the Frobenius norm of a matrix M = (mi j ) is defined to be kMk2F = ∑ m2i j . We now
i, j
compare these error functions. The error function E P measure how the intermediate vertices
vk (t)’s are different from those obtained by applying the local transformations to the initial
vertices. However, this intuitive approach does not produce a good result. We have to speculate
on how to define a good error function.
The error function E F is used in [Alexa00]. It measures how the local transformation and the
final global transformation differ as linear maps. The resulting global error function is invariant
under translation and hence requires two dimensional constraints to get a unique minimizer. For
example, [Alexa00] proposes the following constraint function:

C(v1 (t), . . . , vn (t)) = ||(1 − t)p1 + tq1 − v1 (t)||2 .

It produces a fairly satisfactory global transformation when the constraint function is very sim-
ple and rotation is “homogeneous.” However, this method fails if (a) we want to put some
constraints (see Figure 13), or (b) the expected rotation angles vary beyond 2π from triangles
to triangles (see Figure 14):
In order to achieve more flexibility of shape deformation and easier manipulation by a user,
[Igarashi09] and [Igarashi05] considered error functions which are invariant under similarity
transformation, i.e., rotation and scale. [Werman95] has proposed an error function E S , which
is slightly different from them. It measures how different the two sets of points {Ai (t)pk }
and {Bi (t)pk } are up to similarity transformation. In [Igarashi09] and [Igarashi05] they used a
constraint function which forces the vertex loci to be on the specified curves. We will see the
detailed construction later.
For the purpose of finding a best matching global transformation with given local transfor-
mations, it is better to use a metric in the space of transformations, rather than in the space of
points. The error function E R , which is a slight modification of E S , measures how different

32
Figure 13: An example of global interpolation obtained by EiF with the constraints on the
vertices loci indicated by the curves. In the intermediate frames around t = 0.3 and t = 0.6,
extreme shrink and flip of triangles are observed.

Figure 14: An example of global interpolation obtained by EiF . To obtain smooth interpolation
between the leftmost and rightmost figures, local transformations should deal with rotation
angles larger than π, but EiF fails to make it.

33
Figure 15: An example of global interpolation obtained by EiR with the same input data as
Figure 13. By allowing rotational and scale variance without any penalty in the error function,
we can get more flexible control of the output animation.

Figure 16: An example of global interpolation obtained by EiR with the same input data as Figure
14. The proper rotation angles for the local triangles are automatically chosen by minimizing
the global error function.

Ai (t) and Bi (t) are as linear maps up to rotation and scale. The above function E R has a closed
form
B · AT 2 + 2 det B · AT


min ksRδ A − Bk2F = kBk2F − F
. (78)
s,δ ∈R kAk2F
This is positive definite quadratic with respect to the entries of B. Since it is invariant under
similarity transformation, it avoids the flaws of EiF in the cases of (a) and (b); Compare Figure
15 with Figure 13, and Figure 16 with Figure 14, respectively.
We note that a positive linear combination of positive definite quadratic function is also a
positive definite quadratic function. This means that a linear combination of above mentioned
error functions is also an error function. This idea can be used for practical improvement. We
give three examples:
(i) In assembling local error functions, we can take weighted sum instead of ordinary sum.
We can put large weights to more important parts (triangles). For example, the more the area of
triangle is, more important its rigidity becomes. Hence, it is reasonable to weight by the areas

34
of the initial triangles:

Ei ← Area(∆(pi1 , pi2 , pi3 ))Ei (i1 , i2 , i3 ∈ τi ).

This was already discussed in [Xu05] and [Baxter08] as well.

(ii) The local error function EiR in (77) is employed for a general use. However, we may not
want some parts of the 2D shape to rotate or to scale (such as a face of a character). In such
cases, we can use a balanced local error function

wi EiF (t) + (1 − wi )EiR (t),

where wi ∈ [0, 1]. If we put a large wi , the rotation and scale of the triangle τi would be sup-
pressed. We thus believe that our framework provides more user controllability over previous
approaches.
(iii) As is shown in [Baxter08], we can symmetrize the interpolation by symmetrizing the
error function. Let Ei (t) be a global error function for a local homotopies Ai (t), and Ei−1 (t) be
that for A−1
i (t). Then define a new error function by

Ei0 (t) := Ei (t) + Ei−1 (1 − t).

This is symmetric in the sense that it is invariant under the substitution Ai ← A−1
i and t ← 1 − t.
That means that the same minimizing solution is given if we swap the initial and the terminal
polygons and reversing time.

