ME F318 Computer Aided Design
Geometric Transformations
Dr. Amit R. Singh
January 13, 2026
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What is a Geometric Transformation?
• A one-to-one mapping of elements from a set.
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What is a Geometric Transformation?
• A one-to-one mapping of elements from a set.
• Usually, it maps a set to itself.
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What is a Geometric Transformation?
• A one-to-one mapping of elements from a set.
• Usually, it maps a set to itself.
• The inverse mapping must exist.
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Classification of Geometric Transformations
• Based on dimensions of the set.
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Classification of Geometric Transformations
• Based on dimensions of the set.
• Based on some “special property” of the Transformation.
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Classification based on “special property”
• Isometric Transformations: preserve angles and distances.
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Classification based on “special property”
• Isometric Transformations: preserve angles and distances.
• Similarity Transformations: preserve angles and ratios of distances.
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Classification based on “special property”
• Isometric Transformations: preserve angles and distances.
• Similarity Transformations: preserve angles and ratios of distances.
• Affine Transformations: preserve parallelism.
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Classification based on “special property”
• Isometric Transformations: preserve angles and distances.
• Similarity Transformations: preserve angles and ratios of distances.
• Affine Transformations: preserve parallelism.
• Projective Transformations: preserve collinearity.
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Homogeneous Coordinates
Definition
If (x, y) are the Euclidean coordinates of a point P, in R2 , and if (x1 , x2 , x3 ) are any
three real numbers such that x1 /x3 = x and x2 /x3 = y, then the triple (x1 , x2 , x3 )
is said to be a set of homogeneous coordinates for P.
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Why Homogeneous Coordinates?
• One motivation: to define intersection of parallel lines.
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Why Homogeneous Coordinates?
• One motivation: to define intersection of parallel lines.
• It “homogenizes” equations:
→ l1 x + l2 y + l3 = 0 becomes l1 x1 + l2 x2 + l3 x3 = 0.
→ a11 x2 + 2a12 xy + a22 y 2 + 2a13 x + 2a23 y + a33 = 0.
becomes a11 x12 + 2a12 x1 x2 + a22 x22 + 2a13 x1 x3 + 2a23 x2 x3 + a33 x32 = 0.
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Why Homogeneous Coordinates?
• One motivation: to define intersection of parallel lines.
• It “homogenizes” equations:
→ l1 x + l2 y + l3 = 0 becomes l1 x1 + l2 x2 + l3 x3 = 0.
→ a11 x2 + 2a12 xy + a22 y 2 + 2a13 x + 2a23 y + a33 = 0.
becomes a11 x12 + 2a12 x1 x2 + a22 x22 + 2a13 x1 x3 + 2a23 x2 x3 + a33 x32 = 0.
• It helps us write translations as a matrix multiplication.
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Isometric Transformations
Definition
The general form of an 2D isometric transformation is
x0 cos θ − sin θ tx x
y = sin θ cos θ ty y
0
1 0 0 1 1
where is either 1 or -1.
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Properties of Isometric Transformations
• When = 1, orientation is preserved and the transformation is a rigid body
motion. Also called as Euclidean Transformations.
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Properties of Isometric Transformations
• When = 1, orientation is preserved and the transformation is a rigid body
motion. Also called as Euclidean Transformations.
• When = −1, orientation is reversed and the transformation is a reflection
composed with a rigid body motion.
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Properties of Isometric Transformations
• When = 1, orientation is preserved and the transformation is a rigid body
motion. Also called as Euclidean Transformations.
• When = −1, orientation is reversed and the transformation is a reflection
composed with a rigid body motion.
• This transformation preserves lengths, angles and areas. “Iso” = same and
“Metry” = distance.
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Similarity Transformations
Definition
The general form of a similarity transformation is
x0 s cos θ −s sin θ tx x
y = s sin θ s cos θ ty y
0
1 0 0 1 1
The upper left 2 × 2 matrix is a rotation matrix R multiplied by a scalar s.
