General Scientific Researches, Vol(2), No (1), December, 2014. pp.

13-17

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General Scientific Researches

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Spherical Linear Interpolation and Bzier Curves

Mehdi Jafari*
Department of Mathematics, University College of Science and Technology Elm o Fan, Urmia, Iran.

Habib Molaei
University Technology Gazi Tabatabaei, P.O Box 57169-33959, Urmia, Iran.
*Corresponding author: mj_msc@yahoo.com

Keywords

Abstract

Bezier curve
Quaternion
Rotation
Linear interpolation

Spherical linear interpolation1, introduced by Shoemake within the context of quaternion interpolation for
the purpose of animating 3D rotation. SLERP is a simple 3D animation technique that is handy for creating
smooth curves and rotations about the surface of a sphere. In this paper, after a brief review of some
algebraic properties of quaternions, we investigate the concepts of LERP, SLERP and Bezier curves in
Euclidean space. We consider the generalized quaternions instead of quaternions, and study the linear
interpolation on elliptical sphere in a generalized 3-space.

1.

Introduction

The quaternion was first introduced by William Rowan Hamilton as a successor to complex numbers. The quaternions have been used in various
areas of mathematics. They are hyper-complex, four-dimensional numbers used to replace rotation matrices. Shoemake [5] used the spherical
linear interpolation as a simple straightforward formula for the interpolation between two points on a sphere. It is called spherical-linear because
the two quaternion rotations are interpolated uniformly along a geodesic in the surface of the 3-sphere. The main topics of this paper are
quaternions, their mathematical properties, and how they can be used to rotate objects. Also, using the real quaternions, the linear interpolation
on a sphere is provided. The main foundation for this paper is the articles [1], [3]. Recently, the linear interpolation on Lorentzian sphere
Minkowski space using split quaternions is studied. In [4], the generalized quaternions are studied and it is demonstrated how a unit generalized
3
quaternion is used to represent a rotation of a vector in 3-dimensional space E
. Here, we present some alternative discussions like the
3
normalized linear interpolation using the generalized quaternions in E
.

2.

Preliminaries

In this section, we introduce quaternion mathematics and discuss why quaternions are a better choice for implementing rotation than the wellknown matrix implementations.
A real quaternion q is defined as

q a a1i a2 j a3k

where a , a1 , a2 and a3 are real numbers and 1, i , j , k of q may be interpreted as the four basic vectors of Cartesian set of coordinates;
and they satisfy the non-commutative multiplication rules

i 2 j 2 k 2 i j k 1,

ij k ji , jk = i = kj ,
and

A quaternion

q.

ki = j = ik .

may be defined as a pair ( S q , Vq ), where S q a R is scalar part and Vq a1i a2 j a3 k R 3 is the vector part of

The quaternion product of two quaternions

and

is defined as

qp S q S p Vq , V p SqV p S pVq V p Vq

R 3 , respectively. The norm of a quaternion is given by the sum of the squares of

its components: N q a2 a12 a22 a32 , N q R. It can also be obtained by multiplying the quaternion by its conjugate ( q S q Vq ), in
where '' , '' and '' '' are the inner and vector products in

either order since a quaternion and of conjugated commute: N q q q q q . Every non-zero quaternion has a multiplicative inverse given by its
conjugate divided by its norm: q 1 q / N q . The quaternion algebra
1

Abbreviated SLERP

is a normed division algebra, meaning that for any two quaternions

Mehdi Jafari *, Habib Molaei

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General Scientific Researches Vol(2), No (1), December, 2014.

and

q, N pq N p N q ,

and the norm of every non-zero quaternion is non-zero (and positive) and therefore the multiplicative inverse exists

for any non-zero quaternion. Of course, as is well known, multiplication of quaternions is not commutative, so that in general for any two
quaternions

and q,

pq qp. This can have subtle ramifications, for example: ( pq ) 2 pq pq p 2q 2 . For detailed information about

real quaternions, we refer the reader to [7].

In 3D graphics, orientations can be represented as Euler Angles, Rotation Matrices or Quaternions. Transformation between coordinate spaces
and interpolation between one or more points are common graphics operations. Matrices are necessary when transforming and rotating
orientation vectors between coordinate spaces.
Shoemake suggests the use of quaternions to compute the rotation and spherical linear interpolation (SLERP) on parameterized Bezier Curves to
compute the in-between.

3.

Relationship of Quaternions to Rotations

q cos w sin represents the rotation of a 3D vector v

represented as a quaternion, is R(v ) q v q .

Theorem 1. For any unit quaternion q , the matrix corresponding to map R ( v ) is

A unit quaternion

by an angle

about the 3D axis

w. The rotated vector,

a02 a12 a22 a32

2(a1a2 a0 a3 )
2(a1a3 a0 a2 )

2
2
2
2
M 2(a1a2 a0 a3 ) a0 a1 a2 a3
2(a2 a3 a0 a1 ) .
2(a1a3 a0 a2 )
2(a0 a1 a2 a3 ) a02 a12 a22 a32

M is a orthogonal matrix, then the map R (v ) corresponds to a rotation in E 3 . If we take the rotation axis to be S ( s1 , s2 , s3 ),

then we

have

M I 3 S sin (1 cos ) S 2 ,
where

S is a skew-symmetric matrix,

0
S s3
s2
For detailed information about rotation in

4.

s3
0
s1

s2
s1 .
0

E 3 via real quaternions, we refer the reader to [2], [7].

