Meteor - 3D Voxel Animation Guide

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a meteor using SpatialStudio. The script creates a fiery meteor streaking through space with a glowing trail, particle effects, and dynamic lighting 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 meteor, featuring:
- A rocky, textured core with hot spots
- A blazing particle trail that follows behind
- Dynamic fire effects with varying intensity
- Glowing sparks that scatter and fade
Animates the meteor streaking across space for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file meteor.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).
Meteor core The meteor body is drawn as an irregular rocky sphere with hot glowing spots using noise functions.
Particle trail A dynamic trail of fire particles follows the meteor, with colors transitioning from white-hot to deep red.
Sparks and debris Random sparks fly off the meteor in all directions, creating a realistic burning effect.
Motion path The meteor follows a diagonal trajectory across the 3D space with slight wobble for realism.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, with the meteor's position wrapping 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 meteor.py and run:

python meteor.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/meteor.splv"

# Meteor settings
METEOR_RADIUS = 6
TRAIL_LENGTH = 40
SPARK_COUNT = 15

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 noise_3d(x, y, z, scale=1.0):
    return (np.sin(x * scale) * np.cos(y * scale) + np.sin(z * scale)) * 0.5

def generate_meteor_core(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    # Rocky meteor colors
    rock_color = (80, 60, 40)
    hot_color = (255, 120, 0)
    
    for dx in range(-METEOR_RADIUS, METEOR_RADIUS+1):
        for dy in range(-METEOR_RADIUS, METEOR_RADIUS+1):
            for dz in range(-METEOR_RADIUS, METEOR_RADIUS+1):
                dist = np.sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz)
                if dist <= METEOR_RADIUS:
                    # Add surface roughness
                    surface_noise = noise_3d(cx+dx, cy+dy, cz+dz, 0.3) + \
                                  noise_3d(cx+dx, cy+dy, cz+dz, 0.1) * 0.5
                    
                    if dist <= METEOR_RADIUS + surface_noise * 2:
                        # Hot spots on the meteor
                        heat = max(0, noise_3d(cx+dx, cy+dy, cz+dz + t, 0.2))
                        if heat > 0.3:
                            # Glowing hot spots
                            intensity = min(1.0, (heat - 0.3) * 2)
                            color = tuple(int(rock_color[i] * (1-intensity) + hot_color[i] * intensity) 
                                        for i in range(3))
                        else:
                            color = rock_color
                        
                        add_voxel(volume, cx+dx, cy+dy, cz+dz, color)

def generate_trail(volume, positions, t):
    trail_colors = [
        (255, 255, 255),  # White hot
        (255, 200, 100),  # Yellow
        (255, 150, 50),   # Orange
        (255, 100, 0),    # Red-orange
        (200, 50, 0),     # Deep red
        (100, 20, 0),     # Dark red
    ]
    
    for i, (tx, ty, tz) in enumerate(positions):
        if i >= len(trail_colors):
            break
            
        color = trail_colors[i]
        trail_size = max(1, METEOR_RADIUS - i // 2)
        
        # Add some randomness to trail particles
        for _ in range(max(1, 8 - i)):
            offset_x = int(np.random.normal(0, trail_size * 0.5))
            offset_y = int(np.random.normal(0, trail_size * 0.5))
            offset_z = int(np.random.normal(0, trail_size * 0.5))
            
            # Fade color based on distance from trail center
            fade = max(0.3, 1.0 - (abs(offset_x) + abs(offset_y) + abs(offset_z)) / (trail_size * 2))
            faded_color = tuple(int(c * fade) for c in color)
            
            add_voxel(volume, tx + offset_x, ty + offset_y, tz + offset_z, faded_color)

def generate_sparks(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    np.random.seed(int(t * 10))  # Deterministic randomness
    
    for i in range(SPARK_COUNT):
        # Random direction for each spark
        angle_h = np.random.uniform(0, 2*np.pi)
        angle_v = np.random.uniform(-np.pi/3, np.pi/3)
        speed = np.random.uniform(3, 8)
        
        # Spark position
        sx = cx + int(speed * np.cos(angle_h) * np.cos(angle_v))
        sy = cy + int(speed * np.sin(angle_v))
        sz = cz + int(speed * np.sin(angle_h) * np.cos(angle_v))
        
        # Spark colors (hot to cool)
        spark_colors = [(255, 255, 200), (255, 200, 100), (255, 100, 50)]
        color = spark_colors[i % len(spark_colors)]
        
        # Create small spark trails
        for j in range(3):
            trail_x = sx - int(j * 0.5 * np.cos(angle_h))
            trail_y = sy - int(j * 0.5 * np.sin(angle_v))
            trail_z = sz - int(j * 0.5 * np.sin(angle_h))
            
            fade = max(0.3, 1.0 - j * 0.3)
            faded_color = tuple(int(c * fade) for c in color)
            add_voxel(volume, trail_x, trail_y, trail_z, faded_color)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    # Calculate meteor position (diagonal trajectory)
    progress = (t / (2*np.pi)) % 1.0
    
    # Meteor path with slight wobble
    base_x = int(SIZE * 0.2 + (SIZE * 0.6) * progress)
    base_y = int(SIZE * 0.8 - (SIZE * 0.6) * progress)  # Top to bottom
    base_z = int(SIZE * 0.3 + (SIZE * 0.4) * progress)
    
    # Add wobble
    wobble_x = int(3 * np.sin(t * 3.0))
    wobble_y = int(2 * np.cos(t * 2.5))
    wobble_z = int(2 * np.sin(t * 4.0))
    
    meteor_x = base_x + wobble_x
    meteor_y = base_y + wobble_y
    meteor_z = base_z + wobble_z
    
    # Store trail positions
    trail_positions = []
    for i in range(TRAIL_LENGTH):
        trail_progress = max(0, progress - i * 0.01)
        trail_base_x = int(SIZE * 0.2 + (SIZE * 0.6) * trail_progress)
        trail_base_y = int(SIZE * 0.8 - (SIZE * 0.6) * trail_progress)
        trail_base_z = int(SIZE * 0.3 + (SIZE * 0.4) * trail_progress)
        
        trail_t = t - i * 0.1
        trail_wobble_x = int(3 * np.sin(trail_t * 3.0))
        trail_wobble_y = int(2 * np.cos(trail_t * 2.5))
        trail_wobble_z = int(2 * np.sin(trail_t * 4.0))
        
        trail_positions.append((
            trail_base_x + trail_wobble_x,
            trail_base_y + trail_wobble_y,
            trail_base_z + trail_wobble_z
        ))
    
    # Generate meteor components
    generate_trail(volume, trail_positions, t)
    generate_meteor_core(volume, meteor_x, meteor_y, meteor_z, t)
    generate_sparks(volume, meteor_x, meteor_y, meteor_z, t)

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

for frame in tqdm(range(FRAMES), desc="Generating meteor"):
    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 METEOR_RADIUS to make the meteor larger or smaller.
Increase SPARK_COUNT for more dramatic particle effects.
Modify the trajectory by changing the path calculations in generate_scene().
Add multiple meteors by calling generate_meteor_core() multiple times with different positions.
Experiment with different color palettes in the trail and spark arrays.

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