Develop Reference

three.js reflector (mirror) clipping object when HDRi background is set

I have scene with elements size over 500 units and i want to create mirror effect for them. to Reach descripted effect i used Reflector library from three.js webgl_mirror example.
I placed mirror on ground and most of meshes disappears or showing only small parts of surface when i set background hdri without its displayes normally. I builded other scene for tests and it looks like this unexpected effect begins when distance between mirror and obiect is over around 75 units (sometimes its less i dont know what its depends).
Image to preview on that effect
Is there any possibility that i could increase range of this clipping box size for that mirror? (i really want to avoid of scaling my actual created scene)
What i already tryed:
-changing my perspective camera far and near distances. - no effect
-manipulate paramets for clipBias and recursion or even increasing texture size. -no effect
-adding multiple lights around elements. -no effect
code that i used for experiment:
sceneSetup = () => {
//initialize
const width = this.mount.clientWidth;
const height = this.mount.clientHeight;
this.scene = new THREE.Scene();
let helperScene = this.scene;
this.camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(60, width / height, 1, 500);
this.camera.position.z = 200;
this.controls = new OrbitControls(this.camera, document.body);
this.renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
this.renderer.setSize(width, height);
this.mount.appendChild(this.renderer.domElement); //render to container (React staff)
///Load HDR map
new RGBELoader()
.setDataType(THREE.UnsignedByteType)
.load(HdrFile, function(texture) {
var envMap = pmremGenerator.fromEquirectangular(texture).texture;
helperScene.background = envMap; // comment to see issue
helperScene.environment = envMap;
texture.dispose();
pmremGenerator.dispose();
});
var pmremGenerator = new THREE.PMREMGenerator(this.renderer);
pmremGenerator.compileEquirectangularShader();
//create ground mirror
let geometry = new THREE.PlaneBufferGeometry(200, 200);
let groundMirror = new Reflector(geometry, {
clipBias: 0,
textureWidth: 1024,
textureHeight: 1024,
color: 0x889999,
recursion: 1
});
groundMirror .position.z = -20;
groundMirror .rotation.x = Math.PI * -0.5;
//change groundMirror .position.y to -104 and evrything looks fine;
groundMirror .position.y = -105;
this.scene.add(groundMirror );
};
addCustomSceneObjects = () => {
//create cube for reflect
const geometry = new THREE.BoxGeometry(50, 50, 50);
const material = new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial({
color: 0x156289,
emissive: 0x072534,
side: THREE.DoubleSide,
depthTest: true,
depthWrite: true
});
this.cube = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, material);
this.cube.position.y = 0;
this.scene.add(this.cube);
//radding lights
const lights = [];
lights[0] = new THREE.PointLight(0xffffff, 1, 0);
lights[1] = new THREE.PointLight(0xffffff, 1, 0);
lights[2] = new THREE.PointLight(0xffffff, 1, 0);
lights[0].position.set(0, 200, 0);
lights[1].position.set(100, 200, 100);
lights[2].position.set(-100, -200, -100);
this.scene.add(lights[0]);
this.scene.add(lights[1]);
this.scene.add(lights[2]);
};
startAnimationLoop = () => {
//rotate cube
this.cube.rotation.x += 0.01;
this.cube.rotation.y += 0.01;
this.requestID = window.requestAnimationFrame(this.startAnimationLoop);
this.renderer.render(this.scene, this.camera);
};

