Three.js
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Three.js lets you build 3D worlds in the browser — spinning products, interactive scenes, entire games. It wraps the terrifying complexity of WebGL in a friendlier API. You still need a PhD in math for advanced stuff, but at least you can render a spinning cube on day one.
Real Talk
Three.js is a JavaScript 3D library that abstracts WebGL into a scene graph with cameras, lights, geometries, materials, and renderers. It supports physically-based rendering, shadows, post-processing, VR/AR, and model loading (glTF). The React ecosystem uses React Three Fiber.
When You'll Hear This
"The product configurator uses Three.js for real-time 3D previews" / "We migrated from raw WebGL to Three.js and cut our 3D code by 80%"
Related Terms
Canvas API
The Canvas API gives you a blank rectangle and says 'draw whatever you want with code.' It's like MS Paint but controlled by JavaScript.
GPU Acceleration
GPU acceleration is when the browser offloads rendering work to your graphics card instead of making the CPU do everything.
WebGL
WebGL gives your browser direct access to the GPU for rendering 2D and 3D graphics at blazing speed.