Snowglobe
After making the Three.js miniatures for Merge & Conversate, I started thinking about what else I could do with the format. I had plenty of vacation photos, so I began rebuilding the places in them as 3D snowglobes.
Snowglobe is now a collection of fifty places you can spin around and shake: piers, temples, bridges, gardens, and city streets. Most are in South Korea, with others from California, Colorado, Japan, and elsewhere.
Each scene is built from simple shapes in code, down to the signs and railings. Working at that scale forced me to notice details in the photos that I would otherwise have missed.
Drag to turn the globe, or shake it and watch everything settle. Depending on the scene, the globe can contain snow, cherry blossoms, autumn leaves, rain, fireflies, or bubbles. You can change the weather or use the default for each place.
The day and night switch changes the miniature along with the page. After dark, the Ferris wheel lights up and windows begin to glow.
On a phone, the globe stays in view while you swipe through the collection. Here’s Woljeonggyo, the covered bridge in Gyeongju, in both modes:
| Day | Night |
|---|---|
 |  |
You can also turn on labels for points of interest, switch between English and Korean, and share a link to a particular globe.
It is an elaborate way to show someone my vacation photos, but a more interesting one.