How to rotate an SKSpriteNode around the node's Y-axis?

Question

I'm trying to rotate an SKSpriteNode node around it's Y-axis. I know there's the zRotation property and that will rotate the node clockwise or counter-clockwise; however, I'd like to rotate the node around it's own Y axis (like a dancing ballerina for instance), and I can't seem to find any functionality to do so. What is the best recommended way of doing this?

Answer 1

Although SpriteKit doesn't have full 2.5D capabilities (rotating and transforming along X, Y and Z axes), I've developed a work around for rotating SKSpriteNodes around either the X or Y axes. Because SKView is a subclass of UIView, we can rotate it in 3D space the same way we rotate a UIView, using CATransform3D.

The main point is that the sprite that needs to be rotated on the Y axis lives in its own scene, which is presented in its own SKView.

Triggering the following code on in a loop will animate your SKView (containing the SKScene and the SKSpriteNode) on the y axis. You can still have your main scene running at the same time in the background and swap in the sprites that need to be animated on the y axis and then swap them out when animation complete, and remove Y rotation scene. It's not a pretty solution, but it's all there is until Apple adds better 2.5D capabilities.

I've written a tutorial on SpriteKit and 2.5D with sample code if you need more info. http://www.sdkboy.com/?p=283

self.rotAngle -= 10;

float angle = (M_PI / 180.0f) * self.rotAngle/10;

CATransform3D transform3DRotation = CATransform3DMakeRotation(1.0, angle, 0.0, 0.0);

self.mySKView.layer.transform = transform3DRotation;

Answer 2

    SKSpriteNode *sprite = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithImageNamed:@"Spaceship"];
    sprite.position = location;
    SKAction* action0 = [SKAction scaleXTo:1.0 duration:0.5];
    SKAction* action1 = [SKAction scaleXTo:0.1 duration:0.5];
    SKAction* action2 = [SKAction scaleXTo:-0.1 duration:0.5];
    SKAction* action3 = [SKAction scaleXTo:-1.0 duration:0.5];

    SKAction* action = [SKAction sequence:@[action0, action1, action2, action3]];
    [sprite runAction:[SKAction repeatActionForever:action]];

    [self addChild:sprite];

This will get you what looks like a 3D card flip, but obviously if you're expecting an object to have depth you wont get that programatically with scaling.

Or well less animations (As LearnCocos2D suggested):

    SKSpriteNode *sprite = [SKSpriteNode spriteNodeWithImageNamed:@"Spaceship"];
    sprite.position = location;
    SKAction* action0 = [SKAction scaleXTo:1.0 duration:0.5];
    SKAction* action1 = [SKAction scaleXTo:-1.0 duration:0.5];

    SKAction* action = [SKAction sequence:@[action0, action1]];
    [sprite runAction:[SKAction repeatActionForever:action]];

    [self addChild:sprite];