3D Voxel Animation: Wooden Planks

This guide walks you through how to generate a looping 3D voxel animation of wooden planks using SpatialStudio. The script creates realistic wooden planks with grain textures that gently sway 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
Spawns 6 wooden planks, each with:
- Realistic wood grain patterns
- Natural brown color variations
- Subtle weathering effects
- Metal bolts and hardware details
Animates them with gentle swaying motion for 8 seconds at 30 FPS
Outputs the file wooden_planks.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).
Wood grain texture Planks feature realistic wood grain using noise functions and layered sine waves to simulate natural patterns.
Color variation Multiple shades of brown create depth, with darker areas for grain lines and lighter spots for worn areas.
Metal hardware Each plank gets metal bolts and corner brackets with metallic gray coloring for authenticity.
Animation loop A normalized time variable t cycles from 0 → 2π, creating gentle swaying motion that 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 wooden_planks.py and run:

python wooden_planks.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/wooden_planks.splv"

# Plank settings
PLANK_COUNT = 6
PLANK_WIDTH = 8
PLANK_HEIGHT = 4
PLANK_LENGTH = 35

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 wood_grain_noise(x, y, z, t):
    """Generate wood grain pattern using layered noise"""
    grain1 = np.sin(y * 0.3 + t * 0.1) * 0.3
    grain2 = np.sin(y * 0.15 + x * 0.1) * 0.2
    grain3 = np.sin(y * 0.45 + z * 0.05 + t * 0.05) * 0.15
    return grain1 + grain2 + grain3

def get_wood_color(base_x, base_y, base_z, t):
    """Generate realistic wood color with grain"""
    # Base wood colors (different browns)
    base_colors = [
        (139, 90, 43),   # Dark brown
        (160, 100, 50),  # Medium brown
        (180, 120, 70),  # Light brown
        (120, 80, 40),   # Very dark brown
    ]
    
    # Get wood grain influence
    grain = wood_grain_noise(base_x, base_y, base_z, t)
    
    # Select base color with some variation
    color_index = int(abs(grain * 10) % len(base_colors))
    base_r, base_g, base_b = base_colors[color_index]
    
    # Apply grain darkening/lightening
    multiplier = 1.0 + grain * 0.4
    r = max(20, min(255, int(base_r * multiplier)))
    g = max(15, min(255, int(base_g * multiplier)))
    b = max(10, min(255, int(base_b * multiplier)))
    
    return (r, g, b)

def generate_plank_body(volume, cx, cy, cz, width, height, length, rotation, t):
    """Generate a wooden plank with grain texture"""
    half_w, half_h, half_l = width//2, height//2, length//2
    
    cos_r, sin_r = np.cos(rotation), np.sin(rotation)
    
    for dx in range(-half_l, half_l+1):
        for dy in range(-half_h, half_h+1):
            for dz in range(-half_w, half_w+1):
                # Apply rotation around Y axis
                rx = int(dx * cos_r - dz * sin_r)
                rz = int(dx * sin_r + dz * cos_r)
                
                final_x = cx + rx
                final_y = cy + dy
                final_z = cz + rz
                
                # Get wood color for this position
                wood_color = get_wood_color(final_x, final_y, final_z, t)
                add_voxel(volume, final_x, final_y, final_z, wood_color)

def generate_metal_hardware(volume, cx, cy, cz, width, height, length, rotation, t):
    """Add metal bolts and corner brackets to planks"""
    half_w, half_h, half_l = width//2, height//2, length//2
    cos_r, sin_r = np.cos(rotation), np.sin(rotation)
    
    metal_color = (105, 105, 105)  # Dark gray metal
    
    # Corner bolts
    bolt_positions = [
        (-half_l+2, 0, -half_w+1),
        (-half_l+2, 0, half_w-1),
        (half_l-2, 0, -half_w+1),
        (half_l-2, 0, half_w-1),
    ]
    
    for bx, by, bz in bolt_positions:
        # Apply rotation
        rx = int(bx * cos_r - bz * sin_r)
        rz = int(bx * sin_r + bz * cos_r)
        
        # Small bolt head
        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 <= 2:
                        final_x = cx + rx + dx
                        final_y = cy + by + dy + half_h + 1
                        final_z = cz + rz + dz
                        add_voxel(volume, final_x, final_y, final_z, metal_color)

def generate_plank_arrangement(volume, t):
    """Generate multiple wooden planks in a stack arrangement"""
    plank_spacing = 6
    
    for i in range(PLANK_COUNT):
        # Stack planks with slight offset
        plank_y = CENTER_Y - (PLANK_COUNT * plank_spacing // 2) + (i * plank_spacing)
        plank_x = CENTER_X + int(np.sin(t * 0.5 + i * 0.8) * 3)
        plank_z = CENTER_Z + int(np.cos(t * 0.3 + i * 0.5) * 2)
        
        # Slight rotation for natural look
        rotation = (i * 0.2) + np.sin(t * 0.4 + i * 0.6) * 0.1
        
        # Vary plank dimensions slightly
        width = PLANK_WIDTH + (i % 3) - 1
        height = PLANK_HEIGHT
        length = PLANK_LENGTH + int(np.sin(i * 1.2) * 5)
        
        generate_plank_body(volume, plank_x, plank_y, plank_z, width, height, length, rotation, t)
        generate_metal_hardware(volume, plank_x, plank_y, plank_z, width, height, length, rotation, t)

def generate_wood_debris(volume, t):
    """Add small wood chips and sawdust for realism"""
    debris_color = (101, 67, 33)  # Dark wood debris
    
    for i in range(20):
        # Random positions around the planks
        debris_x = CENTER_X + int(np.sin(t * 1.2 + i * 2.1) * 25)
        debris_y = CENTER_Y - 20 + int(np.cos(t * 0.8 + i * 1.7) * 5)
        debris_z = CENTER_Z + int(np.sin(t * 0.9 + i * 1.3) * 20)
        
        # Small debris pieces
        if np.sin(t * 2.0 + i) > 0.7:  # Only show some debris
            add_voxel(volume, debris_x, debris_y, debris_z, debris_color)
            # Occasionally add a slightly larger piece
            if i % 5 == 0:
                add_voxel(volume, debris_x+1, debris_y, debris_z, debris_color)

def generate_scene(volume, t):
    generate_plank_arrangement(volume, t)
    generate_wood_debris(volume, t)

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

for frame in tqdm(range(FRAMES), desc="Generating wooden planks"):
    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 PLANK_COUNT to create more or fewer planks in your stack.
Modify the base_colors array to experiment with different wood types (oak, pine, mahogany).
Adjust plank_spacing to make planks more tightly packed or spread apart.
Add more metal hardware by expanding the bolt_positions array.
Create weathered effects by adding more color variation in get_wood_color().
Make planks fall or rotate by modifying the position calculations with time-based offsets.

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