Camera position for endless game in ThreeJs

I'm studying Three.js and I'm tryng to do my first game: and endless game.
I have read this article and the purpose is to do something very similar.
The protagonist (the hero) is a blue ball that rolls towards the "infinity" and must avoid some obstacles that gradually arise in front of him. The user can avoid these obstacles by guiding the ball to the left or right and jumping (the idea is to use the keyboard and in particular the left/right arrow keys and the space bar to jump).
Here is my idea:
I want to follow the idea of the article but not to copy the code (I want to understand it).
This is what I've done so far:
let sceneWidth = window.innerWidth;
let sceneHeight = window.innerHeight;
let canvas;
let camera;
let scene;
let renderer;
let dom;
let sun;
let hero;
let ground;
let clock;
let spotLight;
let ambientLight;
init();
function init() {
createScene();
showHelpers();
update();
}
/**
* Set up scene.
*/
function createScene() {
clock = new THREE.Clock();
clock.start();
scene = new THREE.Scene();
window.scene = scene;
camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(60, sceneWidth / sceneHeight, 0.1, 1000);
camera.position.set(0, 0, 0);
renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer({ antialias: true });
renderer.setClearColor(0x333f47, 1);
renderer.shadowMap.enabled = true;
renderer.shadowMapSoft = true;
renderer.setSize(sceneWidth, sceneHeight);
canvas = renderer.domElement;
document.body.appendChild(canvas);
// const orbitControls = new THREE.OrbitControls(camera, canvas);
addGround();
addHero();
addLight();
camera.position.set(0, -1, 0.6);
camera.lookAt(new THREE.Vector3(0, 0, 0));
window.addEventListener("resize", onWindowResize, false);
}
/**
* Show helper.
*/
function showHelpers() {
const axesHelper = new THREE.AxesHelper(5);
// scene.add(axesHelper);
const spotLightHelper = new THREE.SpotLightHelper(spotLight);
scene.add(spotLightHelper);
}
/**
* Add ground to scene.
*/
function addGround() {
const geometry = new THREE.PlaneGeometry(1, 4);
const material = new THREE.MeshLambertMaterial({
color: 0xcccccc,
side: THREE.DoubleSide
});
ground = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, material);
ground.position.set(0, 1, 0);
ground.receiveShadow = true;
scene.add(ground);
}
/**
* Add hero to scene.
*/
function addHero() {
var geometry = new THREE.SphereGeometry(0.03, 32, 32);
var material = new THREE.MeshLambertMaterial({
color: 0x3875d8,
side: THREE.DoubleSide
});
hero = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, material);
hero.receiveShadow = true;
hero.castShadow = true;
scene.add(hero);
hero.position.set(0, -0.62, 0.03);
}
/**
* Add light to scene.
*/
function addLight() {
// spot light
spotLight = new THREE.SpotLight(0xffffff);
spotLight.position.set(2, 30, 0);
spotLight.angle = degToRad(10);
spotLight.castShadow = true;
spotLight.shadow.mapSize.width = 1024;
spotLight.shadow.mapSize.height = 1024;
spotLight.shadow.camera.near = 1;
spotLight.shadow.camera.far = 4000;
spotLight.shadow.camera.fov = 45;
scene.add(spotLight);
// ambient light
ambientLight = new THREE.AmbientLight(0x303030, 2);
scene.add(ambientLight);
}
/**
* Call game loop.
*/
function update() {
render();
requestAnimationFrame(update);
}
/**
* Render the scene.
*/
function render() {
renderer.render(scene, camera);
}
/**
* On window resize, render again the scene.
*/
function onWindowResize() {
sceneHeight = window.innerHeight;
sceneWidth = window.innerWidth;
renderer.setSize(sceneWidth, sceneHeight);
camera.aspect = sceneWidth / sceneHeight;
camera.updateProjectionMatrix();
}
/**
* Degree to radiants
*/
function degToRad(degree) {
return degree * (Math.PI / 180);
}
<script src="https://threejs.org/build/three.min.js"></script>
(JSFiddle)
I'm having several problems, the first is the position of objects and the camera.
I would like to be able to position the plane so that the minor side is positioned at the beginning of the screen (the entire plane must therefore be visible, there must not be a hidden part).
I would like the ball to be positioned horizontally in the middle and vertically almost at the beginning of the floor (in short, as shown in the figure) and with the shadow projected onto the plane. Each object must have the shadow projected onto the plane.
I'm using a spotlight and Lambert materials so the shade should be there, but there is not. Why?
I don't even understand how to position objects.
I understood that the point (0, 0, 0) is the center of the screen.
I would like the ground to be at y=0 and all the other objects are positioned above as if they were resting.
My code works but I don't know if there are better ways to handle object placement.
I would also simplify my life by assigning to sphere radius 1 and not 0.03 and then making the scene "smaller" moving the camera away as zoom-out (I think this is the trick).
So, I need help setting the scene correctly.
That is my first application in ThreeJs so any advice is welcome!
EDIT 1
I changed camera.lookAt(new THREE.Vector3(0, 0, 0)); to camera.lookAt(new THREE.Vector3(0, 0, -5)); and I added spotLight.lookAt(new THREE.Vector3(0, 0, -5));.
This is the result:
Not exactly what I want...

