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 TypeScript

There are different ways of creating a React application from scratch (Vite, for instance, also supports this), but the most common way is to use the yarn create react-app lts-tf --template TypeScript command from the command line. Just like with Vite, this will create a new project. For this example, we’ve created this project in the lts-tf directory. Once created, we have to add the Three.js libraries just like we did for Vite:

$ yarn create react-app lts-tf --template TypeScript
...
$ cd lts-tf
$ yarn add three
$ yarn add -D @types/three
$ yarn install

This should set up a simple react TypeScript application, add the correct Three.js libraries, and install all the other required modules. The next step is to quickly check if all this works. Run the yarn start command:

$ yarn start
Compiled successfully!
You can now view lts-tf in the browser.
  Local:           ...