7.4 Examples of constraint functions

Now we give a concise list of the constraints we can incorporate into a constraint function
C(v1 (t), . . . , vn (t)). See the demonstration video in [Kaji12].
• Some points must trace specified loci (for example, given by B-spline curves). This is
realized as follows: let uk (t) be a user specified locus of pk with uk (0) = pk and uk (1) =
qk . Then add the term ck ||vk (t) − uk (t)||2 , where ck ≥ 0 is a weight.

• The directions of some edges must be fixed. This is realized by adding the term ckl ||vk (t)−
vl (t) − ekl (t)||2 , where ekl (t) ∈ R2 is a user specified vector and ckl ≥ 0 a weight. This
gives a simple way to control the global rotation.

• The barycenter must trace a specified locus uo (t). This is realized by adding the term
co || n1 ∑nk=1 vk (t) − uo (t)||2 , where co > 0 is a weight. This gives a simple way to control
the global translation.
Likewise we can add as many constraints as we want.

35
8 Parametrizing 3D Positive Affine Transformations
Next we present our 3D application based on the concepts and techniques in sections 4 and 5.
So let us consider how to parametrize rigid or non-rigid motions. As we’ve learned, quater-
nion or Euler angle parametrizes rotations, and dual quaternion with axis-angle presentation
parametrizes the rigid transformation [Kavan08]. These parametrizations are partial: they deal
only with subsets of Aff+ (3), and cannot shear and scale. [Alexa02] tried to give a Euclidean
parametrization of Aff+ (3), where his idea lies in the Lie correspondence between Lie group
Aff+ (3) and its Lie algebra through the matrix exponential map and logarithm. However the
method is limited for the translations without negative eigenvectors, while the Lie correspon-
dence only garantees local bijectivity.
Having in mind these approaches, we introduce an alternative parametrization of Aff+ (3)
based on Lie theory [Kaji13]. As described next, our method successfully parametrizes the
whole transformations, giving geometrically meaningful runtime operations.

8.1 The parametrization map and its inverse

Let M(3, R) be the set of 3 × 3-matrices, as usual. We set the 12-dimensional parameter space

se(3) × sym(3),

where    
X̂ lX T 3
se(3) := X = | X̂ = −X̂ ∈ M(3, R), lX ∈ R
0 0
is the Lie algebra for the 3-dimensional rigid transformation group SE(3) and sym(3) is the set
of 3 × 3-symmetric matrices (see section 5.4.1).
Now we define the parametrization map

φ: se(3) × sym(3) → Aff(3) (79)

X ×Y 7→ exp(X)ι(exp(Y )),

where exp is the matrix exponential defined by (50) in section 5.1 and ι : M(3, R) → M(4, R) is
given by  
B 0
ι(B) = .
0 1
This gives a mathematically well-defined parametrization, since it is surjective and has a con-
tinuous inverse as we see below. However, computation by the infinite series of the matrix
exponential (50) is very slow, and hence, we need to develop an efficient algorithm for our ap-
plications. In the next section, we will discuss the fast and explicit formula for the computation.

36
 While the above map φ is not one-to-one, we can compute its continuous inverse explicitly,
thanks to the Cartan decomposition theorem. The inverse map ψ is given by

ψ: Aff(3) → se(3) × sym(3) (80)

p p
A 7→ log(A ι( ÂT Â)−1 ) × log( ÂT Â).

Note that ÂT Â is symmetric positive definite so that the square root is uniquely determined and
the logarithm is also√well-defined (it is calculated by [Denman76] and [Cheng01], for example).
Note also that A ι( ÂT Â)−1 is an element in SE(3) and the logarithm is defined up to modulo
2π. We discuss the explicit formulae in the next section.

8.2 The algorithm

First, we consider how to compute (80). Note that ÂT Â is a positive definite symmetric matrix
so that it is diagonalized as  
λ1 0 0
P  0 λ 2 0  PT
0 0 λ3
with some orthogonal matrix P and λi > 0. Then we can compute
 √ 
p log( λ1 ) 0
√ 0
log( ÂT Â) = P  0 log( λ2 ) 0  PT .
p
0 0 log( λ3 )
√ 
R̂ dR

T −1
Let R = A ι( Â Â) . Since R ∈ SE(3), we can write R = . By mimicking the
0 1
famous Rodrigues’ formula [Brockett84] for the rotation matrices, we have
 
X̂ lX
log(R) = ,
0 0
 
θ Tr(R) − 1
where X̂ = (R − RT ), θ = cos−1 , and
2 sin θ 2
 
1 2 sin θ − (1 + cos θ )θ 2
lX = I3 − X̂ + X̂ dR .
2 2θ 2 sin θ

Here we have indeterminacy of cos−1 up to modulo 2π. However, if we impose continuity, we

can take one explicit choice. (An explicit code will be given in [Kaji].)

