Quaternion Rotation Visualizer
Quaternions are the standard way games and spacecraft represent 3D rotation without gimbal lock. This visualizer lets you point a rotation axis, set an angle, and see both the rotated cube and the unit quaternion q = (cos θ/2, sin θ/2 · â) that encodes it. An animation slerps smoothly from the identity to your rotation — the shortest path on the quaternion sphere — so you can see why interpolating quaternions beats interpolating Euler angles.
Runs 100% in your browser — simulations are computed locally on your device.
Read the full guide to this tool
Notes
- A rotation by θ about unit axis â is the quaternion (cos θ/2, â sin θ/2); rotating a vector is q v q⁻¹.
- q and −q give the same rotation — the quaternion sphere double-covers the rotations.
- Slerp interpolates along a great circle of the quaternion sphere, giving constant-speed rotation with no gimbal lock.
- Runs 100% in your browser — simulations are computed locally on your device.
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