3D Voxel Animation: Beehive

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a beehive using SpatialStudio. The script creates a realistic beehive with buzzing bees that fly around it in organic patterns, then saves the animation to a .splv file.

What this script does

Creates a 3D scene of size 128×128×128
Builds a hexagonal beehive structure with:
- Layered honeycomb texture
- Natural brown and amber coloring
- Detailed entrance hole
Spawns 12 animated bees that:
- Buzz around the hive in figure-8 patterns
- Have yellow and black striped bodies
- Move with realistic wing flutter
Animates the scene for 10 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file beehive.splv that you can play in your viewer

How it works (simplified)

Voxel volume Each frame is a 3D grid filled with RGBA values (SIZE × SIZE × SIZE × 4).
Beehive structure The hive is built using layered ovals that get smaller toward the top, creating a natural dome shape.
Honeycomb texture Hexagonal patterns are added to the surface using sine wave calculations for realistic texture.
Flying bees Each bee follows a unique orbital path around the hive with slight randomization for natural movement.
Bee bodies Bees are drawn as small ellipsoids with alternating yellow and black stripes.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, ensuring all motion loops smoothly.
Encoding Frames are passed into splv.Encoder, which writes them into the .splv video file.

Try it yourself

Install requirements first:

pip install spatialstudio numpy tqdm

Then copy this script into beehive.py and run:

python beehive.py

Full Script

import numpy as np
from spatialstudio import splv
from tqdm import tqdm

# Scene setup
SIZE, FPS, SECONDS = 128, 30, 10
FRAMES = FPS * SECONDS
CENTER_X = CENTER_Y = CENTER_Z = SIZE // 2
OUT_PATH = "../outputs/beehive.splv"

# Beehive settings
HIVE_HEIGHT = 35
HIVE_BASE_RADIUS = 20
BEE_COUNT = 12

def add_voxel(volume, x, y, z, color):
    if 0 <= x < SIZE and 0 <= y < SIZE and 0 <= z < SIZE:
        volume[x, y, z, :3] = color
        volume[x, y, z, 3] = 255

def generate_beehive(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    # Main hive colors
    hive_brown = (101, 67, 33)
    hive_amber = (191, 148, 63)
    dark_brown = (62, 39, 35)
    
    # Build hive layers from bottom to top
    for layer in range(HIVE_HEIGHT):
        progress = layer / HIVE_HEIGHT
        # Hive gets narrower toward top
        layer_radius = int(HIVE_BASE_RADIUS * (1.0 - progress * 0.7))
        y_pos = cy - HIVE_HEIGHT//2 + layer
        
        # Create oval cross-section for each layer
        for angle in np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, layer_radius * 6):
            for r in range(layer_radius):
                x_offset = int(r * np.cos(angle))
                z_offset = int(r * 0.8 * np.sin(angle))  # Slightly flattened
                
                x, y, z = cx + x_offset, y_pos, cz + z_offset
                
                # Honeycomb texture using sine waves
                texture = np.sin(x * 0.4) * np.sin(z * 0.4) * np.sin(y * 0.3)
                
                # Choose color based on texture and position
                if texture > 0.3:
                    color = hive_amber
                elif texture < -0.3:
                    color = dark_brown
                else:
                    color = hive_brown
                
                # Add some brightness variation
                brightness = 0.8 + 0.4 * (0.5 + 0.5 * np.sin(t + x*0.1 + z*0.1))
                final_color = tuple(int(c * brightness) for c in color)
                
                add_voxel(volume, x, y, z, final_color)
    
    # Create entrance hole
    entrance_y = cy - 5
    for dx in range(-4, 5):
        for dz in range(-3, 4):
            if dx*dx + dz*dz <= 12:
                for depth in range(8):
                    add_voxel(volume, cx + dx - depth, entrance_y + dx//2, cz + dz, (0,0,0))

def generate_bee(volume, x, y, z, t, bee_id):
    # Bee colors
    bee_yellow = (255, 215, 0)
    bee_black = (20, 20, 20)
    wing_color = (200, 200, 255)
    
