How to melt a 3D object with three.js

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The web as we know it, is constantly changing and evolving. What we still can remember as a simple and straightforward medium gained another dimension a few years ago, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop there either. For a website builder, what was once part of science-fiction movie visual effects is now possible on a tablet lying on your couch, and there are buildings covered in large-scale interactive installations that are actually just fullscreen Google Chrome windows.

Follow the steps below to find out how to create a realistic melting effect with three.js.

01. Set up the three.js scene

Go ahead and grab the three.js library and include it in your site. You’ll need to instantiate the WebGLRenderer, the Scene and PerspectiveCamera. After these are instantiated, you will need to render the scene on RequestAnimationFrame.

02. Add lighting to the scene

Next, lights need to be added to the 3D scene. In this example, two lights will be used: an ambient light and a point light. The ambient light serves as an overall global colour for the scene, while the point light will emit light that diminishes with distance. This will give the scene some contrast.

03. Load the 3D model

Now that the scene has been set up, the 3D model needs to be loaded in. The model can be loaded using any supported format (JSON, OBJ, DAE, etc). Below is an example of loading a DAE model. In this example, it’s very important that the model has enough polygons to perform vertex modifications. 

The deer skull that’s being used in this example has 3,500 polys. If the poly count is too low, the vertex animations will be too explicit and distorted. 

04. Add a bump map

Bump maps are perfect for adding depth to your textures at a low cost. Once you’ve created your bump map image, you can implement it by simply applying it to the material like below. Also, you’ll need to adjust the scale of your bump map to fit the scale of your model.

05. Use the vertex animator

Throughout his site, Johnny utilises a game extension by Jerome Etienne for three.js that makes it easier to do vertex animations. This extension allows easy access to each vertex of a model at the frame rate, making it straightforward to manipulate vertices using waveforms. 

The Vertex Animation extension is available via Etienne’s GitHub. We’ll go further into how it’s used in the next steps.

Users can interact with the 3D model and view from multiple angles

06. Start melting

Melting a piece of geometry involves a few overall steps. First, each point is continuously pushed downwards. When a point reaches the ground, it’s pushed outwards using what we’ll call a ‘push vector’. 

Next, we’ll give the points that gather along the bottom a thickness so the melted geometry isn’t completely flat. In order to achieve this, Johnny has ported code from Skeel Lee’s VFX shader in Houdini and modified it.

07. Start moving the vertices downwards

Below is an example usage of using the vertex animator to continuously push a model’s geometry towards the ground.

This will push points down at the rate defined by the meltAmount. Remember to also call ‘update’ on your vertex animation in the render cycle.

08. Determine the push vector

When a point has reached the ground, it needs to be pushed outwards to achieve a melt effect. The code below is determining which direction in the X and Z axes to push the vertex so that you get a uniform displacement. The conditional ensures that only points that have reached the lowest bounds of the model (the ground) are pushed outwards.

09. Make the melt feel natural

The code below uses noise to create randomness in the movement so the melt feels organic. The noise variables can be tweaked to get the effect desired. The noise is then applied to the push vector along with meltAmount and spreadAmount to control the rate and size of the melted pool. This outward vector is finally calculated and then applied to the vertex itself.

10. Give the melted pool thickness

The code explained so far will achieve the melt effect, but two things are wrong with it. First, the pool will feel quite flat, because all of the points have melted to the same Y position. Secondly, since they all share the same Y, too many points will be stacked at the same height, which can cause flickering. To avoid this, a thickness is applied at the melt rate:

11. Try it out on other models

With the code above, any model with enough polygons can be melted. Download a zip file out the code here and swap out the model with anything you’d like. Have fun!

This article originally appeared in Web Designer issue 265. Buy it here.

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