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

Geometry grouping and merging

In this section, we’ll look at two basic features of Three.js: grouping objects together and merging multiple geometries into a single geometry. We’ll start with grouping objects.

Grouping objects together

In some of the previous chapters, you already saw how you can group objects when working with multiple materials. When you create a mesh from a geometry using multiple materials, Three.js creates a group. Multiple copies of your geometry are added to this group, each with its own specific material. This group is returned, so it looks like a mesh that uses multiple materials. In truth, however, it is a group that contains a number of meshes.

Creating groups is very easy. Every mesh you create can contain child elements, which can be added using the add function. The effect of adding a child object to a group is that you can move, scale, rotate, and translate the parent object, and all the child objects will also be affected. When...