Rotations can transform the orientation of a shape in any direction.

Rotation orients a coordinate system about a rotation axis by a rotation angle measured in radians. To help remember positive and negative rotation directions: open your hand, stick out your thumb, aim your thumb in an axis positive direction, and curl your fingers around the axis. The curl direction is a positive rotation.

These X3D scenes are adapted directly from the original VRML 2.0 Sourcebook chapter examples. Also available: Introduction to VRML97 SIGGRAPH98 course notes.