It is because amplitude of your `Sin` function is very small relative to the length of its arc (you picked `0.001 Sin[x]`), so it looks almost flat when you rotate it. You can see it non-flat initially because Mathematica auto-rescales Y-axes to zoom in on your small amplitude. You can see that there is nothing wrong with rotation if you pick amplitude comparable to the length arc: fig0=Plot[Sin[x],{x,0,Pi},Axes->False]; Manipulate[ Graphics[ GeometricTransformation[fig0[[1]],RotationTransform[r]], Frame->True,Axes->True,PlotRange->3], {r,0,2Pi}] [![enter image description here][1]][1] [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/C0lI1.gif