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

Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL - Second Edition: Create stunning 3D graphics in your browser using the Three.js JavaScript library

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Profile Icon Jos Dirksen
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Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4 (14 Ratings)
Paperback Mar 2015 422 pages 1st Edition
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Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Jos Dirksen
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NZ$80.99
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4 (14 Ratings)
Paperback Mar 2015 422 pages 1st Edition
eBook
NZ$14.99 NZ$64.99
Paperback
NZ$80.99
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NZ$14.99 NZ$64.99
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Learning Three.js: The JavaScript 3D Library for WebGL - Second Edition

Chapter 2. Basic Components That Make Up a Three.js Scene

In the previous chapter, you learned the basics of Three.js. We showed a couple of examples, and you created your first complete Three.js scene. In this chapter, we'll dive a bit deeper into Three.js and explain the basic components that make up a Three.js scene. In this chapter, you'll explore the following topics:

  • The components that are used in a Three.js scene
  • What you can do with the THREE.Scene object
  • How geometries and meshes are related
  • The difference between the orthographic and perspective cameras

We start with looking at how you can create a scene and add objects.

Creating a scene

In the previous chapter, you created THREE.Scene, so you already know the basics of Three.js. We saw that for a scene to show anything, we need three types of components:

Component

Description

Camera

This determines what is rendered on the screen.

Lights

These have an effect on how materials are shown and used when creating shadow effects (discussed in detail in Chapter 3, Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js).

Objects

These are the main objects that are rendered from the perspective of the camera: cubes, spheres, and the like.

THREE.Scene serves as the container for all these different objects. This object itself doesn't have that many options and functions.

Note

THREE.Scene is a structure that is sometimes also called a scene graph. A scene graph is a structure that can hold all necessary information of a graphical scene. In Three.js, this means that THREE.Scene contains all the objects, lights, and other objects necessary for rendering...

Geometries and meshes

In each of the examples until now, you've seen geometries and meshes being used. For instance, to add a sphere to the scene, we did the following:

var sphereGeometry = new THREE.SphereGeometry(4,20,20);
var sphereMaterial = new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({color: 0x7777ff);
var sphere = new THREE.Mesh(sphereGeometry,sphereMaterial);

We defined the shape of the object and its geometry (THREE.SphereGeometry), we defined what this object looks like (THREE.MeshBasicMaterial) and its material, and we combined these two in a mesh (THREE.Mesh) that can be added to a scene. In this section, we'll take a closer look at what a geometry is and what a mesh is. We'll start with the geometry.

The properties and functions of a geometry

Three.js comes with a large set of geometries out of the box that you can use in your 3D scene. Just add a material, create a mesh, and you're pretty much done. The following screenshot, from example 04-geometries, shows a couple of the...

Different cameras for different uses

There are two different camera types in Three.js: the orthographic camera and the perspective camera. In Chapter 3, Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js, we'll have a much more detailed look at how to work with these cameras, so in this chapter, I'll stick to the basics. The best way to explain the differences between these cameras is by looking at a couple of examples.

Orthographic camera versus perspective camera

In the examples for this chapter, you can find a demo called 07-both-cameras.html. When you open this example, you'll see something like this:

Orthographic camera versus perspective camera

This is called a perspective view and is the most natural view. As you can see from this figure, the farther away the cubes are from the camera, the smaller they are rendered.

If we change the camera to the other type supported by Three.js, the orthographic camera, you'll see the following view of the same scene:

Orthographic camera versus perspective camera

With the orthographic camera, all the cubes are...

Summary

We discussed a lot of items in this second introduction chapter. We showed all the functions and properties of THREE.Scene and explained how you can use these properties to configure your main scene. We also showed you how you can create geometries. You can either create them from scratch using a THREE.Geometry object or use any of the built-in geometries Three.js provides. Finally, we showed you how you can configure the two cameras Three.js provides. THREE.PerspectiveCamera renders a scene using a real-world perspective, and THREE.OrthographicCamera provides a fake 3D effect also often seen in games. We've also introduced how geometries work in Three.js. You can now easily create your own geometries.

In the next chapter, we'll look at the various light sources that are available in Three.js. You'll learn how the various light sources behave, how to create and configure them, and how they affect specific materials.

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Description

If you know JavaScript and want to start creating 3D graphics that run in any browser, this book is a great choice for you. You don't need to know anything about math or WebGL; all that you need is general knowledge of JavaScript and HTML.

What you will learn

  • Use the different geometries that are provided by Three.js
  • Apply realistic lighting and shadows to the 3D objects you have created
  • Use the different camera controls provided by Three.js to effortlessly navigate around your 3D scene
  • Make use of advanced textures on materials to create realisticlooking 3D objects by using bump maps, normal maps, specular maps, and light maps
  • Import and animate models from external formats, such as OBJ, STL, Collada, and many more
  • Create and run animations using morph targets and bone animations
  • Explore the Physijs JavaScript library to apply physics to your 3D objects
  • Interact directly with WebGL by creating custom vertex and fragment shaders
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Length: 422 pages
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Table of Contents

13 Chapters
1. Creating Your First 3D Scene with Three.js Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
2. Basic Components That Make Up a Three.js Scene Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
3. Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
4. Working with Three.js Materials Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
5. Learning to Work with Geometries Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
6. Advanced Geometries and Binary Operations Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
7. Particles, Sprites, and the Point Cloud Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
8. Creating and Loading Advanced Meshes and Geometries Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
9. Animations and Moving the Camera Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
10. Loading and Working with Textures Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
11. Custom Shaders and Render Postprocessing Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
12. Adding Physics and Sounds to Your Scene Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Index Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Half star icon 4.4
(14 Ratings)
5 star 71.4%
4 star 14.3%
3 star 7.1%
2 star 0%
1 star 7.1%
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christian sasso May 22, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
It is amazing how much one can do by simply reading the first 2 or 3 chapters: part of it is because THREE.js is a great little library, and in part the author deserves credit for his clear and concise explanations. This is a fast moving world and some of the examples raise warning in the console of modern browsers: what one has to go is perform the usual googling that is part of the daily rituals of every software engineer, so I am not lowering my stars because of that: I think that this book is as good as a book can be nowadays that technology moves at its pretty reckless pace.I am not affiliated with the author and did buy this book with my own hard earned money.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
August Bollinger Jun 28, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
This book covers everything you will need to get started using Three.js and more. It's written well, with easy to understand phrasing, and in a way that is educational. My favorite chapter was Chapter 3: Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Tina Z Jun 10, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Love this book! It is very easy to follow and the examples can be applied directly which allowed me to create stunning 3D graphics using JavaScript in an effortless way. And it also shows cool things like how to use the HTML5 video and canvas elements as a material for 3D objects and how to add physics such as gravity and collision detection to the scene etc. Highly recommend it!
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Marcus Jul 14, 2015
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
It's an excellent book for getting started. The author has a lot of examples that you can work on without any installation whatsoever. My only advice is to brush up on Linear Alegbra if you want to have a full understanding of the content. If you are looking to get down to business and start programming right away this is a good book to get you going.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Keith Hoffman Mar 03, 2016
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Great Resource! Helps tremendously...
Amazon Verified review Amazon
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