3D Voxel Animation Tutorial: Animated Hive

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a bustling hive using SpatialStudio. The script creates a detailed honeycomb structure with animated bees buzzing around, producing honey, 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 hexagonal honeycomb hive with:
- Layered honeycomb cells
- Golden honey dripping effects
- Structural wooden frame
Animates 12 bees that:
- Buzz around the hive in figure-8 patterns
- Change speed and direction naturally
- Have glowing wing effects
Runs for 10 seconds at 30 FPS with smooth looping
Outputs the file hive.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).
Honeycomb structure The hive is built using hexagonal patterns with golden honey-filled cells and brown wooden framework.
Bee animation Each bee follows a unique flight path using sine waves and circular motion to create realistic buzzing patterns.
Wing effects Semi-transparent white voxels create the illusion of rapidly beating wings.
Honey drips Golden droplets slowly fall from the honeycomb cells, adding dynamic movement.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, ensuring all motion loops seamlessly.
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 hive.py and run:

python hive.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/hive.splv"

# Hive settings
BEE_COUNT = 12
HIVE_WIDTH = 35
HIVE_HEIGHT = 40
CELL_SIZE = 4

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

def generate_honeycomb(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    # Honeycomb colors
    wax_color = (255, 220, 177)
    honey_color = (255, 193, 37)
    wood_color = (139, 69, 19)
    
    # Generate hexagonal cells
    for layer in range(-3, 4):
        for row in range(-8, 9):
            for col in range(-6, 7):
                # Hexagonal pattern offset
                offset = (row % 2) * (CELL_SIZE // 2)
                cell_x = cx + col * CELL_SIZE + offset
                cell_y = cy + row * CELL_SIZE
                cell_z = cz + layer * 6
                
                # Skip cells outside hive bounds
                if abs(cell_x - cx) > HIVE_WIDTH or abs(cell_y - cy) > HIVE_HEIGHT:
                    continue
                
                # Generate cell walls
                for dx in range(-2, 3):
                    for dy in range(-2, 3):
                        if abs(dx) == 2 or abs(dy) == 2:  # Cell walls
                            add_voxel(volume, cell_x + dx, cell_y + dy, cell_z, wax_color)
                        elif np.random.random() > 0.3:  # Honey inside cells
                            honey_level = int(np.sin(t * 0.5 + col * 0.2 + row * 0.3) * 2)
                            if dy <= honey_level:
                                add_voxel(volume, cell_x + dx, cell_y + dy, cell_z, honey_color)

    # Wooden frame
    frame_thickness = 2
    for i in range(-HIVE_WIDTH-5, HIVE_WIDTH+6):
        for j in range(frame_thickness):
            # Top and bottom frame
            add_voxel(volume, cx + i, cy - HIVE_HEIGHT - 5 + j, cz, wood_color)
            add_voxel(volume, cx + i, cy + HIVE_HEIGHT + 5 - j, cz, wood_color)
            # Side frames
            add_voxel(volume, cx - HIVE_WIDTH - 5 + j, cy + i, cz, wood_color)
            add_voxel(volume, cx + HIVE_WIDTH + 5 - j, cy + i, cz, wood_color)

def generate_honey_drips(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    honey_color = (255, 193, 37)
    drip_speed = 2
    
    for i in range(8):
        drip_x = cx + (i - 4) * 8 + int(np.sin(t + i) * 2)
        drip_start_y = cy + HIVE_HEIGHT + 3
        drip_length = int(6 + 4 * np.sin(t * 0.8 + i * 0.5))
        
        for j in range(drip_length):
            drip_y = drip_start_y - int((t * drip_speed + i * 10) % 20) - j
            if drip_y > cy - HIVE_HEIGHT - 20:
                add_voxel(volume, drip_x, drip_y, cz, honey_color)

def generate_bee(volume, bx, by, bz, t, bee_id):
    # Bee colors
    body_color = (255, 215, 0)  # Golden yellow
    stripe_color = (0, 0, 0)    # Black stripes
    wing_color = (255, 255, 255) # White wings
    
    # Bee body (elliptical)
    for dx in range(-2, 3):
        for dy in range(-1, 2):
            for dz in range(-3, 4):
                if dx*dx + dy*dy*4 + dz*dz <= 8:
                    # Add black stripes
                    color = stripe_color if dz % 3 == 0 else body_color
                    add_voxel(volume, bx + dx, by + dy, bz + dz, color)
    
    # Animated wings
    wing_beat = np.sin(t * 15 + bee_id) * 0.5 + 0.5  # Fast wing beating
    wing_alpha = int(wing_beat * 150 + 50)
    
    # Wing positions
    wing_positions = [(-3, 0, -1), (-3, 0, 1), (3, 0, -1), (3, 0, 1)]
    for wx, wy, wz in wing_positions:
        for i in range(3):
            for j in range(2):
                wing_x = bx + wx + int(np.sin(t * 15 + bee_id) * i)
                wing_y = by + wy + j
                wing_z = bz + wz
                add_voxel(volume, wing_x, wing_y, wing_z, wing_color, wing_alpha)

def generate_buzzing_bees(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    for i in range(BEE_COUNT):
        # Each bee follows a unique flight pattern
        angle_offset = (i / BEE_COUNT) * 2 * np.pi
        radius = 25 + 15 * np.sin(t * 0.8 + i * 0.3)
        height_offset = 10 * np.sin(t * 1.2 + i * 0.5)
        speed_variation = 1.0 + 0.3 * np.sin(i * 0.7)
        
        # Figure-8 pattern
        figure8_x = radius * np.sin(t * speed_variation + angle_offset) * np.cos(t * 0.5 + angle_offset)
        figure8_y = height_offset + 8 * np.sin(t * 2 * speed_variation + angle_offset)
        figure8_z = radius * np.cos(t * speed_variation + angle_offset) * np.sin(t * 0.5 + angle_offset)
        
        bee_x = int(cx + figure8_x)
        bee_y = int(cy + figure8_y)
        bee_z = int(cz + figure8_z)
        
        generate_bee(volume, bee_x, bee_y, bee_z, t, i)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    generate_honeycomb(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_honey_drips(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_buzzing_bees(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)

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

# Generate animation frames
for frame in tqdm(range(FRAMES), desc="Generating hive animation"):
    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 more bustling hive.
Modify HIVE_WIDTH and HIVE_HEIGHT to change the hive size.
Add more honey drip points by increasing the range in generate_honey_drips().
Experiment with different flight patterns by adjusting the figure-8 mathematics.
Change the honey_color and wax_color to create different hive varieties.
Add sound effects timing by noting the t values for wing beats and bee positions.

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