Creating 3D Voxel Metal Plates Animation

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of metal plates using SpatialStudio. The script creates industrial-looking metal plates that shift, rotate, and gleam 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 6 metal plates, each with:
- A rectangular metallic body with rivets
- Realistic rust and wear patterns
- Reflective highlights that shimmer
Animates them sliding and rotating for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file metal_plates.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).
Metal plate body Plates are drawn as rectangular slabs with noise-based surface texturing for realistic metal appearance.
Rivets and details Each plate gets circular rivets and bolts positioned along the edges for industrial authenticity.
Surface effects Rust spots, scratches, and metallic highlights are procedurally generated to simulate weathered metal.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, making plates slide and rotate smoothly in a loop.
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 metal_plates.py and run:

python metal_plates.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/metal_plates.splv"

# Metal plate settings
PLATE_COUNT = 6
PLATE_WIDTH = 20
PLATE_HEIGHT = 15
PLATE_THICKNESS = 4

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_metal_texture(x, y, z, base_color, t):
    # Add metallic noise and surface variation
    noise = np.sin(x*0.1) * np.cos(y*0.15) * np.sin(z*0.12 + t*0.3)
    brightness = 1.0 + noise * 0.2
    
    # Add rust spots occasionally
    rust_factor = np.sin(x*0.07 + y*0.08 + t*0.1) * np.cos(z*0.06)
    if rust_factor > 0.7:
        rust_color = (139, 69, 19)  # Rusty brown
        mix = 0.3
        final_color = tuple(int(base_color[i] * (1-mix) + rust_color[i] * mix) for i in range(3))
    else:
        final_color = tuple(min(255, int(c * brightness)) for c in base_color)
    
    return final_color

def generate_plate_body(volume, cx, cy, cz, width, height, thickness, color, rotation, t):
    cos_r, sin_r = np.cos(rotation), np.sin(rotation)
    
    for dx in range(-width//2, width//2 + 1):
        for dy in range(-height//2, height//2 + 1):
            for dz in range(-thickness//2, thickness//2 + 1):
                # Rotate the plate
                rx = int(dx * cos_r - dz * sin_r)
                rz = int(dx * sin_r + dz * cos_r)
                
                final_x, final_y, final_z = cx + rx, cy + dy, cz + rz
                metal_color = generate_metal_texture(final_x, final_y, final_z, color, t)
                add_voxel(volume, final_x, final_y, final_z, metal_color)

def generate_rivets(volume, cx, cy, cz, width, height, thickness, rotation):
    rivet_color = (105, 105, 105)  # Dark gray
    cos_r, sin_r = np.cos(rotation), np.sin(rotation)
    
    # Place rivets at corners and edges
    rivet_positions = [
        (-width//2 + 2, -height//2 + 2, thickness//2 + 1),
        (width//2 - 2, -height//2 + 2, thickness//2 + 1),
        (-width//2 + 2, height//2 - 2, thickness//2 + 1),
        (width//2 - 2, height//2 - 2, thickness//2 + 1),
    ]
    
    for dx, dy, dz in rivet_positions:
        # Rotate rivet position
        rx = int(dx * cos_r - dz * sin_r)
        rz = int(dx * sin_r + dz * cos_r)
        
        # Draw small cylindrical rivet
        for r_dx in range(-1, 2):
            for r_dy in range(-1, 2):
                if r_dx*r_dx + r_dy*r_dy <= 1:
                    add_voxel(volume, cx + rx + r_dx, cy + dy + r_dy, cz + rz, rivet_color)

def generate_plate_cluster(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    metal_colors = [
        (169, 169, 169),  # Dark gray
        (192, 192, 192),  # Silver
        (105, 105, 105),  # Dim gray  
        (128, 128, 128),  # Gray
        (160, 160, 160),  # Light gray
        (112, 128, 144),  # Slate gray
    ]
    
    for i in range(PLATE_COUNT):
        # Arrange plates in a shifting formation
        layer = i // 2
        offset = i % 2
        
        px = cx + int((layer - 1) * 25 + 10 * np.sin(t*0.8 + i*0.5))
        py = cy + int(offset * 30 - 15 + 5 * np.cos(t*1.2 + i*0.3))
        pz = cz + int(layer * 8 + 6 * np.sin(t*0.6 + i*0.7))
        
        # Each plate rotates slowly
        rotation = t * 0.4 + i * 0.8
        
        color = metal_colors[i % len(metal_colors)]
        width = PLATE_WIDTH + int(5 * np.sin(t*0.5 + i))
        height = PLATE_HEIGHT + int(3 * np.cos(t*0.7 + i))
        
        generate_plate_body(volume, px, py, pz, width, height, PLATE_THICKNESS, color, rotation, t)
        generate_rivets(volume, px, py, pz, width, height, PLATE_THICKNESS, rotation)

def generate_metallic_highlights(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    highlight_color = (255, 255, 255)
    
    for i in range(PLATE_COUNT):
        layer = i // 2
        offset = i % 2
        
        px = cx + int((layer - 1) * 25 + 10 * np.sin(t*0.8 + i*0.5))
        py = cy + int(offset * 30 - 15 + 5 * np.cos(t*1.2 + i*0.3))
        pz = cz + int(layer * 8 + 6 * np.sin(t*0.6 + i*0.7))
        
        rotation = t * 0.4 + i * 0.8
        cos_r, sin_r = np.cos(rotation), np.sin(rotation)
        
        # Add moving highlights on the surface
        highlight_x = int(8 * np.cos(t*2.0 + i*0.4))
        highlight_y = int(4 * np.sin(t*1.8 + i*0.6))
        highlight_z = PLATE_THICKNESS//2 + 2
        
        # Rotate highlight position
        rhx = int(highlight_x * cos_r - highlight_z * sin_r)
        rhz = int(highlight_x * sin_r + highlight_z * cos_r)
        
        # Draw small highlight cluster
        for dx in range(-2, 3):
            for dy in range(-1, 2):
                if dx*dx + dy*dy <= 4:
                    add_voxel(volume, px + rhx + dx, py + highlight_y + dy, pz + rhz, highlight_color)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    generate_plate_cluster(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_metallic_highlights(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 metal plates"):
    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 PLATE_COUNT to add more metal plates.
Edit metal_colors for different metallic finishes.
Adjust PLATE_THICKNESS to make thicker or thinner plates.
Add sparks or welding effects by creating bright particle clusters.
Experiment with different rust patterns by modifying the rust_factor calculation.

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