Three.js Motion (3D / WebGL)

Build real-time 3D motion for the web: animated scenes, camera moves, GLTF playback, instancing, scroll-linked 3D, and React Three Fiber. Optimize for smooth 60fps and clean disposal.

When to use

• 3D hero sections, product viewers, interactive/scroll-linked 3D backgrounds.
• Playing and blending GLTF animation clips.
• Rendering many objects efficiently (particle fields, tiles, forests).
• Camera fly-throughs and scroll-driven camera moves.

Minimal scene + render loop

import * as THREE from 'three';
const scene = new THREE.Scene();
const camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(50, innerWidth / innerHeight, 0.1, 100);
camera.position.set(0, 0, 5);
const renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer({ antialias: true });
renderer.setSize(innerWidth, innerHeight);
renderer.setPixelRatio(Math.min(devicePixelRatio, 2));   // cap DPR — critical for retina perf
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);

const mesh = new THREE.Mesh(
  new THREE.IcosahedronGeometry(1, 0),
  new THREE.MeshStandardMaterial({ color: 0x44aaff, flatShading: true })
);
scene.add(mesh, new THREE.DirectionalLight(0xffffff, 2).translateZ(5),
          new THREE.AmbientLight(0xffffff, 0.4));

const clock = new THREE.Clock();
renderer.setAnimationLoop(() => {
  const dt = clock.getDelta();
  mesh.rotation.y += dt * 0.5;                            // frame-rate independent
  renderer.render(scene, camera);
});
addEventListener('resize', () => {
  camera.aspect = innerWidth / innerHeight;
  camera.updateProjectionMatrix();
  renderer.setSize(innerWidth, innerHeight);
});

Use clock.getDelta() to make motion frame-rate independent (multiply rates by dt), and setAnimationLoop (works with WebXR and pauses on tab blur) instead of raw requestAnimationFrame.

GLTF animation clips

Load a model, play clips through an AnimationMixer, and update the mixer with delta time every frame.

import { GLTFLoader } from 'three/addons/loaders/GLTFLoader.js';
let mixer, actions = {};
new GLTFLoader().load('model.glb', (gltf) => {
  scene.add(gltf.scene);
  mixer = new THREE.AnimationMixer(gltf.scene);
  gltf.animations.forEach((clip) => { actions[clip.name] = mixer.clipAction(clip); });
  actions['Idle']?.play();
});
// In the loop: if (mixer) mixer.update(dt);

Crossfade between two clips smoothly:

function crossfade(fromName, toName, dur = 0.4) {
  const from = actions[fromName], to = actions[toName];
  to.reset().setEffectiveWeight(1).play();
  from.crossFadeTo(to, dur, false);                       // warping=false: linear weight ramp
}

For one-shot clips (e.g. a jump), set action.setLoop(THREE.LoopOnce); action.clampWhenFinished = true; and listen for mixer.addEventListener('finished', ...).

Camera lerp and scroll-linked motion

Smooth camera follow uses exponential interpolation toward a target. Frame-rate-correct damping:

const target = new THREE.Vector3(0, 0, 5);
function dampVec(current, goal, lambda, dt) {
  current.lerp(goal, 1 - Math.exp(-lambda * dt));         // lambda ~ 3..8
}
// loop: dampVec(camera.position, target, 5, dt); camera.lookAt(0, 0, 0);

Scroll-linked camera: map scrollY / maxScroll (0→1) to camera position along a path. Update the goal on scroll, let damping smooth it.

addEventListener('scroll', () => {
  const p = scrollY / (document.body.scrollHeight - innerHeight);
  target.set(0, p * -10, 5 - p * 3);                      // move down and in
});

Use THREE.CatmullRomCurve3 and curve.getPointAt(p) for curved fly-throughs.

Instancing for many objects

One draw call for thousands of identical meshes. Set per-instance matrices (and optional colors).

const count = 5000;
const geo = new THREE.BoxGeometry(0.1, 0.1, 0.1);
const mat = new THREE.MeshStandardMaterial();
const inst = new THREE.InstancedMesh(geo, mat, count);
const dummy = new THREE.Object3D();
for (let i = 0; i < count; i++) {
  dummy.position.set((Math.random()-0.5)*20, (Math.random()-0.5)*20, (Math.random()-0.5)*20);
  dummy.updateMatrix();
  inst.setMatrixAt(i, dummy.matrix);
}
inst.instanceMatrix.needsUpdate = true;
scene.add(inst);
// Animate: update dummy per instance, setMatrixAt, then needsUpdate = true each frame.