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Properties of Similarity Transformations
• It preserves shape but not necessarily the size. Mathematically, it preserves
ratio of lengths and areas.
• The parameter s provides isotropic scaling.
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Affine Transformations
Definition
The general form of an affine transformation or an affinity is
x0 a11 a12 tx x
y = a21 a22 ty y
0
1 0 0 1 1
The upper left 2 × 2 matrix is denoted as A, the affine matrix.
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Properties of Affine Transformations
• An affinity has 6 degrees of freedom. Hence it requires, 3 points in
correspondence to uniquely determine it.
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Properties of Affine Transformations (contd.)
• In addition to the changes possible by similarity, affinity allows for shearing
i.e. non-isotropic scaling.
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Properties of Affine Transformations (contd.)
• In addition to the changes possible by similarity, affinity allows for shearing
i.e. non-isotropic scaling.
• Affinity preserves parallel lines.
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Properties of Affine Transformations (contd.)
• In addition to the changes possible by similarity, affinity allows for shearing
i.e. non-isotropic scaling.
• Affinity preserves parallel lines.
• If |A| < 0, orientation is reversed. It can therefore be used for reflection.
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Projective Transformations
Definition
The general form of a projective transformation or a projectivity is
x0 a11 a12 tx x
y = a21 a22 ty y
0
1 v1 v2 v 1
Note
The element v in the transformation matrix is used to scale all the other
elements. So it is, generally, equal to 1. But in some situations, its value needs
to be set to 0. Therefore, we say that the matrix has only 8 degrees of freedom.
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Properties of Projective Transformations
• A projectivity has 8 degrees of freedom since it is a homogeneous matrix. It
requires correspondence between 4 non-collinear points before and after
the transformation to determine the projectivity.
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Properties of Projective Transformations
• A projectivity has 8 degrees of freedom since it is a homogeneous matrix. It
requires correspondence between 4 non-collinear points before and after
the transformation to determine the projectivity.
• Collinearity is preserved.
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Properties of Projective Transformations (contd.)
A projective transformation can transform parallel lines into intersecting lines by
shifting points at infinity to finite positions.
Example
Consider a point at infinity (x1 , x2 , 0)T . Under affine transformation we get,
!
" # x1 x 1
A t A
x 2 = x 2
0T 1
0 0
which is still a point at infinity.
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Example (contd.)
But under projective transformation
!
" # x1 x1
A t A
x 2 = x 2
vT v
0 v1 x1 + v2 x2
we get a finite point if both v1 and v2 are not simultaneously 0.
Thus, projective transformations can map vanishing points.
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Vanishing Point
Courtesy: Jakec - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Vanishing Point
Courtesy: Mgunyho, original drawing by NiharikaMaheshwari, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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Combined Transformations
Transforming a point P, represented by a column vector, by transformation
matrices T1 , T2 , . . . , Tn sequentially is the same as transforming the point by a
combined transformation matrix
T = Tn Tn−1 . . . T1 .
If P is represented by a row vector, then the combined transformation matrix is
T = T1 T2 . . . Tn .
because P is pre-multiplied to a transformation matrix in this case.
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Fixed Points
Definition
A fixed point of a transformation remains unchanged under the action of the
transformation.
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Demonstrations
You can check out the interactive plots in the following notebooks
• [Link]
• [Link]
• [Link]
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Demonstrations (contd.)
1. A Geogebra based demonstration of a Projective Transformation has been made available.
2. It demonstrates “Elation” which is a 2D geometric transformation represented by the following matrix in
homogeneous coordinates
1 0 0
0 1 0
v1 v2 v
3. In the demo, the original points and lines are shown in gray. Under the action of the elation matrix, the
points are projected to the red points that lie in a 3D plane whose equation is z = v1 x + v2 y + v.
4. The final result of the projective transformation, shown in blue, are obtained by modifying the
homogeneous coordinates of the red-points such that their third coordinate is 1. This is equivalent to
projecting them to z = 1 plane. If we join the blue points with their red counterparts, we will get lines
which converge at the origin i.e. origin is the point of projection.
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Thank You!
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