I want to animate a ball travelling in 3-D space along a parametrized curve, say a helix. In 2-D space, I use the 'viscircles' function to draw a circle at a specific point and fixed radius. This is very easy to loop:
%ball travelling in 2-D space along a circle of radius 1
t = 0:0.01:2*pi; x = cos(t); y = sin(t); for i=1:length(t) ballpoint = [x(i) y(i)]; ball = viscircles(ballpoint,0.05) %draws circle of radius 0.05 at point 'ballpoint'
drawnow if i<length(t) %deletes ball at position (x(i),y(i)) when ball is at position (x(i+1),y(i+1))
delete(ball); end end
the code above is very simple and straightforward. I thought there would be an analogous function of the same sort as 'viscircles' that would draw a sphere about a point and fixed radius, but there isn't. How could I make a similar animation as the one above, only in 3-D space with a sphere travelling on a helix?
Best Answer