Set inst.instanceMatrix.setUsage(THREE.DynamicDrawUsage) if updating every frame. Per-instance color: inst.setColorAt(i, color) then inst.instanceColor.needsUpdate = true.

React Three Fiber (R3F)

Drive animation with useFrame; it receives state and delta.

import { Canvas, useFrame } from '@react-three/fiber';
import { useRef } from 'react';
function Spinner() {
  const ref = useRef();
  useFrame((state, delta) => {
    ref.current.rotation.y += delta * 0.5;
    ref.current.position.y = Math.sin(state.clock.elapsedTime) * 0.3;
  });
  return <mesh ref={ref}><icosahedronGeometry /><meshStandardMaterial /></mesh>;
}
export default () => (
  <Canvas dpr={[1, 2]} camera={{ position: [0, 0, 5] }}>
    <ambientLight intensity={0.4} /><directionalLight position={[5, 5, 5]} />
    <Spinner />
  </Canvas>
);

dpr={[1, 2]} caps pixel ratio. Load models with useGLTF (drei), animate clips with useAnimations. For springs use @react-spring/three; for scroll use drei ScrollControls + useScroll.

Performance and cleanup (critical)

• Cap pixel ratio: Math.min(devicePixelRatio, 2). This is the single biggest win on retina/mobile.
• Reuse geometries and materials; merge static geometry with BufferGeometryUtils.mergeGeometries.
• Prefer matcaps or baked lighting over many real-time lights; each shadow-casting light is expensive.
• Material/emissive motion (pulsing emissive, displacement) often reads better and is cheaper than moving lots of geometry.

Cleanup & GPU memory (disposal)

GPU resources (geometries, materials, textures, render targets) live on the GPU, not the JS heap. The garbage collector frees the JS objects but cannot free the WebGL buffers/textures they uploaded. Without explicit .dispose(), VRAM grows on every mount until the context is lost (black canvas, WebGL: CONTEXTLOSTWEBGL). This is why renderer.info.memory keeps rising across mount/unmount cycles.

Dispose what allocates GPU memory; ignore what does not:

• Dispose: geometry.dispose() (VBOs), material.dispose() (shader program — but NOT its textures), texture.dispose() (per map slot: map, normalMap, roughnessMap, envMap, …), renderTarget.dispose(), and on final teardown renderer.dispose() + renderer.forceContextLoss().
• No disposal needed: Mesh/Group/Scene (GC reclaims after removal), Vector3/Matrix4/Color (plain JS), lights/cameras (except shadow map render targets).
• scene.remove(mesh) only detaches from the graph — it frees nothing on the GPU. Geometry/material/textures stay resident until explicitly disposed.

Teardown traversal — disposing a loaded model or whole scene must handle material arrays and every texture map per material:

function disposeObject(root) {
  root.traverse((obj) => {
    if (obj.geometry) obj.geometry.dispose();
    if (obj.material) {
      const mats = Array.isArray(obj.material) ? obj.material : [obj.material];
      for (const m of mats) {
        for (const key in m) {                  // dispose any texture property
          const v = m[key];
          if (v && v.isTexture) v.dispose();
        }
        m.dispose();
      }
    }
  });
  root.parent?.remove(root);
}
// SPA route teardown: renderer.setAnimationLoop(null); disposeObject(scene);
//   renderer.dispose(); renderer.forceContextLoss?.();

R3F unmount cleanup — resources created declaratively in JSX are auto-disposed on unmount (R3F walks attached objects and calls .dispose()). Leaks happen with imperative resources (new THREE.X() in hooks/refs/loaders) that R3F never attached. Create them with useMemo and dispose in a matching useEffect cleanup:

const geometry = useMemo(() => new THREE.BufferGeometry(/* … */), [count]);
useEffect(() => () => geometry.dispose(), [geometry]);  // disposes on unmount AND dep change

For shared resources reused across mounts, set dispose={null} on the JSX object and dispose only at app shutdown. Verify with renderer.info.memory (R3F: useThree().gl.info.memory): mount/unmount 10x; if geometries/textures does not return to baseline, something leaked.