37
 One note on how to compute (79). For any symmetric matrix Y ∈ sym(3), any matrix func-
tion can be computed using diagonalization. On one hand, [Kaji] introduces a faster algorithm
to compute the exponential based on the spectral decomposition (see [Moler03], for example).
This is because, in most applications, we need to compute (80) only once as pre-computation,
while computing (79) many times in real-time.

8.3 Deformer applications

Next we explain the algorithm of our deformers. The input is:

• a target shape to be deformed,

• a set of affine transformations {Ai ∈ Aff(3) | 1 ≤ i ≤ m},

• and weight functions on the vertices (or the simplex) {wi : V → R | 1 ≤ i ≤ m}, where V
is the set of the vertices (or the simplex) of the target shape.

With the above data, we deform the given shape by the following parametrization map:
m
V 3 v 7→ ∑ φ (wi ψ(Ai ))v, (81)
i=1

where we think of the vertex positions v ∈ R3 as column vectors and the matrices multiply
from the left. When we take V as the set of simplex, the above formula gives non-consistent
map on the edges, and we need to patch them by certain energy minimizing technique such as
ARAP[Alexa00]. Among the good properties of our parametrization is that ∑m i=1 φ (wi ψ(Ai )) is
rigid when Ai ’s are.
Considering these things, we demonstrate the following deformer applications.

Figure 17: The red icons show the probe-based deformer: (left) initial positions of the probes;
(right) the target shape is deformed according to user’s manipulation of the probe icons.

38
 Figure 18: Vortex by probe-based deformer: left initial; right obtained result.

Figure 19: Cage-based deformer: (left) initialize the cage that surrounding the target; (right) the
deformed result by user’s manipulations on the cage.

8.3.1 Probe-based deformer

Suppose that a target shape is given. We then assign any number of “probes” which carry
transform data. For example, see Figure17, where the red icons means the probes. If the
probes are transformed by the user, the target shape will accordingly be deformed, as shown in
Figure 17. More precisely, each probe detects the affine map Ai ∈ Aff(3) which transforms it to
the current position from the initial position. A vertex v ∈ R3 on the target shape is transformed
by equation (81), where the weights wi ’s are either painted manually, or computed automatically
from the distance between v and the probe location. Figure 18 shows another example for
designing a vortex shape.

8.3.2 Cage-based deformer

Suppose that a target shape is given along with a “cage” surrounding it. The cage can be any
triangulated polyhedron wrapping the target shape. We want to deform the target shape by
manipulating not directly on it but through proxy cage (see [Ju05]). Our parametrization can be
used in this framework. A tetrahedra is associated with each face triangle by adding its normal
vector. Then each face detects the affine map Ai ∈ Aff(3) which transforms the initial tetrahedra
to the current tetrahedra. A vertex v ∈ R3 on the target shape is transformed by equation (81),

39
where the weights wi ’s are either painted manually, or computed automatically from the distance
between v and the center of the face. For automatic weight computation, it is better to set wi = 0
when v sits in the outer half space of the i-th face (see Figure 19).

8.3.3 An application to Poisson mesh editing

Poisson mesh editing [Yu2004] is a widely used approach to editing triangular mesh by solving
the Poisson equation associated. This approach enables users to modify the geometry by editing
the boundary conditions for the equation and altering the gradient of mesh implicitly through
gradient field manipulation.
In this section we breifly show how the paramererization maps in section 8.1 are integrated
into the framework of Poisson mesh editing. For more deails, please refer to [Anjyo14].
The Poisson equation with Direchlet boundary conditions can be formulated as follows:

∇2 f = div v, f |∂ Ω = f ∗ |∂ Ω (82)

where f is an unknown scalar function on the input mesh Ω, f ∗ means the boundary values
as the modeling constraints on the boundary of Ω, and v is a guidance vector field. More
specifically f is one of the components (coordinate values) of 3D position of the mesh.
Next we consider how to numerically solve the Poisson equation for triangle mesh. Suppose
now that f is the x-coordinate function. In the discretization process the mesh is a piecewise
linear surface (i.e. triangle) and then the gradient of the original x-coordinate function is con-
stant on each face. The gradient of the x-coordinate function thus means the projection of the
unit x-axis vector (1, 0, 0)T onto the triangle. The divergence of the guidance vector field in
equation (82) can then be expressed as:

(div v)(pi ) = ∑ ∇Bik ·v|Tk | (83)

