You don’t necessarily have to understand everything about transformation matrices to use them. Just understand then when you multiply a point by a transformation matrix, you’re applying scaling, rotation, and translation to that point all at once.

If you do want to understand more, you can use ICE to visualize what goes into a transformation matrix:

And you can do some reading 🙂

• Simple Introduction to Matrix’s in Softimage
• SRT matrix explanation on si-community (from Daniel B.)
• SRT Values in Transoformation Matrices (video)
• How to Read a 3×3 Matrix
• What is Softimage scaling anyway?