See references/resource-disposal.md for the full disposal utility (all map slots, shader uniforms, render targets, skinned meshes), EffectComposer/render-target disposal, a renderer.info leak-test harness, R3F cleanup recipes (refs, textures, GLTF cache clearing, <DisposeOnUnmount>), and HMR safety.

Deliver & verify (standalone HTML)

Packaged helper (scripts/): scripts/seek-shot.sh anim.html 0 1.5 3 freezes the ?t=N harness and screenshots each moment; scripts/contact-sheet.sh sheet.png frame-*.png tiles them for one-glance review. See scripts/README.md.

For a self-contained 3D scene (hero, WebGL background, micro-scene) the deliverable is one HTML file that opens directly in a browser — Three.js pulled from a CDN via an importmap, one render loop, no build step. A single file is the right tier for a scene; don't reach for a bundler when one file does the job.

Output contract:

• One .html: importmap pins three + three/addons to a CDN; your scene and the render loop in one inline <script type="module">.
• Drive ALL motion from one source of truth — clock.getElapsedTime() (and mixer/camera read from it). No Date.now(), no per-object wall-clock.
• Seed any randomness (instance placement, jitter) from a fixed seed so frames reproduce.

Seek/freeze harness — render ONE frame at a fixed time for screenshots. ?t=N forces elapsed time to N seconds, advances the scene to that instant, renders once, and stops the loop — a deterministic still.

<script type="module">
  // ... build scene, camera, renderer, clock, mixer ...
  const t = new URLSearchParams(location.search).get("t");
  function frame(elapsed) {            // pure: scene state is a function of elapsed
    mesh.rotation.y = elapsed * 0.5;
    if (mixer) { mixer.setTime(elapsed); }   // setTime is absolute, not delta
    renderer.render(scene, camera);
  }
  if (t !== null) {
    frame(parseFloat(t));             // one fixed frame, no loop
    window.__ready = true;
  } else {
    const clock = new THREE.Clock();
    renderer.setAnimationLoop(() => frame(clock.getElapsedTime()));
  }
</script>

Verify loop — render → freeze → screenshot → check: open the file at three instants — start, mid, end (?t=0, ?t=<mid>, ?t=<end> for an animated clip/loop) — screenshot each, and check both fidelity (matches the brief) and artifacts: a black canvas = parse/init error (check the console), clipped/off-frame geometry, NaN positions (objects vanish), missing model/texture (CDN 404). WebGL needs a GPU context; Playwright/Chromium supplies one (swiftshader) headless.

npx playwright screenshot --wait-for-timeout=600 "file://$PWD/scene.html?t=1.5" frame-mid.png

Before you finish:

1. Canvas actually renders — not blank, no console/WebGL errors, no CDN 404s.
2. ?t=N freezes a reproducible frame (same N → same pixels; randomness seeded).
3. Screenshotted at start / mid / end — matches the brief, no clipping/NaN/black.
4. Disposed and leak-free if embedded in an SPA (setAnimationLoop(null) + dispose; see disposal section).
5. prefers-reduced-motion honored — slow/halt rotation or auto-play where relevant.

Quick reference

Reference files

• references/r3f-and-perf.md — Full AnimationMixer crossfade and one-shot handling, useFrame patterns (clock, pointer, lerp), drei ScrollControls scroll-linked camera, InstancedMesh per-frame animation with color, pixel-ratio and adaptive resolution, complete dispose-on-unmount routine, and postprocessing (UnrealBloom, DepthOfField/bokeh) for both vanilla Three and R3F.
• references/resource-disposal.md — Complete GPU resource disposal: full disposal utility (all map slots, shader uniforms, render targets, env maps, skinned meshes), EffectComposer/render-target teardown, full renderer teardown, R3F leak cases and the useMemo+cleanup pattern, ref/texture/GLTF cleanup recipes, <DisposeOnUnmount> helper, shared-resource and InstancedMesh strategies, renderer.info leak-test harness, and HMR safety.