Create and animate beautiful 3D graphics with this fast-paced tutorial
Overview
- Acquire thorough knowledge of the essential features of Three.js, explained using comprehensive examples
- Animate HTML5 elements directly from Three.js using the CSS3 3D renderer
- Visualize information such as sound and open data in beautiful 3D
In Detail
Create beautiful visualizations and 3D scenes using Three.js with this practical, example-rich book. Learn all the core concepts of Three.js, and whether you are targeting mobile devices or desktop browsers, you will gain the necessary skills to build a 3D application and improve web performance.
From setting up a development environment and creating your first Three.js scene, you will quickly dive into more complex scene-making. Discover a variety of possible scenes from how to make a rotating planet with data overlay to mini games. Through these examples, you will be shown an array of skills from using materials, controls, and lighting to creating particle systems and geometries from scratch.
By the end of this book, you'll be able to effectively and confidently create 3D scenes using different lights and materials, create visualizations using particle systems, animate web pages, and incorporate Blender in your 3D workflow.
What you will learn from this book
- Create standard skeletons and animation loops for Three.js projects that support WebGL and CSS3 3D
- Use textures and materials to their fullest to enhance rendering of an object
- Apply different types of lighting using the different light sources available
- Animate geometries, particle systems, and HTML5 elements with Three.js and Tween.js
- Create procedural and random geometries from scratch
- Load geometries from external sources and work with Blender as a 3D modeling tool
- Work with particle systems for advanced visualizations
Approach
This book is an easy-to-follow guide that shows the essential parts of Three.js through a set of extensive examples. Through the explanation of these examples, youll learn everything you need to know about Three.js.
Who this book is written for
If you already know JavaScript and want to quickly learn the essentials of Three.js, this book is for you. No prior knowledge of Three.js, WebGL, 3D modeling, or Math is required.
Jos Dirksen
Jos Dirksen has worked as a software developer and architect for more than a decade. He has quite a lot of experience in a large range of technologies that range from backend technologies, such as Java and Scala, to frontend development using HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. Besides working with these technologies, he also regularly speaks at conferences and likes to write about new and interesting technologies on his blog. He also likes to experiment with new technologies and see how they can be best used to create beautiful data visualizations, the results of which you can see on his blog at http://www.smartjava.org/.
Jos currently works as an enterprise architect for Malmberg, a large Dutch publisher of educational material. He helps to create a new digital platform for the creation and publication of educational content for primary, secondary, and vocational education. Previously, he worked in many different roles in the private and public sectors, ranging from private companies such as Philips and ASML to organizations in the public sector, such as the Department of Defense.
Jos has already written a book on Three.js named Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL,Packt Publishing, which is an in-depth description of all the features Three.js provides. Besides his interest in frontend JavaScript and HTML5 technologies, he is also interested in backend service development using REST and traditional web service technologies. He has already written two books on this subject. He is the co-author along with Tijs Rademakers of Open-Source ESBs in Action, Manning Publications, an action book that was published in 2008. In 2012, he published a book on how to apply SOA Governance in a practical manner, titled SOA Governance in Action, Manning Publications.
