Creating a Lighthouse Animation

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a lighthouse using SpatialStudio. The script creates a rotating lighthouse beam that sweeps across a dark seascape with waves, then saves the animation to a .splv file.

What this script does

Creates a 3D scene of size 128×128×128
Builds a lighthouse structure with:
- A sturdy stone tower base
- A rotating beacon light at the top
- A sweeping light beam
- Animated ocean waves at the base
Animates the lighthouse beam rotating for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file lighthouse.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).
Lighthouse structure The tower is built with stone-colored voxels in a cylindrical shape, with a beacon house on top.
Rotating beam A bright cone of light rotates around the lighthouse, illuminated with yellow/white voxels that fade with distance.
Ocean waves Blue voxels create animated waves using sine functions that move around the lighthouse base.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, making the beam rotation and waves 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 lighthouse.py and run:

python lighthouse.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/lighthouse.splv"

# Lighthouse settings
TOWER_HEIGHT = 45
TOWER_RADIUS = 8
BEACON_HEIGHT = 8
BEAM_LENGTH = 50

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_tower(volume, cx, cy, cz):
    # Main tower body
    tower_color = (120, 120, 120)  # Stone gray
    for y in range(TOWER_HEIGHT):
        radius = TOWER_RADIUS - (y // 15)  # Slight taper
        for dx in range(-radius, radius+1):
            for dz in range(-radius, radius+1):
                if dx*dx + dz*dz <= radius*radius:
                    # Add texture variation
                    brightness = 0.8 + 0.4 * np.sin(dx*0.3 + dz*0.3 + y*0.1)
                    final_color = tuple(int(c * brightness) for c in tower_color)
                    add_voxel(volume, cx+dx, cy-y, cz+dz, final_color)
    
    # Beacon house on top
    beacon_color = (180, 180, 180)
    beacon_y = cy - TOWER_HEIGHT
    for y in range(BEACON_HEIGHT):
        for dx in range(-6, 7):
            for dz in range(-6, 7):
                if abs(dx) <= 5 and abs(dz) <= 5:
                    add_voxel(volume, cx+dx, beacon_y-y, cz+dz, beacon_color)

def generate_light_beam(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    beacon_y = cy - TOWER_HEIGHT - BEACON_HEIGHT//2
    beam_angle = t * 2.0  # Rotate beam
    
    # Create sweeping beam
    for distance in range(1, BEAM_LENGTH):
        beam_width = 1 + distance // 8
        intensity = max(0.1, 1.0 - distance / BEAM_LENGTH)
        
        # Main beam direction
        beam_x = cx + int(distance * np.cos(beam_angle))
        beam_z = cz + int(distance * np.sin(beam_angle))
        
        # Beam spread
        for spread in range(-beam_width, beam_width+1):
            for vertical in range(-2, 3):
                offset_x = beam_x + int(spread * np.sin(beam_angle))
                offset_z = beam_z - int(spread * np.cos(beam_angle))
                
                light_intensity = intensity * max(0.3, 1.0 - abs(spread) * 0.2)
                light_color = (
                    int(255 * light_intensity),
                    int(255 * light_intensity * 0.9),
                    int(100 * light_intensity)
                )
                
                add_voxel(volume, offset_x, beacon_y + vertical, offset_z, light_color)

def generate_beacon_light(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    beacon_y = cy - TOWER_HEIGHT - BEACON_HEIGHT//2
    # Bright rotating beacon
    pulse = 0.7 + 0.3 * np.sin(t * 8)
    beacon_color = (int(255 * pulse), int(200 * pulse), int(50 * pulse))
    
    for dx in range(-3, 4):
        for dy in range(-2, 3):
            for dz in range(-3, 4):
                if dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz <= 9:
                    add_voxel(volume, cx+dx, beacon_y+dy, cz+dz, beacon_color)

def generate_ocean_waves(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    water_level = cy + 5
    wave_colors = [(0, 50, 150), (0, 80, 200), (20, 100, 220)]
    
    for x in range(SIZE):
        for z in range(SIZE):
            dx = x - cx
            dz = z - cz
            distance = np.sqrt(dx*dx + dz*dz)
            
            if distance > TOWER_RADIUS + 5:  # Don't overlap with tower
                # Create wave height using multiple sine waves
                wave1 = np.sin((x + z) * 0.1 + t * 3) * 3
                wave2 = np.sin((x - z) * 0.15 + t * 2) * 2
                wave3 = np.sin(distance * 0.08 + t * 4) * 1
                
                wave_height = int(wave1 + wave2 + wave3)
                
                # Draw water column
                for y in range(max(0, water_level + wave_height), water_level + 8):
                    if y < SIZE:
                        depth = y - (water_level + wave_height)
                        color_idx = min(2, depth // 2)
                        water_color = wave_colors[color_idx]
                        add_voxel(volume, x, y, z, water_color)

def generate_rocks(volume, cx, cy, cz):
    rock_color = (80, 70, 60)
    # Add some rocky outcropping around the base
    for i in range(6):
        angle = i * np.pi / 3
        rock_x = cx + int((TOWER_RADIUS + 12) * np.cos(angle))
        rock_z = cz + int((TOWER_RADIUS + 12) * np.sin(angle))
        
        for dx in range(-3, 4):
            for dy in range(2, 8):
                for dz in range(-3, 4):
                    if dx*dx + dz*dz <= 9 - dy:
                        add_voxel(volume, rock_x+dx, cy+dy, rock_z+dz, rock_color)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    generate_ocean_waves(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_rocks(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z)
    generate_tower(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z)
    generate_beacon_light(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_light_beam(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 lighthouse"):
    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 BEAM_LENGTH to make the light reach further.
Change TOWER_HEIGHT to build a taller or shorter lighthouse.
Modify wave parameters to create calmer or stormier seas.
Add seabirds by creating small moving white voxels.
Create a night sky with stars using scattered white dots.

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