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

Product type Paperback

Published in Mar 2015

Last Updated in Feb 2025

Publisher

ISBN-13 9781784392215

Length 422 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

JavaScript

Tools

Three.js

Concepts

Data Visualization

Author (1):

Jos Dirksen

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Table of Contents (14) Chapters

Preface

1. Creating Your First 3D Scene with Three.js FREE CHAPTER

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

3. Working with the Different Light Sources Available in Three.js

4. Working with Three.js Materials

5. Learning to Work with Geometries

6. Advanced Geometries and Binary Operations

7. Particles, Sprites, and the Point Cloud

8. Creating and Loading Advanced Meshes and Geometries

9. Animations and Moving the Camera

10. Loading and Working with Textures

11. Custom Shaders and Render Postprocessing

12. Adding Physics and Sounds to Your Scene

Index

Basic lights

We'll start with the most basic of the lights: THREE.AmbientLight.

THREE.AmbientLight

When you create THREE.AmbientLight, the color is applied globally. There isn't a specific direction this light comes from, and THREE.AmbientLight doesn't contribute to any shadows. You would normally not use THREE.AmbientLight as the single source of light in a scene since it colors all the objects in the same color, regardless of shape. You use it together with other lighting sources, such as THREE.SpotLight or THREE.DirectionalLight to soften the shadows or add some additional color to the scene. The easiest way to understand this is by looking at the 01-ambient-light.html example in the chapter-03 folder. With this example, you get a simple user interface that can be used to modify THREE.AmbientLight that is available in this scene. Note that in this scene, we also have THREE.SpotLight, which adds additional lighting and provides shadows.

In the following screenshot, you can...