Creating a 3D Voxel Brick Wall Animation

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a brick wall using SpatialStudio. The script creates a realistic brick wall with weathering effects, mortar joints, and subtle aging animations inside a cubic 3D space, then saves the animation to a .splv file.

What this script does

Creates a 3D scene of size 128×128×128
Builds a structured brick wall with:
- Individual brick blocks with realistic proportions
- Mortar joints between bricks
- Weathering and aging effects
- Subtle color variations for realism
Animates subtle weathering and lighting changes for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file brick_wall.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).
Brick layout Bricks are arranged in a traditional offset pattern with proper mortar spacing.
Mortar joints Gray mortar fills the gaps between bricks, creating realistic joint lines.
Weathering effects Random variations in brick color and subtle aging patterns make the wall look authentic.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, creating subtle lighting and weathering changes.
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 brick_wall.py and run:

python brick_wall.py

Full Script

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

# Scene setup
SIZE, FPS, SECONDS = 128, 30, 8
FRAMES = FPS * SECONDS
CENTER_X = CENTER_Y = CENTER_Z = SIZE // 2
OUT_PATH = "../outputs/brick_wall.splv"

# Brick wall settings
BRICK_WIDTH = 12
BRICK_HEIGHT = 6
BRICK_DEPTH = 8
MORTAR_THICKNESS = 2
WALL_WIDTH = 80
WALL_HEIGHT = 80

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 get_brick_color(base_color, x, y, z, t):
    # Add weathering and variation
    noise = np.sin(x * 0.1 + y * 0.15 + z * 0.2 + t * 0.3) * 0.1
    age_factor = np.sin(x * 0.05 + y * 0.08 + t * 0.5) * 0.15
    
    r, g, b = base_color
    r = max(0, min(255, int(r * (1 + noise + age_factor))))
    g = max(0, min(255, int(g * (1 + noise * 0.5 + age_factor * 0.7))))
    b = max(0, min(255, int(b * (1 + noise * 0.3 + age_factor * 0.5))))
    
    return (r, g, b)

def generate_brick(volume, start_x, start_y, start_z, brick_id, t):
    # Base brick colors with variation
    brick_colors = [
        (180, 65, 45),   # Classic red brick
        (165, 75, 55),   # Darker red
        (195, 85, 65),   # Lighter red
        (170, 60, 40),   # Deep red
    ]
    
    base_color = brick_colors[brick_id % len(brick_colors)]
    
    for dx in range(BRICK_WIDTH):
        for dy in range(BRICK_HEIGHT):
            for dz in range(BRICK_DEPTH):
                x, y, z = start_x + dx, start_y + dy, start_z + dz
                
                # Add texture to brick surface
                if dx == 0 or dx == BRICK_WIDTH-1 or dy == 0 or dy == BRICK_HEIGHT-1:
                    # Edge highlighting
                    edge_brightness = 1.1 + 0.05 * np.sin(t * 2 + dx + dy)
                    color = tuple(min(255, int(c * edge_brightness)) for c in base_color)
                else:
                    color = get_brick_color(base_color, x, y, z, t)
                
                add_voxel(volume, x, y, z, color)

def generate_mortar(volume, x, y, z, t):
    # Mortar color with slight variation
    base_gray = 120
    variation = int(15 * np.sin(x * 0.1 + y * 0.1 + t * 0.2))
    gray_value = max(100, min(140, base_gray + variation))
    mortar_color = (gray_value, gray_value, gray_value)
    add_voxel(volume, x, y, z, mortar_color)

def generate_wall_structure(volume, t):
    wall_start_x = CENTER_X - WALL_WIDTH // 2
    wall_start_y = CENTER_Y - WALL_HEIGHT // 2
    wall_start_z = CENTER_Z - BRICK_DEPTH // 2
    
    brick_id = 0
    
    # Generate brick rows
    y = wall_start_y
    row = 0
    
    while y < wall_start_y + WALL_HEIGHT:
        x = wall_start_x
        
        # Offset every other row for traditional brick pattern
        if row % 2 == 1:
            x += BRICK_WIDTH // 2
        
        while x < wall_start_x + WALL_WIDTH:
            # Check if we have space for a full brick
            if x + BRICK_WIDTH <= wall_start_x + WALL_WIDTH and y + BRICK_HEIGHT <= wall_start_y + WALL_HEIGHT:
                generate_brick(volume, x, y, wall_start_z, brick_id, t)
                brick_id += 1
            
            x += BRICK_WIDTH + MORTAR_THICKNESS
        
        y += BRICK_HEIGHT + MORTAR_THICKNESS
        row += 1

def generate_mortar_joints(volume, t):
    wall_start_x = CENTER_X - WALL_WIDTH // 2
    wall_start_y = CENTER_Y - WALL_HEIGHT // 2
    wall_start_z = CENTER_Z - BRICK_DEPTH // 2
    
    # Fill mortar joints
    for x in range(wall_start_x, wall_start_x + WALL_WIDTH):
        for y in range(wall_start_y, wall_start_y + WALL_HEIGHT):
            for z in range(wall_start_z, wall_start_z + BRICK_DEPTH):
                # Check if this position should be mortar
                brick_x = (x - wall_start_x) % (BRICK_WIDTH + MORTAR_THICKNESS)
                brick_y = (y - wall_start_y) % (BRICK_HEIGHT + MORTAR_THICKNESS)
                
                if brick_x >= BRICK_WIDTH or brick_y >= BRICK_HEIGHT:
                    generate_mortar(volume, x, y, z, t)

def add_wall_details(volume, t):
    # Add some weathering stains and moss effects
    wall_start_x = CENTER_X - WALL_WIDTH // 2
    wall_start_y = CENTER_Y - WALL_HEIGHT // 2
    wall_start_z = CENTER_Z - BRICK_DEPTH // 2
    
    for i in range(20):  # Add some random weathering spots
        spot_x = wall_start_x + int((i * 13.7) % WALL_WIDTH)
        spot_y = wall_start_y + int((i * 7.3) % WALL_HEIGHT)
        
        # Weathering stain
        stain_size = 3 + int(2 * np.sin(t * 0.5 + i))
        for dx in range(-stain_size, stain_size):
            for dy in range(-stain_size, stain_size):
                if dx*dx + dy*dy <= stain_size*stain_size:
                    x, y = spot_x + dx, spot_y + dy
                    z = wall_start_z - 1  # Slightly in front
                    
                    if 0 <= x < SIZE and 0 <= y < SIZE and 0 <= z < SIZE:
                        # Dark weathering stain
                        darkness = 0.7 + 0.1 * np.sin(t + dx + dy)
                        if i % 5 == 0:
                            # Moss effect (green tint)
                            color = (int(60 * darkness), int(80 * darkness), int(40 * darkness))
                        else:
                            # Dirt/water stain
                            gray = int(80 * darkness)
                            color = (gray, gray, gray)
                        
                        add_voxel(volume, x, y, z, color)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    generate_mortar_joints(volume, t)
    generate_wall_structure(volume, t)
    add_wall_details(volume, t)

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

for frame in tqdm(range(FRAMES), desc="Building brick wall"):
    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

Adjust BRICK_WIDTH, BRICK_HEIGHT to create different brick proportions.
Modify brick_colors array to use different brick color palettes.
Increase WALL_WIDTH and WALL_HEIGHT for larger walls.
Add more weathering effects by expanding the add_wall_details function.
Create curved walls by modifying the brick positioning logic.

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