Disco Ball - 3D Voxel Animation Learning Example

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a disco ball using SpatialStudio. The script creates a shimmering disco ball that rotates and reflects light, casting dancing sparkles 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
Spawns 1 rotating disco ball with:
- A spherical mirrored surface made of tiny reflective tiles
- Rotating colored light beams that sweep across the scene
- Sparkling reflections that bounce around the environment
- A hanging chain or wire from the ceiling
Animates the disco ball spinning for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file disco_ball.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).
Disco ball body The ball is drawn as a sphere covered with small mirror tiles that reflect light differently as it rotates.
Mirror tiles Each facet of the disco ball is a small reflective square that catches and bounces light at different angles.
Light beams Colored rays emanate from the disco ball, rotating and creating the classic disco lighting effect.
Sparkles Random bright spots appear throughout the scene to simulate reflected light dancing on walls.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, ensuring the rotation and lighting effects loop 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 disco_ball.py and run:

python disco_ball.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/disco_ball.splv"

# Disco ball settings
BALL_RADIUS = 16
TILE_SIZE = 2
CHAIN_LENGTH = 30
LIGHT_BEAM_COUNT = 8

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_disco_ball(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    base_color = (200, 200, 220)  # Silver base
    
    for dx in range(-BALL_RADIUS, BALL_RADIUS+1):
        for dy in range(-BALL_RADIUS, BALL_RADIUS+1):
            for dz in range(-BALL_RADIUS, BALL_RADIUS+1):
                distance = np.sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz)
                if distance <= BALL_RADIUS:
                    # Create mirror tile effect
                    tile_x = (dx + BALL_RADIUS) // TILE_SIZE
                    tile_y = (dy + BALL_RADIUS) // TILE_SIZE
                    tile_z = (dz + BALL_RADIUS) // TILE_SIZE
                    
                    # Rotating reflection based on tile position and time
                    reflection = np.sin(t * 3.0 + tile_x * 0.5 + tile_y * 0.7 + tile_z * 0.3)
                    brightness = 0.6 + 0.4 * (reflection + 1) / 2
                    
                    # Add some colorful reflections
                    if reflection > 0.7:
                        # Hot spots with colors
                        color_phase = (tile_x + tile_y + tile_z + t * 2) % 3
                        if color_phase < 1:
                            final_color = (255, int(180 * brightness), int(100 * brightness))  # Gold
                        elif color_phase < 2:
                            final_color = (int(100 * brightness), int(180 * brightness), 255)  # Blue
                        else:
                            final_color = (255, int(100 * brightness), int(180 * brightness))  # Pink
                    else:
                        final_color = tuple(int(c * brightness) for c in base_color)
                    
                    add_voxel(volume, cx+dx, cy+dy, cz+dz, final_color)

def generate_hanging_chain(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    chain_color = (100, 100, 100)  # Dark gray
    sway = np.sin(t * 1.5) * 2  # Gentle swaying
    
    for i in range(CHAIN_LENGTH):
        chain_y = cy + BALL_RADIUS + i
        chain_x = cx + int(sway * (i / CHAIN_LENGTH))  # More sway at the top
        chain_z = cz
        
        # Chain links - small clusters
        for dx in range(-1, 2):
            for dz in range(-1, 2):
                if abs(dx) + abs(dz) <= 1:  # Cross pattern for chain links
                    add_voxel(volume, chain_x+dx, chain_y, chain_z+dz, chain_color)

def generate_light_beams(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    beam_colors = [
        (255, 0, 0),    # Red
        (0, 255, 0),    # Green
        (0, 0, 255),    # Blue
        (255, 255, 0),  # Yellow
        (255, 0, 255),  # Magenta
        (0, 255, 255),  # Cyan
        (255, 128, 0),  # Orange
        (128, 0, 255),  # Purple
    ]
    
    for i in range(LIGHT_BEAM_COUNT):
        angle = (i / LIGHT_BEAM_COUNT) * 2*np.pi + t * 2.0  # Rotating beams
        
        # Create beam direction
        cos_a = np.cos(angle)
        sin_a = np.sin(angle)
        
        color = beam_colors[i % len(beam_colors)]
        
        # Draw beam from disco ball outward
        for distance in range(BALL_RADIUS + 5, SIZE//2, 2):
            beam_x = cx + int(distance * cos_a)
            beam_y = cy
            beam_z = cz + int(distance * sin_a)
            
            # Fade beam intensity with distance
            intensity = max(0.1, 1.0 - (distance - BALL_RADIUS) / (SIZE//2))
            faded_color = tuple(int(c * intensity) for c in color)
            
            # Make beam slightly thick
            for dx in range(-1, 2):
                for dy in range(-2, 3):
                    for dz in range(-1, 2):
                        if abs(dx) + abs(dy) + abs(dz) <= 2:
                            add_voxel(volume, beam_x+dx, beam_y+dy, beam_z+dz, faded_color)

def generate_sparkles(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    np.random.seed(int(t * 10) % 100)  # Deterministic but changing sparkles
    
    sparkle_count = 50
    for i in range(sparkle_count):
        # Random positions around the scene
        sx = np.random.randint(10, SIZE-10)
        sy = np.random.randint(10, SIZE-10)
        sz = np.random.randint(10, SIZE-10)
        
        # Twinkle effect
        twinkle = np.sin(t * 8.0 + i * 0.1)
        if twinkle > 0.5:  # Only show sparkle when twinkling
            brightness = int(255 * (twinkle - 0.5) * 2)
            sparkle_color = (brightness, brightness, brightness)
            
            # Small sparkle cluster
            for dx in range(-1, 2):
                for dy in range(-1, 2):
                    for dz in range(-1, 2):
                        if abs(dx) + abs(dy) + abs(dz) <= 1:
                            add_voxel(volume, sx+dx, sy+dy, sz+dz, sparkle_color)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    # Dark background for disco atmosphere
    volume.fill(0)
    
    # Generate all disco ball elements
    generate_disco_ball(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_hanging_chain(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_light_beams(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_sparkles(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)

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

for frame in tqdm(range(FRAMES), desc="Generating disco ball"):
    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 LIGHT_BEAM_COUNT to create more or fewer light beams
Modify beam_colors to change the disco lighting palette
Increase sparkle_count for more dramatic sparkle effects
Change BALL_RADIUS to make the disco ball bigger or smaller
Add floor reflections by duplicating sparkles below the disco ball

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