Mark, thanks for the example. Following your example, I could make it work. Now it even works with a single keyframe in the Position and Hotpoint tracks. The direction of the rotations is wrong, but this seems to be problem of the interpolation method (no quaternions), and can be fixed with a few additional keyframes. Kixum, thanks for the information. The "multi-body method" is perfect for this sort of motion. However, I want to find out, if the same motion can be created with a single object. The background story is a bit OT. I should know in the end, which animation programs have an animatable rotation-center, and how easily it can be applied. In Carrara, the Hotpoint property works very well and straightforward (if one knows how to use it, of course). I will also test C4D, EI Animator, and maybe Bryce. Poser is a little bit special, because its Centerpoint property is not animatable by default. But there's a trick to animate the rotation-center, and even use two rotation-centers at the same time in a single object (the arrow picture shows a Poser prop animated in Poser).