3D Voxel Animation: Lava Lamp

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a lava lamp using SpatialStudio. The script creates a mesmerizing lava lamp with floating blobs that heat up, rise, cool down, and sink inside a glass container, then saves the animation to a .splv file.

What this script does

Creates a 3D scene of size 128×128×128
Builds a realistic lava lamp with:
- A transparent glass container
- A metallic base and cap
- 12 lava blobs that continuously move up and down
- Smooth blob morphing and color transitions
- Heat-based color gradients (red-hot at bottom, cooler orange-yellow at top)
Animates the lava cycle for 10 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file lava_lamp.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).
Glass container A hollow cylindrical container with transparent walls that contain the lava.
Lava blobs Organic-shaped spheroids that use sine waves and noise for realistic blob deformation.
Heat simulation Blobs start hot (red) at the bottom, rise while cooling (orange → yellow), then sink back down.
Color gradients Each blob's color changes based on its vertical position, simulating temperature.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, with each blob having different phase offsets for natural movement.
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 lava_lamp.py and run:

python lava_lamp.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/lava_lamp.splv"

# Lava lamp settings
CONTAINER_RADIUS = 20
CONTAINER_HEIGHT = 80
BLOB_COUNT = 12
BLOB_BASE_SIZE = 6

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 add_transparent_voxel(volume, x, y, z, color, alpha):
    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_container(volume):
    # Glass walls
    for y in range(CENTER_Y - CONTAINER_HEIGHT//2, CENTER_Y + CONTAINER_HEIGHT//2):
        for angle in np.linspace(0, 2*np.pi, 64):
            x = int(CENTER_X + CONTAINER_RADIUS * np.cos(angle))
            z = int(CENTER_Z + CONTAINER_RADIUS * np.sin(angle))
            add_transparent_voxel(volume, x, y, z, (200, 220, 255), 120)
    
    # Metal base
    base_y = CENTER_Y - CONTAINER_HEIGHT//2
    for dy in range(-5, 0):
        for dx in range(-CONTAINER_RADIUS-3, CONTAINER_RADIUS+4):
            for dz in range(-CONTAINER_RADIUS-3, CONTAINER_RADIUS+4):
                if dx*dx + dz*dz <= (CONTAINER_RADIUS+3)**2:
                    brightness = 1.0 - abs(dy) * 0.1
                    color = tuple(int(c * brightness) for c in (120, 120, 140))
                    add_voxel(volume, CENTER_X+dx, base_y+dy, CENTER_Z+dz, color)
    
    # Metal cap
    cap_y = CENTER_Y + CONTAINER_HEIGHT//2
    for dy in range(0, 5):
        for dx in range(-CONTAINER_RADIUS-3, CONTAINER_RADIUS+4):
            for dz in range(-CONTAINER_RADIUS-3, CONTAINER_RADIUS+4):
                if dx*dx + dz*dz <= (CONTAINER_RADIUS+3)**2:
                    brightness = 1.0 - abs(dy) * 0.1
                    color = tuple(int(c * brightness) for c in (120, 120, 140))
                    add_voxel(volume, CENTER_X+dx, cap_y+dy, CENTER_Z+dz, color)

def get_heat_color(heat_level):
    # heat_level: 0.0 (cool/top) to 1.0 (hot/bottom)
    if heat_level < 0.5:
        # Cool: yellow to orange
        r = int(255 * (0.8 + heat_level * 0.4))
        g = int(255 * (0.4 + heat_level * 0.6))
        b = int(30 * (1.0 - heat_level))
    else:
        # Hot: orange to red
        factor = (heat_level - 0.5) * 2
        r = 255
        g = int(255 * (1.0 - factor * 0.7))
        b = int(30 * (1.0 - factor))
    return (r, g, b)

def generate_lava_blob(volume, cx, cy, cz, size, t, blob_id):
    # Add organic deformation
    for dx in range(-size-2, size+3):
        for dy in range(-size-2, size+3):
            for dz in range(-size-2, size+3):
                # Base spherical distance
                base_dist = np.sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz)
                
                # Add organic noise
                noise = (np.sin(dx*0.3 + t*1.2 + blob_id) * 
                        np.sin(dy*0.4 + t*0.8 + blob_id*1.5) * 
                        np.sin(dz*0.35 + t*1.0 + blob_id*0.7)) * 2
                
                # Blob boundary with noise
                if base_dist <= size + noise:
                    # Calculate heat based on Y position
                    container_bottom = CENTER_Y - CONTAINER_HEIGHT//2 + 5
                    container_top = CENTER_Y + CONTAINER_HEIGHT//2 - 5
                    heat_level = (container_top - cy) / (container_top - container_bottom)
                    heat_level = max(0.0, min(1.0, heat_level))
                    
                    # Add some internal variation
                    internal_heat = heat_level + np.sin(base_dist*0.5 + t) * 0.2
                    internal_heat = max(0.0, min(1.0, internal_heat))
                    
                    color = get_heat_color(internal_heat)
                    add_voxel(volume, cx+dx, cy+dy, cz+dz, color)

def generate_lava_blobs(volume, t):
    for i in range(BLOB_COUNT):
        # Each blob has different phase and speed
        blob_phase = (i / BLOB_COUNT) * 2 * np.pi
        blob_speed = 0.8 + (i % 3) * 0.4  # Varying speeds
        
        # Vertical movement (main lava lamp effect)
        container_bottom = CENTER_Y - CONTAINER_HEIGHT//2 + 10
        container_top = CENTER_Y + CONTAINER_HEIGHT//2 - 10
        travel_range = container_top - container_bottom
        
        # Sine wave movement with different phases
        y_pos = container_bottom + (travel_range/2) + (travel_range/2) * np.sin(t * blob_speed + blob_phase)
        
        # Horizontal position (slight drift)
        radius_drift = 8
        angle = t * 0.3 + blob_phase
        x_pos = CENTER_X + radius_drift * np.cos(angle + i * 0.7)
        z_pos = CENTER_Z + radius_drift * np.sin(angle + i * 1.3)
        
        # Blob size variation
        size_variation = np.sin(t * 1.5 + blob_phase) * 2
        blob_size = BLOB_BASE_SIZE + int(size_variation)
        blob_size = max(4, blob_size)  # Minimum size
        
        # Keep blobs within container
        dist_from_center = np.sqrt((x_pos - CENTER_X)**2 + (z_pos - CENTER_Z)**2)
        if dist_from_center + blob_size > CONTAINER_RADIUS - 2:
            scale = (CONTAINER_RADIUS - 2 - blob_size) / dist_from_center
            x_pos = CENTER_X + (x_pos - CENTER_X) * scale
            z_pos = CENTER_Z + (z_pos - CENTER_Z) * scale
        
        generate_lava_blob(volume, int(x_pos), int(y_pos), int(z_pos), blob_size, t, i)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    generate_container(volume)
    generate_lava_blobs(volume, t)

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

for frame in tqdm(range(FRAMES), desc="Generating lava lamp"):
    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

Change BLOB_COUNT to add more or fewer lava blobs.
Modify get_heat_color() to experiment with different color schemes (blue lava, green, etc.).
Adjust blob_speed values to make the lava move faster or slower.
Increase CONTAINER_HEIGHT for a taller lamp.
Add bubble effects by creating smaller, faster-rising spheres.

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