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Chain Links

A heavy polished chain hangs between two posts and sways in a slow wave. Loops perfectly.

3D object, V2 Objects3DSeamless loop, verified132 lines of codev1.0.1

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Chain Links preview
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Info

What it is

A chain of polished links hanging between two posts in a catenary curve, swaying gently: a slow wave runs along it from post to post, each link turning a little as it goes, every second link at right angles to its neighbours as in a real chain, the whole thing breathing in and out of its sag. Choose the number of links, the metal (steel, brass, copper or black), how deep the chain hangs, how much it sways, the backdrop and whether the camera drifts.

Reuse it in your own idea

  • Industrial or security title: Steel, twenty-four links.
  • Luxury accent: Brass, deep sag.
  • Heavy impact scene: Copper, heavy swing.

Which part is reusable

src/chain-links.js is the ingredient your AI reuses. demo.js is only the example scene around it, and uses chrome-material only for the demo.

Good to know

  • The links are placed along a curve rather than simulated: they do not collide or interlock physically.
  • The chain's length is fixed by its link count, so a deep sag stretches the spacing a little.

Technical details

Technical details
Implementation
Three.js 0.185.1 (WebGL) · ES module src/chain-links.js
Exports
  • createChain({ links?, metal?, sag?, sway? }) => { group, setProgress(progress), dispose() }
  • METALS: { steel, brass, copper, black }
Dependencies (exact)
  • three@0.185.1 (source) — Renderer, geometry and shader materials.
  • chrome-material@1.1.0 (demo) — Studio environment light, backdrop and contact shadow.
  • apw-runtime@1.0.0 (demo) — Demo harness.
How it fits a scene

Coordinates: Posts at x = ±5.2; the chain runs between y = 5 on the posts and sags to about y = 2.4; it sways along z.

Lighting: A warm key light with a shadow map and the studio environment on the polished metal.

Timing: setProgress(progress) places every link; frames render in any order.

Output
1080×1080, 30 fps, 12 s · procedural (computed from the frame number) · seamless loop — The sag breathes in a sine of the loop and a wave of sway runs along the chain as sines of whole cycles of the loop (two and three), so the last frame meets the first.
Tested
Rendered 360 frames on 2026-10-08 in Chrome 154.0.8037.97 headless on Linux 7.0.0-38-generic (x64), Node 22.14.0 (WebGL 2 via SwiftShader (software)). Same frame twice from fresh pages: identical. Loop: Frame 0 vs end state (progress 1): mean |Δ| 0.0000, max |Δ| 0 of 255.
Performance
One instanced mesh of up to 40 links (about 3 000 triangles each) and two posts, one shadow map. A few milliseconds a frame on an integrated Intel GPU. Software WebGL renders in a second or two a frame.
Export a video yourself
Download the source, then in the folder: npm install npm run render -- chain-links/1.0.1 --out my-video.mp4Needs Node 18+, ffmpeg and Chrome/Chromium. Add --params my-settings.json (from Copy settings) for your own settings.
Version
1.0.1 · sha256:b9378bd2481581b8… · other versions: 1.0.0
Files
License
MIT. Copyright (c) 2026 AI Pixel Wizard. Released under the MIT License. See LICENSE in this folder. License details
Provenance
Adapted from the owner's threejs-sketches/objects-scenes/chain-links (MIT) and rebuilt for AI Pixel Wizard in October 2026 as an original object: stadium-shaped links on a re-solved catenary with alternating orientation, a travelling sway wave and an exact loop.
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