Three.js Conf Paris is the official website for the inaugural conference dedicated to the world’s most popular 3D JavaScript library. Designed by the creative team of Makio64 and Hervé Studio, the site is a celebration of the Three.js ecosystem.
Rather than a static list of speakers and schedules, the website is an interactive “living UI” where every visitor is represented as a physics-driven 3D sphere. It is a masterclass in how to turn a technical community into the primary design element of a brand.
Design Philosophy: Community as a Living UI
The core concept of the site is “No Pedestals.” Both world-famous speakers (like Three.js creator mrdoob and Bruno Simon) and everyday visitors are turned into glossy, expressive 3D avatars that inhabit the same physics-driven space.
- Anti-Corporate Aesthetic: Moving away from standard “Tech Conference” visuals, the site uses a “Superflat” pop-art style. It features chunky, irreverent cream-colored typography set against vibrant, shifting gradients of lavender, pink, and purple.
- The “Joyful Heap”: The landing page is a literal pile of community members. Visitors can interact with the spheres, watching them bounce, roll, and stack in real-time.
- Dynamic UI Elements: The navigation buttons are not standard HTML boxes; they use custom SVG shapes with 48 control points that react organically to the user’s cursor, making the entire interface feel squishy and alive.
Technical Excellence & WebGPU
As a site built for 3D developers, it utilizes the absolute cutting edge of web technology:
- WebGPU Implementation: The site is one of the first major landing pages to leverage the WebGPURenderer, the next-generation rendering pipeline for the web.
- SSGI (Screen-Space Global Illumination): To achieve its realistic look, the site uses SSGI to create real-time color bleeding between the spheres. When two spheres touch, their colors naturally bounce off one another.
- Custom Physics Engine: The “pile” is managed by a high-performance physics engine offloaded to a Web Worker, ensuring that the main thread remains smooth even with dozens of spheres on screen.
- Zero-Database Avatars: Each sphere’s appearance is encoded into a 10-character string via a custom codec. This means the site doesn’t need a database to remember what you look like; the URL or local string handles it entirely.