Linear Interpolation

The easiest way to interpolate between two points is the use of linear interpolation (Lerp). Lerp is a basic geometric formula: given the startingand ending-points

p 0 and p1 and the interpolation parameter t 0,1 , Lerp ( p 0 , p1 , t ) yields for each t a point along the straight line

connecting them.

Lerp ( p 0 , p 1 , t ) (1 t ) p 0 t p 1.
So, linear interpolation generates unequal spacing of points after projecting to circle (Figure 1).

5.

Linear Quaternion Interpolation

Let

q , q1 be two real quaternions and h 0,1. Linear interpolation between rotation quaternions can be stated:

LERP (q 0 , q 1 , h ) (1 h )q 0 t q 1.
The interpolation curve for linear interpolation between quaternions gives a straight line in quaternion space. The curve therefore dips below the
surface of the unit sphere. Since all quaternions on a line through the origin give the same rotation, the curve can be projected on to the unit
sphere without changing the corresponding rotations. Therefore the interpolation curve is normalized (Figure 2).

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Spherical Linear Interpolation and Bezier Curves

General Scientific Researches Vol(2), No (1), December, 2014.

6.

Spherical Linear Interpolation

Spherical linear interpolation operation is best performed on quaternions to provide the smoothest interpolation between orientations.
SLERP is LERP, performed on the surface of a unit sphere. Let

p 0 and p1 be the first and last points of the arc, and let t be the parameter, 0

t 1. The geometric formula is

SLERP ( p 0 , p1 , t ) p 0 ( p 01 p1 )t
SLERP ( p 0 , p1 , t )

sin(1 t )
sin t
p0
p1.
sin
sin

The symmetry can be seen in the fact that SLERP(p0,p1 ;t) = SLERP(p1,p0;1t). In the limit as 0, this formula reduces to the
corresponding symmetric formula for linear interpolation,

SLERP ( p 0 , p1 , t ) (1 t ) p 0 t p1 .
7.

Geometric SLERP

The dot product between two vectors is only equivalent to the cosine of the angle if the two vectors are unit vectors. So the two vectors

v 2 should be interpolated in a way that interpolate v (t )

where

cos v1 .v2 .

v1

and

is moving uniformly between the two vectors and its length remains one.

sin(1 t ) sin t

v (t )
v1
v2 ,
sin
sin
Unfortunately, spherical interpolation is not available on current graphics accelerators, only linear interpolation is

supported. When using linear interpolation this results in denormalized vectors (Figure 3) and wrong shading intensities [5].

Figure 3. Linear Interpolation versus Spherical Interpolation

8.

Bzier Curves

If there are only two points between to interpolate, we simply calculate SLERP(q0,q1 ;t). But what if we want to interpolate not two, but several
points on a sphere, i.e. three (qn-1, qn, and qn+1)?

Mehdi Jafari *, Habib Molaei

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General Scientific Researches Vol(2), No (1), December, 2014.

We could interpolate first qn-1 and qn and afterwards qn and qn+1. We would get valid results, the algorithm would work. Unfortunately, we would
also remain with a non differentiable curve. To avoid this, Shoemaker suggests the use of the parametrized Bzier curves.
Bzier curves are parametric and always differentiable curves named after Pierre Bzier, who used them to design automobile bodies. The curves
are dependent on a number of parameters, three in a two-dimensional space and four in a three-dimensional environment.
We assume the three successive key quaternions qn-1 , qn , and qn+1 as given. To build a Bezier curve with them, we have to
1- compute two additional quaternion numbers, an, and bn,
2- draw a Bzier curve with the parameters qn, an, bn, and qn+1,
3- apply SLERP to the quaternions on this curve, computing the desired number of in between points,
4- and convert the data back into the original format.

Figure 4. An example for a two-dimensional Bzier curve

To construct the quaternions a and b we approximate the derivative of a sampled function (with qn-1, qn, and qn+1 as samples) by averaging the
central differences between qn-1, qn, and qn+1. We do so using the formula Shoemaker:

Biscet( p , q )

pq
pq

Double( p , q ) 2( pq ) q p

an Biscet(Double( qn 1 , qn ), qn 1 )
bn Double( an , qn )
To construct the spherical Bzier curve with the quaternion parameters qn, an, bn, and qn+1, we compute

p0,0 qn ,

p1,0 an ,

p2,0 bn 1 ,

p3,0 qn 1 ,

p0,1 SLERP ( p0,0 , p1,0 , t ),

p1,1 SLERP ( p1,0 , p2 ,0 , t ),
p0,2 SLERP ( p0 ,1 , p1,1 , t ),
and finally
p0,3 SLERP ( p0,2 , p1,2 , t ) : qn t .
while t goes from 0 to 1 in steps as big (or small) as we desire. The smaller the steps, the more calculations are needed and the smoother the
result will be [3].

9.

Conclusion

In computer graphics, Slerp in the context of quaternion interpolation for the purpose of animating 3D rotation. In this paper, we studied the
concepts of LERP, SLERP and Bezier curves in Euclidean space, completely. In the next work, we will study the linear interpolation on
elliptical sphere in 3-space

3
E
.

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Spherical Linear Interpolation and Bezier Curves

General Scientific Researches Vol(2), No (1), December, 2014.

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[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]

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Kremer V. E., Quaternions and SLERP, Embots.dfki.de/doc/seminar_ca /Kremer_Quaternions.pdf
Jafari M, Yayli Y, Generalized Quaternion and Rotation in 3-space arxiv.org/abs/1204.2476.
SLERP, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slerp
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