How can I implement a 3D model viewer using canvas such as the one used by wowhead's website?

Question

Today I came across with wowhead's 3d model viewer (you should be able to see an interactive 3d spider model at the right side banner) which seems to be using HTML5 canvas to render the interactive 3d model. The problem is that I still didn't figure out how can I do the same with a personal application.

Maybe someone can share some knowledge into this type of 3d features.

Answer 1

I've made something for a prototype for a school project a while ago. I used the GLGE framework after failing with SceneJS .

The result, ugly as it may be, shows how to load and unload models in a WebGL view. This results in the possibility to configure an action figure. The demo can still be found here, and I have no intention to bring it down any time soon.

http://goleztrol.nl/SO/GLGE/03/

I haven't done much experimenting with 3D since, and I don't remember all the details, but it was one of my first experiments, only a couple of dozens of lines of code, so it should be pretty straightforward.

The code is well commented although it is in Dutch. So if you run into problems, please let me know, and I'll try to translate the comments and maybe put everything in a fiddle and maybe dive into it again to explain details that are unclear to you.