Book Image

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

By : Jos Dirksen
Book Image

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

By: Jos Dirksen

Overview of this book

<p>Three.js is a JavaScript 3D library that offers a wide range of features for creating and displaying stunning 3D computer graphics on a web browser in an intuitive manner using JavaScript without having to deal with the complexity of a WebGL low-level API. Even though WebGL makes it possible to create 3D graphics in the browser without having to use plugins, programming WebGL, however, is hard and complex. This book shows you how Three.js allows you to be independent of browser plugins.</p> <p>If you are an experienced web designer who wants to set the tone for an immersive design environment in your applications then this book is for you.<br /><br />"Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL" is a practical, example-rich book that will help you to master all the features of Three.js. With this book, you’ll learn how to create and animate gorgeous looking 3D scenes directly in your browser utilizing the full potential of WebGL and modern browsers without having to learn WebGL.<br /><br />"Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL" starts by going over the basic concepts and building blocks used in Three.js. From there on, it will expand on these subjects using extensive examples and code samples. This will allow you to learn everything you need to know about Three.js in an easy and interactive manner.</p> <p>Besides the basic concepts, this book will show you how you can create realistic looking 3D objects using materials and textures as well as how to load them from externally created models. You’ll learn how to easily control the camera using the Three.js build-in camera controls so you can fly or walk around the 3D scene you have created. You will also learn how to use morph and bones-based animation and how to add physics to your scene.</p> <p>After reading Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL and playing around with the extensive set of examples, you’ll know everything that is required to create 3D animating graphics using Three.js that run in any browser.</p>

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Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL
Jos Dirksen
Oct, 2013 | 402 pages
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Table of Contents (20 chapters)
Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL
Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
Acknowledgement
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Creating Your First 3D Scene with Three.js
Creating Your First 3D Scene with Three.js
Requirements for using Three.js
Getting the source code
Creating an HTML skeleton page
Rendering and viewing a 3D object
Adding materials, lights, and shadows
Expanding your first scene with animations
Using the dat.GUI library to make experimenting easier
Using the ASCII effect
Summary
2
Working with the Basic Components That Make Up a Three.js Scene
Working with the Basic Components That Make Up a Three.js Scene
Creating a scene
Working with the Geometry and Mesh objects
Using the available cameras for different uses
Summary
3
Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js
Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js
Exploring the lights provided by Three.js
Learning about the basic lights
Summary
4
Working with the Three.js Materials
Working with the Three.js Materials
Understanding the common material properties
Starting with the simple Mesh materials (basic, depth, and face)
Learning about the advanced materials
Using the materials for a line geometry
Summary
5
Learning to Work with Geometries
Learning to Work with Geometries
The basic geometries provided by Three.js
Summary
6
Using Advanced Geometries and Binary Operations
Using Advanced Geometries and Binary Operations
ConvexGeometry
LatheGeometry
Create a geometry by extruding
Creating 3D text
Using binary operations to combine meshes
Summary
7
Particles and the Particle System
Particles and the Particle System
Understanding particles
Particles, the particle system, and the BasicParticleMaterial
Styling particles with the HTML5 canvas
Using textures to style particles
Creating a particle system from an advanced geometry
Summary
8
Creating and Loading Advanced Meshes and Geometries
Creating and Loading Advanced Meshes and Geometries
Geometry grouping and merging
Summary
9
Animations and Moving the Camera
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
Loading and Working with Textures
Using textures in materials
Advanced usage of textures
Summary
11
Custom Shaders and Render Post Processing
Custom Shaders and Render Post Processing
Setting up the post processing
Post processing passes
Creating custom post processing shaders
Summary
12
Adding Physics to Your Scene with Physijs
Adding Physics to Your Scene with Physijs
Creating a basic Three.js scene ready for Physijs
Material properties
Basic supported shapes
Using constraints to limit movement of objects
Summary
Index
Index

Requirements for using Three.js

Three.js is a JavaScript library, so all that you need to create Three.js WebGL applications is a text editor and one of the supported browsers to render the results. I do like to recommend three JavaScript editors, which I've started using exclusively over the last couple of years:

  • WebStorm: This editor from the JetBrains guides has great support for editing JavaScript. It supports code completion, automatic deployment, and JavaScript debugging directly from the editor. Besides this, WebStorm has excellent Git support (and other Version Control Systems). You can download a trial edition from http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/

  • Notepad++: This is a general purpose editor that supports a wide range of programming languages. It can easily lay out and format JavaScript.

    Note

    Notepad++ is only for Windows.

  • Sublime Text Editor: This is a great little editor that has very good support for editing JavaScript. Besides this, it provides many very helpful selection and edit options, which once you get used to, provide a real good JavaScript editing environment. Sublime Text Editor can also be tested for free and can be downloaded from http://www.sublimetext.com/

Even if you don't use these three editors there are a lot of editors available, open source and commercial, which you can use to edit JavaScript and create your Three.js projects. An interesting project that you might want to look into is http://c9.io. This is a cloud-based JavaScript editor that can be connected to a GitHub account. This way you can directly access all the source code and examples from this book, and experiment with them.

I had mentioned that most modern web browsers support WebGL and can be used to run the Three.js examples. I usually run my code in Chrome. The reason is that, most often, Chrome has the best support and performance for WebGL and it has a really great JavaScript debugger. With this debugger you can quickly pinpoint problems, for instance, by using breakpoints and console output. Throughout this book I'll give you pointers on debugger usage and other debugging tips and tricks.

That's enough of an introduction for now; let's get the source code and start with the first scene.

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