DH STUDIOS
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LIVE 3D

Vestaboard

A true-3D product studio for a split-flap display maker

LIVE DEMO ON /3D
WHAT WAS BUILT
  • A true-3D product studio in the browser: type, orbit, render
  • A browser split-flap simulator with an embeddable board and a live composer
  • Path-traced stills, turntables and video export for marketing
WHERE IT RUNS
  • Browser, fully local
  • Marketing and web
TOOLS
  • Three.js
  • Path tracing (three-gpu-pathtracer)
  • Cinema 4D
01

The problem

Vestaboard makes split-flap displays — a mechanical board in Palo Alto that spells messages one flap at a time. Every new angle, message, or finish for marketing meant another render from the 3D file: a queue of stills that could never keep up with the ideas, and a per-angle cost on every one.

02

What was built

A true-3D product studio that runs in the browser: load the board model, type a message on the real 64-symbol drum, orbit to any angle, and export path-traced stills and turntables — render-farm finish from a laptop, with nothing leaving the machine. It replaces per-angle renders with a board you can simply turn.

Alongside it, a browser split-flap simulator with every board transition, an embeddable board, a live composer, and video export for marketing.

The Vestaboard Note split-flap board rendered live in the browser
TYPE ON THE BOARD, LIVE — LIVE ON /3D
LIVE DEMO · RENDERED IN YOUR BROWSER
03

How it renders

The board is the client's own model, and the message is the real drum: 64 positions in the order the physical board steps through them, with the colour chips and the heart where the product has them. For finals, a path tracer takes over from the real-time view with the same lighting, so what you frame is what you get. The demo on /3d runs the same drum on the same geometry and takes it one step further — every cell a two-piece flap stepping forward, the mechanism the planned flip animation is built on. Type on it.

04

What's next

Mechanical split-flap animation in true 3D — the forward-only drum with the board's own staggered transitions — and deterministic offline encoding, so the flip itself exports as video.

CREDITS
DESIGN AND BUILD
DH Studios