    # Bee body (small ellipsoid)
    body_length = 4
    for i in range(-body_length, body_length + 1):
        for j in range(-2, 3):
            for k in range(-2, 3):
                if i*i/16 + j*j/4 + k*k/4 <= 1:
                    # Alternating stripes
                    if abs(i) % 3 == 0:
                        color = bee_black
                    else:
                        color = bee_yellow
                    add_voxel(volume, x + i, y + j, z + k, color)
    
    # Animated wings
    wing_flutter = np.sin(t * 15 + bee_id) * 0.5
    wing_positions = [
        (2, 1, -3 + int(wing_flutter)), (2, 1, 3 - int(wing_flutter)),
        (-2, 1, -3 + int(wing_flutter)), (-2, 1, 3 - int(wing_flutter))
    ]
    
    for wx, wy, wz in wing_positions:
        add_voxel(volume, x + wx, y + wy, z + wz, wing_color)

def generate_flying_bees(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    for bee_id in range(BEE_COUNT):
        # Each bee follows a unique orbital pattern
        base_angle = (bee_id / BEE_COUNT) * 2 * np.pi
        
        # Figure-8 pattern with some randomization
        orbit_radius = 25 + 15 * np.sin(bee_id * 0.7)
        speed = 1.0 + 0.5 * np.sin(bee_id * 1.3)
        
        # Main orbital motion
        angle = base_angle + t * speed
        x_orbit = orbit_radius * np.cos(angle)
        z_orbit = orbit_radius * np.sin(angle)
        
        # Figure-8 vertical motion
        y_orbit = 10 * np.sin(2 * angle + bee_id)
        
        # Add some buzzing randomness
        buzz_x = 3 * np.sin(t * 8 + bee_id * 2.1)
        buzz_y = 2 * np.cos(t * 12 + bee_id * 1.7)
        buzz_z = 3 * np.cos(t * 10 + bee_id * 2.3)
        
        # Final bee position
        bee_x = int(cx + x_orbit + buzz_x)
        bee_y = int(cy + y_orbit + buzz_y)
        bee_z = int(cz + z_orbit + buzz_z)
        
        generate_bee(volume, bee_x, bee_y, bee_z, t, bee_id)

def generate_environment(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    # Add some flowers around the base
    flower_colors = [(255, 100, 150), (150, 100, 255), (255, 255, 100)]
    
    for i in range(8):
        angle = (i / 8) * 2 * np.pi
        flower_distance = 40 + 10 * np.sin(i * 0.8)
        fx = int(cx + flower_distance * np.cos(angle))
        fz = int(cz + flower_distance * np.sin(angle))
        fy = cy - HIVE_HEIGHT//2 - 5
        
        # Simple flower - just a small cluster
        color = flower_colors[i % len(flower_colors)]
        for dx in range(-2, 3):
            for dz in range(-2, 3):
                if dx*dx + dz*dz <= 4:
                    add_voxel(volume, fx + dx, fy, fz + dz, color)
                    # Stem
                    for stem in range(1, 4):
                        add_voxel(volume, fx, fy - stem, fz, (34, 139, 34))

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    generate_beehive(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_flying_bees(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_environment(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)

# Initialize encoder
enc = splv.Encoder(SIZE, SIZE, SIZE, framerate=FPS, outputPath=OUT_PATH, motionVectors="off")

# Generate all frames
for frame in tqdm(range(FRAMES), desc="Generating beehive"):
    volume = np.zeros((SIZE, SIZE, SIZE, 4), dtype=np.uint8)
    t = (frame / FRAMES) * 2 * np.pi
    generate_scene(volume, t)
    enc.encode(splv.Frame(volume, lrAxis="x", udAxis="y", fbAxis="z"))

enc.finish()
print(f"Created {OUT_PATH}")

Next steps

Increase BEE_COUNT to create a busier hive scene
Modify HIVE_HEIGHT and HIVE_BASE_RADIUS for different hive shapes
Add more flowers by changing the flower generation loop
Experiment with bee flight patterns by adjusting the orbital calculations
Try different honeycomb textures by modifying the sine wave parameters

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