3D Models in WebGL

Learn to load, render, and animate 3D models using modern WebGL2 techniques.

🚀 Interactive Demo

What You'll Learn

Model Loading

  • • glTF format parsing
  • • Geometry buffer creation
  • • Texture mapping concepts

Rendering Pipeline

  • • Vertex/fragment shader setup
  • • Transformation matrices
  • • Lighting and materials

Animation

  • • Skeletal animation
  • • Morph targets
  • • Real-time physics

3D Model Renderer Demo

Code Example: Model Rendering

Initialization

// Set up WebGL context
const canvas = document.getElementById('model-canvas');
const gl = canvas.getContext('webgl2');

// Create shader program
const vsSource = `
    attribute vec3 aPosition;
    uniform mat4 uModelView;
    uniform mat4 uProjection;
    void main() {
        gl_Position = uProjection * uModelView * vec4(aPosition, 1.0);
    }
`;

Rendering Loop

function render() {
    // Clear buffers
    gl.clear(gl.COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | gl.DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);

    // Set model transformations
    const modelMatrix = mat4.create();
    mat4.translate(modelMatrix, [0.0, 0.0, -5.0]);

    // Draw model
    gl.drawElements(gl.TRIANGLES, indexCount, gl.UNSIGNED_BYTE, 0);

    requestAnimationFrame(render);
}

Model Loading Concepts

glTF Pipeline

  1. 1. Parse glTF JSON structure
  2. 2. Load referenced binary buffers
  3. 3. Create WebGL buffers for vertices/indexes
  4. 4. Setup material shaders with textures
  5. 5. Configure animation controllers

Tip: Use glTF 2.0 as it's the most widely supported 3D format.

Advanced Techniques

Optimized Rendering

  • • Instanced rendering for large model instances
  • • Texture atlasing for efficient material rendering
  • • Level of Detail (LOD) management
  • • GPU-based model culling

Animation Systems

  • • Skeletal animation with joint matrices
  • • Morph target interpolation
  • • Animation blending for smooth transitions
  • • GPU-driven animation timelines