Most object transforms in 3d software are matrices’ heres a rough breakdown of what they are.
A matrix in 3d is an axis defined by three vectors: X,Y and Z and fourth being it’s positional offset from an origin. The length of each axis from the origin defines the scale of that axis; 1.0 being 100%. The ‘identity’ matrix is an objects base transform e.g.
matrix3 [1,0,0] [0,1,0] [0,0,1] [0,0,0] – for the X, Y, Z axis’ and the positional offset from the origin.
So for instance if we wanted to scale an object by 200% along its X axis our matrix transform would look like this – matrix3 [2,0,0] [0,1,0] [0,0,1] [0,0,0]
Notice also that each axis is perpendicular to each other axis (90 degrees) – this is important is if it wasnt we would get skewing. Now each axis’ can point in any direction as long as the other two are perpendicular to it.
Charles Looker 