You're right in placing your plane and sphere at 0 on the y-axis. The problem you're having is that you're telling the camera to look straight at (0, 0, 0) when you do
camera.lookAt(0, 0, 0);
so you'll get the ball perfectly centered. What you should do is tell the camera to look a little bit ahead of the sphere. You'll have to tweak the value, but something like this should do the trick:
camera.lookAt(0, 0, -5);
Additionally, your spotlight is pointing straight ahead. When you place it at (2, 30, 0), its effects get lost. You need to point it to where you want:
spotLight.lookAt(0, 0, -5);

three.js calculate STL file mesh volume

I have to calculate the volume of an STL file, I successfully got the sizes of the model with
var box = new THREE.Box3().setFromObject( mesh );
var sizes = box.getSize();
but I just can't wrap my head around the concept of calculating it. I load the model with
var loader = new THREE.STLLoader();
loader.load(stlFileURL, function ( geometry ) {});
Can someone help me out and point me in the right direction? I'm doing it with javascript.

You can find it with the algorithm from my comment.
In the code snippet, the volume is computed without scaling.
Also, I've added a simple check that the algorithm calculates correctly by finding the volume of a hollow cylinder. As THREE.STLLoader() returns a non-indexed geometry, I've casted the geometry of the cylinder to non-indexed too.
Related forum topic
var scene = new THREE.Scene();
var camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(60, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.01, 1000);
camera.position.setScalar(20);
var renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
renderer.setClearColor(0x404040);
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);
var controls = new THREE.OrbitControls(camera, renderer.domElement);
var loader = new THREE.STLLoader();
loader.load('https://threejs.org/examples/models/stl/binary/pr2_head_pan.stl', function(geometry) {
var mesh = new THREE.Mesh(geometry, new THREE.MeshBasicMaterial({
color: 0xff00ff,
wireframe: true
}));
mesh.rotation.set(-Math.PI / 2, 0, 0);
mesh.scale.setScalar(100);
scene.add(mesh);
console.log("stl volume is " + getVolume(geometry));
});
// check with known volume:
var hollowCylinderGeom = new THREE.LatheBufferGeometry([
new THREE.Vector2(1, 0),
new THREE.Vector2(2, 0),
new THREE.Vector2(2, 2),
new THREE.Vector2(1, 2),
new THREE.Vector2(1, 0)
], 90).toNonIndexed();
console.log("pre-computed volume of a hollow cylinder (PI * (R^2 - r^2) * h): " + Math.PI * (Math.pow(2, 2) - Math.pow(1, 2)) * 2);
console.log("computed volume of a hollow cylinder: " + getVolume(hollowCylinderGeom));
function getVolume(geometry) {
let position = geometry.attributes.position;
let faces = position.count / 3;
let sum = 0;
let p1 = new THREE.Vector3(),
p2 = new THREE.Vector3(),
p3 = new THREE.Vector3();
for (let i = 0; i < faces; i++) {
p1.fromBufferAttribute(position, i * 3 + 0);
p2.fromBufferAttribute(position, i * 3 + 1);
p3.fromBufferAttribute(position, i * 3 + 2);
sum += signedVolumeOfTriangle(p1, p2, p3);
}
return sum;
}
function signedVolumeOfTriangle(p1, p2, p3) {
return p1.dot(p2.cross(p3)) / 6.0;
}
renderer.setAnimationLoop(() => {
renderer.render(scene, camera);
});
body {
overflow: hidden;
margin: 0;
}
<script src="https://threejs.org/build/three.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://threejs.org/examples/js/loaders/STLLoader.js"></script>
<script src="https://threejs.org/examples/js/controls/OrbitControls.js"></script>

This is a pretty tricky problem. One way is to decompose the object into a bunch of convex polyhedra and sum the volumes of those...
Another way is to voxelize it, and add up the voxels on the inside to get an estimate whos accuracy is limited by the resolution of your voxelization.
Edit: prisoner849 has a rad solution!

