Anemone Chorales

Real-time 3D audio visualization engine. A bioluminescent sea anemone that dances to music, driven by frequency analysis, custom GLSL shaders, and a depth-based energy model.

Tech Stack

React 19, Three.js, React Three Fiber, GLSL, Web Audio API, TypeScript, Vite

Features

• Audio-reactive creature: FFT frequency bands (bass/mids/treble) drive tentacle sway, bulge, curl, and flutter through custom vertex/fragment shaders
• Transient detection: frame-over-frame delta analysis triggers kick-drum flare effects with fast-decay punch
• 3 switchable biomes: BIOLUM (violet/cyan), ABYSS (navy/cold blue), GRAVITAS (black/gold), each with a 3-stop energy-driven color spectrum
• Depth system: 7 nautical zones from SURFACE to ABYSSAL, driven by a leaky-integrator heat model that gates animation phases and visual complexity
• Shader-only glow: no postprocessing bloom (avoids R3F flicker); all glow achieved via fresnel rim lighting, per-fragment texture, and transient flash

How It Works

Audio analysis runs at 60fps outside React via requestAnimationFrame. Smoothed frequency data flows to GLSL uniforms through refs, keeping the render loop decoupled from React's batching. A single "heat" scalar (0-1) accumulates energy over time and gates three animation phases: dormant, reactive, and overdrive.

Development

npm install
npm run dev    # Vite dev server
npm run build  # Production build

Part of the travisBREAKS portfolio.