I'm trying to create an animation of an object rotating around a center point. By setting the 3D cursor a distance from the object, turning "Manipulate Centre Points" on and rotating freely, the rotation works just as a I want. For example:
The problem I'm having is when I try to animate this. When I rotate the object and try to set a "rotation" key frame, the rotation doesn't work. I think this is because "Manipulate Centre Points" does not actually change the rotation, only the location:
I've managed to create a work-around by rotating the object small amounts, then creating "location" keyframes for each step. But this an approximation of the rotation, because the object is actually moving in a straight line between keyframes rather than in a true circle. Is there a better/easier way to do this?
Edit: Omar Ahmad, Xtremity & PGmath's answers below all work perfectly. PGMath has some animated GIFs in the answer, for which I clicked "accept".