Book Image

Learn Three.js - Fourth Edition

By : Jos Dirksen
5 (1)
Book Image

Learn Three.js - Fourth Edition

5 (1)
By: Jos Dirksen

Overview of this book

Three.js has become the industry standard for creating stunning 3D WebGL content. In this edition, you’ll learn about all the features of Three.js and understand how to integrate it with the newest physics engines. You'll also develop a strong grip on creating and animating immersive 3D scenes directly in your browser, reaping the full potential of WebGL and modern browsers. The book starts with the basic concepts and building blocks used in Three.js and helps you explore these essential topics in detail through extensive examples and code samples. You'll learn how to create realistic-looking 3D objects using textures and materials and how to load existing models from an external source. Next, you'll understand how to control the camera using the Three.js built-in camera controls, which will enable you to fly or walk around the 3D scene you've created. Later chapters will cover the use of HTML5 video and canvas elements as materials for your 3D objects to animate your models. You’ll learn how to use morph targets and skeleton-based animation, before understanding how to add physics, such as gravity and collision detection, to your scene. Finally, you’ll master combining Blender with Three.js and creating VR and AR scenes. By the end of this book, you'll be well-equipped to create 3D-animated graphics using Three.js.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Getting Up and Running
5
Part 2: Working with the Three.js Core Components
7
Chapter 5: Learning to Work with Geometries
10
Part 3: Particle Clouds, Loading and Animating Models
14
Part 4: Post-Processing, Physics, and Sounds

Using Three.js and React with React Three Fiber

In the previous examples, we set up the integration between React and Three.js ourselves. While it works, that approach doesn’t tightly integrate with how React works. For a good integration between these frameworks, we can use React Three Fiber. We’ll start again by setting up a project.

For this, run the following commands:

$ yarn create react-app lts-r3f
$ cd lts-3rf
$ yarn install
$ yarn add three
$ yarn add @react-three/fiber

This will install all the dependencies we need and set up a new React project. To start this project in the lts-r3f directory, run yarn start, which will start a server. Open the URL you see on the screen (http://localhost:3000); you’ll see the following screen, which we’ve seen before and shows an empty React project:

Figure 14.5 – Starting up a simple JavaScript React application

Figure 14.5 – Starting up a simple JavaScript React application

As the screen starts to extend this example, we need to...