Two-dimensional transformations include translations, rotations, and scalings. Transformations manipulate objects by altering their coordinate descriptions without redrawing them. Matrices can represent linear transformations and are used to describe 2D transformations. Common 2D transformations include translation by adding offsets to coordinates, rotation by applying a rotation matrix, and scaling by multiplying coordinates by scaling factors. More complex transformations can be achieved by combining basic transformations through matrix multiplication in a specific order.