Tk ∈N(i)

where N(i) consists of all the triangles connected to the vertex pi . |Tk | is the area of k-th
triangle connected to pi . Bik is the piecewise linear hat function defined on the vertex. Thus,
the divergence defines how much of the guidance vector goes through the mesh at a given
vertex. In [Yu2004], it is pointed out that, in deforming a shape, its gradient should usually
be changed, i.e., the triangles are transformed during deformation. The most deformed area
should then be around the edited area (near the boundary), whereas the other parts far from
the boundary should not be affected by the deformation so much. Considering this, [Yu2004]
introduces the weight for each vertex, which is defined as the distance from the boundary.
The weight for each triangle, say, denoted by wi for the i−th triangle is then defined as the
mean of three weight values of its three vertices, which is therefore used to control how much
the triangle should be transformed. So the weights are defined as the (normalized) geodesic
distance from the boundary in [Yu2004]. Regarding how to decide the smooth weights wi , an

40
Figure 20: Rotation by the parametrization map. One of the legs can be rotated over 360 degree
at a runtime operation.

alternative technique, known as harmonic guidance, is proposed in [Zayer2005], which gives a

better result over the original edit method.
In both of [Yu2004, Zayer2005], when considering a local transformation of each triangle,
they use linear interpolation for scaling and shear, while rotation is treated with slerp. As a
simple application of the parametrization map (81), we can use it for the local transformation
over time in the Possion mesh editing. Figure 20 illustrates the power of this technique.

41
9 Further readings
Motion description with diffeomorphisms
How do we describe motion/deformation of objects in Rn ? We have shown the following ex-
amples:
• Local: Affine transformation well describes rigid or non-rigid motion.

• Global: The set of affine maps and the Possion editing approaches well approximate
deformation and/or animation.
Table 2 summarizes the deformation techniques appeared in the course notes from the Lie the-
oretic viewpoint, where we omit the Poisson edit approaches.
For global deformation, introducing a diffeomorphism (smooth bijective map) may also
give us a natural and wider framework of Lie group approaches. We then note that the set of
all diffeomorphisms for a given surface (or manifold) constitutes an infinite-dimensional Lie
group, where the multiplication is defined as composite of the diffeomorphisms. Unfortuantely
an infinite-dimensional Lie group is still difficult to understand with the current mathematics,
although many attempts have been done. For example, [Mumford10] gives a good introduction
to this general framework, focusing on morphing between two 2D images as input.

Table 2: Deformation class

map transformation (Lie) group

Affine (linear) local finite dimensional
Local affine (piecewise linear) global finite dimensional
Diffeomorphism global infinite dimensional

Lie group applications

Quaternion is a useful tool for controlling rotation. This also suggests that quaternion is pow-
erful in camera control. [Shoemake94a] proposed a solution of the camera twist problem using
quaternions, where H1 is treated as a fiber bundle, which means that H1 is locally homeomor-
phic to a direct product: (an open subset of 2d sphere)× (1d circle).
A special class of Lie groups and Lie algebras is realized as a (generalized) numbers, such
as quaternions. These class of numbers, called geometric algebra or Clifford algebra, has a long
history going back to the 19th century mathematician Clifford. A graphical approach regarding

42
this concept is found in [Hanson06]. An interpolation technique for the orthogonal group O(n)
of size n  4 is applied for the crowd control in [Takahashi09].
Recently the Lie group integrators have been applied to computer animation: [Kobilarov09]
provides a holonomic system for vehicle animations, and [Tournier12] presents a control system
providing trade-off between physical-simulation and kinematics control using a metric interpo-
lation and real-time animation. The latter one uses PGA, as described next.
Principal geodesic analysis (PGA [Fletcher04]) provides a new statistical shape analysis
method for data manifold. The data manifold typically means the collection of shape data,
such as of hippocampus in medical imaging [Fletcher04], or the pose manifold of a notion
capture sequence in computer animation [Tournier12]. As is well known, Principal Component
Analysis (PCA) is a standard technique for dimension reduction of statistical data lying on a
Enclidian space. PGA is a generalization of this technique for curved data manifold. In PGA the
concept of Lie group plays a fundamental role and it acts on the data manifold as a symmetric
Riemaninan manifold.
Finally, for a more mathematical aspect of Lie groups and Lie algebras, we would like to
refer to the classical literatures: [Helgason78] and [Knapp96]. Though those are a bit far from
graphics applications, you can consult them to know more about the basic ideas in Lie theory,
which we believe will be quite useful for further graphics research.

43
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST)
Program “Mathematics for Computer Graphics” of Japan Science and Technology Agency
(JST). The authors are grateful to Shizuo Kaji, Gengdai Liu, J.P. Lewis and Sampei Hirose
for their valuable discussions.
Finally but not the least, the deepest thanks from the authors go to Ayumi Kimura for her
valuable discussions and continuous encouragements to make this course possible.

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