creating vaporwave animation

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a vaporwave scene using SpatialStudio. The script creates a retro-futuristic landscape with a glowing grid floor, floating geometric shapes, and neon colors that pulse and shift 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
Generates a vaporwave aesthetic featuring:
- A glowing neon grid floor with perspective lines
- Floating geometric shapes (pyramids, cubes, spheres)
- Pulsing neon colors in pink, purple, and cyan
- Animated scanlines and digital effects
Animates the scene with smooth color transitions for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file vaporwave.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).
Grid floor Creates a perspective grid pattern on the bottom plane using mathematical functions to simulate depth.
Geometric shapes Spawns floating pyramids, cubes, and spheres that rotate and pulse with neon colors.
Color cycling Uses sine waves to create smooth color transitions between classic vaporwave hues.
Scanlines & effects Adds horizontal scanlines and digital glitch effects that move across the scene.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, ensuring smooth looping motion and color changes.
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 vaporwave.py and run:

python vaporwave.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/vaporwave.splv"

# Vaporwave settings
GRID_SPACING = 8
SHAPE_COUNT = 6
SCANLINE_HEIGHT = 2

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 get_vaporwave_color(phase, t):
    """Generate classic vaporwave colors with time-based transitions"""
    colors = [
        (255, 20, 147),   # Deep pink
        (138, 43, 226),   # Blue violet
        (0, 255, 255),    # Cyan
        (255, 0, 255),    # Magenta
        (75, 0, 130)      # Indigo
    ]
    base_color = colors[phase % len(colors)]
    intensity = 0.7 + 0.3 * np.sin(t * 2.0 + phase)
    return tuple(int(c * intensity) for c in base_color)

def generate_grid_floor(volume, t):
    """Create a perspective neon grid on the floor"""
    grid_color = get_vaporwave_color(0, t)
    
    # Horizontal lines
    for z in range(0, SIZE, GRID_SPACING):
        for x in range(SIZE):
            brightness = 0.8 + 0.2 * np.sin(t + z * 0.1)
            final_color = tuple(int(c * brightness) for c in grid_color)
            add_voxel(volume, x, 5, z, final_color)
            add_voxel(volume, x, 6, z, final_color)
    
    # Vertical lines
    for x in range(0, SIZE, GRID_SPACING):
        for z in range(SIZE):
            brightness = 0.8 + 0.2 * np.sin(t + x * 0.1)
            final_color = tuple(int(c * brightness) for c in grid_color)
            add_voxel(volume, x, 5, z, final_color)
            add_voxel(volume, x, 6, z, final_color)

def generate_pyramid(volume, cx, cy, cz, size, color):
    """Generate a voxel pyramid"""
    for y in range(size):
        level_size = size - y
        for dx in range(-level_size, level_size + 1):
            for dz in range(-level_size, level_size + 1):
                if abs(dx) + abs(dz) <= level_size:
                    add_voxel(volume, cx + dx, cy + y, cz + dz, color)

def generate_cube(volume, cx, cy, cz, size, color):
    """Generate a voxel cube outline"""
    for dx in range(-size, size + 1):
        for dy in range(-size, size + 1):
            for dz in range(-size, size + 1):
                if (abs(dx) == size or abs(dy) == size or abs(dz) == size):
                    add_voxel(volume, cx + dx, cy + dy, cz + dz, color)

def generate_sphere(volume, cx, cy, cz, radius, color):
    """Generate a voxel sphere outline"""
    for dx in range(-radius, radius + 1):
        for dy in range(-radius, radius + 1):
            for dz in range(-radius, radius + 1):
                distance = np.sqrt(dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz)
                if radius - 1 <= distance <= radius:
                    add_voxel(volume, cx + dx, cy + dy, cz + dz, color)

def generate_floating_shapes(volume, t):
    """Create floating geometric shapes with rotation and pulsing"""
    shapes = ['pyramid', 'cube', 'sphere']
    
    for i in range(SHAPE_COUNT):
        angle = (i / SHAPE_COUNT) * 2 * np.pi + t * 0.5
        radius = 30 + 15 * np.sin(i * 0.7)
        
        x = int(CENTER_X + radius * np.cos(angle))
        z = int(CENTER_Z + radius * np.sin(angle))
        y = int(CENTER_Y + 20 + 10 * np.sin(t * 1.2 + i * 0.8))
        
        size = max(3, int(6 + 2 * np.sin(t * 2.0 + i)))
        color = get_vaporwave_color(i, t)
        
        shape_type = shapes[i % len(shapes)]
        
        if shape_type == 'pyramid':
            generate_pyramid(volume, x, y, z, size, color)
        elif shape_type == 'cube':
            generate_cube(volume, x, y, z, size, color)
        elif shape_type == 'sphere':
            generate_sphere(volume, x, y, z, size, color)

def generate_scanlines(volume, t):
    """Add moving scanlines for retro effect"""
    scanline_color = (255, 255, 255)  # White scanlines
    
    # Moving horizontal scanlines
    for i in range(3):
        y_pos = int((SIZE * 0.3) + (SIZE * 0.4) * ((t * 0.5 + i * 0.3) % 1.0))
        
        for x in range(SIZE):
            for z in range(SIZE):
                if y_pos < SIZE:
                    alpha = int(128 * (0.5 + 0.5 * np.sin(t * 3.0 + i)))
                    if volume[x, y_pos, z, 3] < alpha:
                        volume[x, y_pos, z, :3] = scanline_color
                        volume[x, y_pos, z, 3] = alpha

def generate_background_glow(volume, t):
    """Add subtle background glow effects"""
    glow_color = get_vaporwave_color(2, t * 0.3)
    
    for x in range(0, SIZE, 4):
        for y in range(SIZE // 2, SIZE):
            for z in range(0, SIZE, 4):
                distance_from_center = np.sqrt((x - CENTER_X)**2 + (z - CENTER_Z)**2)
                if distance_from_center > SIZE * 0.3:
                    intensity = max(0, 50 - int(distance_from_center * 0.5))
                    if intensity > 0 and volume[x, y, z, 3] == 0:
                        final_color = tuple(int(c * intensity / 255.0) for c in glow_color)
                        volume[x, y, z, :3] = final_color
                        volume[x, y, z, 3] = intensity

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    generate_background_glow(volume, t)
    generate_grid_floor(volume, t)
    generate_floating_shapes(volume, t)
    generate_scanlines(volume, t)

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

for frame in tqdm(range(FRAMES), desc="Generating vaporwave"):
    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 SHAPE_COUNT to add more floating geometry.
Modify the colors array in get_vaporwave_color() for different neon palettes.
Change GRID_SPACING to make the floor grid denser or sparser.
Add more geometric shapes by extending the shapes list.
Experiment with SCANLINE_HEIGHT for thicker retro scanlines.

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What this script does

How it works (simplified)

Try it yourself