9. Animations and Moving the Camera | Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL - Second Edition

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Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL - Second Edition

By : Jos Dirksen

4.4 (14)

Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL - Second Edition

4.4 (14)

By: Jos Dirksen

Overview of this book

If you know JavaScript and want to start creating 3D graphics that run in any browser, this book is a great choice for you. You don't need to know anything about math or WebGL; all that you need is general knowledge of JavaScript and HTML.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. Creating Your First 3D Scene with Three.js

1. Creating Your First 3D Scene with Three.js

Requirements to use Three.js

Getting the source code

Creating the HTML skeleton

Rendering and viewing a 3D object

Adding materials, lights, and shadows

Expanding your first scene with animations

Using dat.GUI to make experimenting easier

Automatically resize the output when browser size changes

Summary

2. Basic Components That Make Up a Three.js Scene

2. Basic Components That Make Up a Three.js Scene

Creating a scene

Geometries and meshes

Different cameras for different uses

Summary

3. Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js

3. Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js

Different kinds of lighting provided by Three.js

Basic lights

Special lights

Summary

4. Working with Three.js Materials

4. Working with Three.js Materials

Understanding common material properties

Starting with a simple mesh

Advanced materials

Materials you can use for a line geometry

Summary

5. Learning to Work with Geometries

5. Learning to Work with Geometries

The basic geometries provided by Three.js

Summary

6. Advanced Geometries and Binary Operations

6. Advanced Geometries and Binary Operations

THREE.ConvexGeometry

THREE.LatheGeometry

Creating 3D text

Using binary operations to combine meshes

Summary

7. Particles, Sprites, and the Point Cloud

7. Particles, Sprites, and the Point Cloud

Understanding particles

Particles, THREE.PointCloud, and THREE.PointCloudMaterial

Styling particles with the HTML5 canvas

Using textures to style particles

Working with sprite maps

Creating THREE.PointCloud from an advanced geometry

Summary

8. Creating and Loading Advanced Meshes and Geometries

8. Creating and Loading Advanced Meshes and Geometries

Geometry grouping and merging

Summary

9. Animations and Moving the Camera

9. Animations and Moving the Camera

Basic animations

Working with the camera

Morphing and skeletal animation

Creating animations using external models

Summary

10. Loading and Working with Textures

10. Loading and Working with Textures

Using textures in materials

Advanced usage of textures

Summary

11. Custom Shaders and Render Postprocessing

11. Custom Shaders and Render Postprocessing

Setting up Three.js for postprocessing

Postprocessing passes

Creating custom postprocessing shaders

Summary

12. Adding Physics and Sounds to Your Scene

12. Adding Physics and Sounds to Your Scene

Creating a basic Three.js scene

Material properties

Basic supported shapes

Using constraints to limit movement of objects

Summary

Index

Index

Morphing and skeletal animation

When you create animations in external programs (for instance, Blender), you usually have two main options to define animations:

Morph targets: With morph targets, you define a deformed version, that is, a key position, of the mesh. For this deformed target, all vertex positions are stored. All you need to do to animate the shape is move all the vertices from one position to another key position and repeat that process. The following screenshot shows various morph targets used to show facial expressions (the following image has been provided by the Blender foundation):
Skeletal animation: An alternative is using skeletal animation. With skeletal animation, you define the skeleton, that is, the bones, of the mesh and attach vertices to the specific bones. Now, when you move a bone, any connected bone is also moved appropriately, and the attached vertices are moved and deformed based on the position, movement, and scaling of the bone. The following screenshot...

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