creating sailboat animation

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a sailboat using SpatialStudio. The script creates a detailed sailboat with billowing sails that glides through gentle waves 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 sailboat with:
- A wooden hull with depth and texture
- A tall mast with rigging details
- Billowing sails that wave in the wind
- Dynamic water waves beneath
Animates the boat gently rocking and sailing for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file sailboat.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).
Hull construction The boat hull is drawn as an elongated shape with brown wood texture and subtle variations.
Sail system White sails are generated with sine-wave deformations to simulate wind effects and natural billowing.
Water waves Blue voxels create an animated water surface with multiple wave frequencies for realistic motion.
Boat movement The entire sailboat rocks and moves slightly using trigonometric functions for natural sailing motion.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, ensuring the motion loops 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 sailboat.py and run:

python sailboat.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/sailboat.splv"

# Boat settings
HULL_LENGTH = 24
HULL_WIDTH = 8
HULL_HEIGHT = 6
MAST_HEIGHT = 30
SAIL_WIDTH = 16
SAIL_HEIGHT = 20

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_hull(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    hull_color = (139, 69, 19)  # Brown wood
    darker_hull = (101, 50, 14)  # Darker brown for depth
    
    rock_x = int(2 * np.sin(t * 0.8))
    rock_y = int(1 * np.sin(t * 1.2))
    rock_z = int(1 * np.cos(t * 0.6))
    
    for dx in range(-HULL_LENGTH//2, HULL_LENGTH//2):
        for dy in range(-HULL_HEIGHT, 2):
            for dz in range(-HULL_WIDTH//2, HULL_WIDTH//2):
                # Create boat hull shape
                hull_factor = 1.0 - abs(dx) / (HULL_LENGTH//2)
                width_limit = int(HULL_WIDTH//2 * hull_factor)
                
                if abs(dz) <= width_limit:
                    # Add wood texture
                    texture = np.sin(dx * 0.3 + dy * 0.2) * 0.1
                    if dy < -2:
                        color = tuple(int(c * (1 + texture)) for c in darker_hull)
                    else:
                        color = tuple(int(c * (1 + texture)) for c in hull_color)
                    
                    final_x = cx + dx + rock_x
                    final_y = cy + dy + rock_y
                    final_z = cz + dz + rock_z
                    add_voxel(volume, final_x, final_y, final_z, color)

def generate_mast_and_rigging(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    mast_color = (101, 67, 33)  # Dark brown
    rope_color = (160, 82, 45)  # Rope brown
    
    rock_x = int(2 * np.sin(t * 0.8))
    rock_y = int(1 * np.sin(t * 1.2))
    rock_z = int(1 * np.cos(t * 0.6))
    
    # Main mast
    for dy in range(2, MAST_HEIGHT):
        mast_sway = int(np.sin(t * 1.5) * (dy / MAST_HEIGHT) * 2)
        add_voxel(volume, cx + rock_x + mast_sway, cy + dy + rock_y, cz + rock_z, mast_color)
        
        # Add some rigging
        if dy % 8 == 0:
            for dz in range(-SAIL_WIDTH//2, SAIL_WIDTH//2, 4):
                add_voxel(volume, cx + rock_x + mast_sway, cy + dy + rock_y, cz + dz + rock_z, rope_color)

def generate_sails(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    sail_color = (250, 250, 240)  # Off-white
    sail_shadow = (220, 220, 200)  # Slightly darker for depth
    
    rock_x = int(2 * np.sin(t * 0.8))
    rock_y = int(1 * np.sin(t * 1.2))
    rock_z = int(1 * np.cos(t * 0.6))
    
    # Main sail
    for dy in range(5, 5 + SAIL_HEIGHT):
        sail_height_factor = (dy - 5) / SAIL_HEIGHT
        for dz in range(-SAIL_WIDTH//2, SAIL_WIDTH//2):
            # Create billowing effect
            billow = np.sin(t * 2.0 + dy * 0.2 + dz * 0.1) * 3
            wind_effect = np.sin(t * 1.5 + dz * 0.3) * 2
            
            sail_x = cx + int(billow + wind_effect) + rock_x
            mast_sway = int(np.sin(t * 1.5) * (dy / MAST_HEIGHT) * 2)
            
            # Add depth to sail
            for dx in range(-2, 1):
                color = sail_shadow if dx < -1 else sail_color
                final_x = sail_x + dx + mast_sway
                final_y = cy + dy + rock_y
                final_z = cz + dz + rock_z
                
                add_voxel(volume, final_x, final_y, final_z, color)

def generate_water(volume, t):
    water_color = (30, 144, 255)  # Deep sky blue
    water_dark = (0, 100, 200)    # Darker blue for depth
    foam_color = (240, 248, 255)  # White foam
    
    water_level = CENTER_Y - 10
    
    for x in range(SIZE):
        for z in range(SIZE):
            # Create multiple wave frequencies
            wave1 = np.sin(x * 0.1 + t * 2.0) * 3
            wave2 = np.sin(z * 0.15 + t * 1.5) * 2
            wave3 = np.sin((x + z) * 0.05 + t * 0.8) * 1
            
            wave_height = int(wave1 + wave2 + wave3)
            surface_y = water_level + wave_height
            
            # Draw water layers
            for y in range(max(0, surface_y - 8), min(SIZE, surface_y + 2)):
                if y <= surface_y:
                    if y == surface_y and wave_height > 2:
                        color = foam_color  # Foam on wave peaks
                    elif y > surface_y - 3:
                        color = water_color
                    else:
                        color = water_dark
                    
                    add_voxel(volume, x, y, z, color)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    # Generate water first (background)
    generate_water(volume, t)
    
    # Generate boat components
    generate_hull(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_mast_and_rigging(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_sails(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 sailboat"):
    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 HULL_LENGTH and SAIL_HEIGHT to change the boat's proportions.
Modify water wave frequencies in generate_water() for calmer or choppier seas.
Add clouds by creating white voxels in the upper portion of the scene.
Experiment with rock_x, rock_y, rock_z values to change the boat's movement intensity.
Try different sail colors or add multiple sails for a more complex vessel.

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