creating whale animation

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of a whale using SpatialStudio. The script creates a majestic whale that swims gracefully through a cubic 3D space, complete with flowing water particles and bubbles, then saves the animation to a .splv file.

What this script does

Creates a 3D scene of size 128×128×128
Spawns 1 large whale with:
- A detailed voxel body with realistic proportions
- Animated tail fin that moves side to side
- Flowing pectoral fins
- Eye details and mouth definition
Adds environmental effects:
- Swimming water particles
- Rising bubble trails
- Gentle current motion
Animates the whale swimming in place for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file whale.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).
Whale body The whale is constructed using elliptical shapes for the main body, with separate components for fins, tail, and head details.
Tail animation The tail fin oscillates side to side using sine waves to create realistic swimming motion.
Water effects Particle systems create flowing water streams and rising bubbles around the whale.
Body undulation Subtle sine-wave deformations along the whale's body simulate natural swimming movement.
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 whale.py and run:

python whale.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/whale.splv"

# Whale settings
WHALE_LENGTH = 40
WHALE_WIDTH = 12
WHALE_HEIGHT = 10
TAIL_SIZE = 8

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_whale_body(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    whale_color = (70, 130, 180)  # Steel blue
    belly_color = (220, 220, 220)  # Light gray
    
    body_undulation = np.sin(t * 3.0) * 2
    
    for x in range(-WHALE_LENGTH//2, WHALE_LENGTH//2):
        # Body taper - wider in middle, narrower at ends
        body_progress = abs(x) / (WHALE_LENGTH/2)
        current_width = int(WHALE_WIDTH * (1 - body_progress * 0.7))
        current_height = int(WHALE_HEIGHT * (1 - body_progress * 0.5))
        
        # Add subtle body wave motion
        wave_offset = int(np.sin(x * 0.1 + t * 2.0) * 3 + body_undulation)
        
        for y in range(-current_height, current_height + 1):
            for z in range(-current_width, current_width + 1):
                # Elliptical body shape
                if (y*y)/(current_height*current_height) + (z*z)/(current_width*current_width) <= 1:
                    final_x = cx + x
                    final_y = cy + y + wave_offset
                    final_z = cz + z
                    
                    # Belly coloring (lighter on bottom)
                    if y < -current_height//3:
                        color = belly_color
                    else:
                        color = whale_color
                    
                    add_voxel(volume, final_x, final_y, final_z, color)

def generate_whale_tail(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    tail_color = (60, 110, 160)
    
    # Tail animation - side to side movement
    tail_swing = np.sin(t * 4.0) * 12
    tail_base_x = cx - WHALE_LENGTH//2 - 5
    tail_base_y = cy + int(np.sin(t * 2.0) * 2)
    
    # Tail fin (horizontal)
    for x in range(-8, 3):
        for y in range(-TAIL_SIZE, TAIL_SIZE + 1):
            for z in range(-2, 3):
                # Tail fin shape
                if abs(y) <= TAIL_SIZE - abs(x//2):
                    fin_x = tail_base_x + x
                    fin_y = tail_base_y + y
                    fin_z = cz + z + int(tail_swing * (8 + x) / 8)
                    add_voxel(volume, fin_x, fin_y, fin_z, tail_color)

def generate_whale_fins(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    fin_color = (65, 115, 165)
    fin_wave = np.sin(t * 2.5) * 3
    
    # Pectoral fins (left and right)
    for side in [-1, 1]:
        fin_base_x = cx + 8
        fin_base_y = cy - 3
        fin_base_z = cz + side * (WHALE_WIDTH - 2)
        
        for x in range(-6, 8):
            for y in range(-3, 4):
                for z in range(-2, 3):
                    # Fin shape - tapered
                    if abs(y) <= 3 - abs(x//3) and abs(z) <= 2:
                        fin_x = fin_base_x + x
                        fin_y = fin_base_y + y + int(fin_wave)
                        fin_z = fin_base_z + z * side
                        add_voxel(volume, fin_x, fin_y, fin_z, fin_color)

def generate_whale_details(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    # Eye
    eye_color = (0, 0, 0)
    eye_x = cx + WHALE_LENGTH//4
    eye_y = cy + 3
    
    for side in [-1, 1]:
        eye_z = cz + side * (WHALE_WIDTH - 3)
        add_voxel(volume, eye_x, eye_y, eye_z, eye_color)
        add_voxel(volume, eye_x, eye_y + 1, eye_z, eye_color)
    
    # Mouth line
    mouth_color = (40, 90, 130)
    mouth_x = cx + WHALE_LENGTH//3
    mouth_y = cy - WHALE_HEIGHT + 2
    
    for z in range(-WHALE_WIDTH//2, WHALE_WIDTH//2):
        add_voxel(volume, mouth_x, mouth_y, cz + z, mouth_color)

def generate_water_particles(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    particle_color = (173, 216, 230)  # Light blue
    
    # Flowing water particles around whale
    for i in range(150):
        # Particle positions with flow motion
        px = cx + int((i % 20 - 10) * 4 + np.sin(t * 2 + i * 0.1) * 8)
        py = cy + int((i % 15 - 7) * 3 + np.cos(t * 1.5 + i * 0.2) * 5)
        pz = cz + int((i % 12 - 6) * 4 + np.sin(t * 1.8 + i * 0.15) * 6)
        
        # Only add particles outside whale body area
        dist_to_whale = np.sqrt((px - cx)**2 + (py - cy)**2 + (pz - cz)**2)
        if dist_to_whale > 15:
            add_voxel(volume, px, py, pz, particle_color)

def generate_bubbles(volume, cx, cy, cz, t):
    bubble_color = (255, 255, 255, 180)  # Semi-transparent white
    
    # Rising bubbles
    for i in range(20):
        bubble_life = (t + i * 0.3) % (2 * np.pi)
        bx = cx + int(np.sin(i * 0.8) * 20)
        by = cy - 20 + int(bubble_life * 8)
        bz = cz + int(np.cos(i * 1.2) * 15)
        
        # Bubble cluster
        for dx in range(-1, 2):
            for dy in range(-1, 2):
                for dz in range(-1, 2):
                    if dx*dx + dy*dy + dz*dz <= 1:
                        bubble_x, bubble_y, bubble_z = bx + dx, by + dy, bz + dz
                        if 0 <= bubble_x < SIZE and 0 <= bubble_y < SIZE and 0 <= bubble_z < SIZE:
                            volume[bubble_x, bubble_y, bubble_z] = bubble_color

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    # Generate whale components
    generate_whale_body(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_whale_tail(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_whale_fins(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_whale_details(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    
    # Add environmental effects
    generate_water_particles(volume, CENTER_X, CENTER_Y, CENTER_Z, t)
    generate_bubbles(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 whale animation"):
    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 WHALE_LENGTH and WHALE_WIDTH to change the whale's proportions.
Modify the whale_color variables to create different whale species.
Add more bubbles by increasing the range in generate_bubbles().
Create a whale pod by duplicating the whale at different positions.
Experiment with the tail swing speed by changing the multiplier in np.sin(t * 4.0).

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