I'm also looking for a solution to this, And didn't have any implementation so far.
But extending from the voxelization idea like #manthrax mentioned.
I think we can voxelized into the octree structure.
If the cube still intersects with multiple triangles then voxelized deeper octree.
Until we reached the level of a single triangle cut through,
Then we calculate the volume of the cube using this method:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/454583/volume-of-cube-section-above-intersection-with-plane
After understood prisoner849's solution,
This idea is no more valid compared to his solution.

Incrementally display three.js TubeGeometry

I am able to display a THREE.TubeGeometry figure as follows
Code below, link to jsbin
<html>
<body>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/three.js/r75/three.js"></script>
<script>
// global variables
var renderer;
var scene;
var camera;
var geometry;
var control;
var count = 0;
var animationTracker;
init();
drawSpline();
function init()
{
// create a scene, that will hold all our elements such as objects, cameras and lights.
scene = new THREE.Scene();
// create a camera, which defines where we're looking at.
camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(45, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.1, 1000);
// create a render, sets the background color and the size
renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
renderer.setClearColor('lightgray', 1.0);
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
// position and point the camera to the center of the scene
camera.position.x = 0;
camera.position.y = 40;
camera.position.z = 40;
camera.lookAt(scene.position);
// add the output of the renderer to the html element
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);
}
function drawSpline(numPoints)
{
var numPoints = 100;
// var start = new THREE.Vector3(-5, 0, 20);
var start = new THREE.Vector3(-5, 0, 20);
var middle = new THREE.Vector3(0, 35, 0);
var end = new THREE.Vector3(5, 0, -20);
var curveQuad = new THREE.QuadraticBezierCurve3(start, middle, end);
var tube = new THREE.TubeGeometry(curveQuad, numPoints, 0.5, 20, false);
var mesh = new THREE.Mesh(tube, new THREE.MeshNormalMaterial({
opacity: 0.9,
transparent: true
}));
scene.add(mesh);
renderer.render(scene, camera);
}
</script>
</body>
</html>
However, I would like to display incrementally, as in, like an arc that is loading, such that it starts as the start point, draws incrementally and finally looks the below arc upon completion.
I have been putting in some effort, and was able to do this by storing all the points/coordinates covered by the arc, and drawing lines between the consecutive coordinates, such that I get the 'arc loading incrementally' feel. However, is there a better way to achieve this? This is the link to jsbin
Adding the code here as well
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<title>Incremental Spline Curve</title>
<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/three.js/r75/three.js"></script>
<style>
body {
margin: 0;
overflow: hidden;
}
</style>
</head>
<script>
// global variables
var renderer;
var scene;
var camera;
var splineGeometry;
var control;
var count = 0;
var animationTracker;
// var sphereCamera;
var sphere;
var light;
function init() {
// create a scene, that will hold all our elements such as objects, cameras and lights.
scene = new THREE.Scene();
// create a camera, which defines where we're looking at.
camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(45, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 0.1, 1000);
// create a render, sets the background color and the size
renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
// renderer.setClearColor(0x000000, 1.0);
renderer.setClearColor( 0xffffff, 1 );
renderer.setSize(window.innerWidth, window.innerHeight);
// position and point the camera to the center of the scene
camera.position.x = 0;
camera.position.y = 40;
camera.position.z = 40;
camera.lookAt(scene.position);
// add the output of the renderer to the html element
document.body.appendChild(renderer.domElement);
// //init for sphere
// sphereCamera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(45, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 1, 1000);
// sphereCamera.position.y = -400;
// sphereCamera.position.z = 400;
// sphereCamera.rotation.x = .70;
sphere = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.SphereGeometry(0.8,31,31), new THREE.MeshLambertMaterial({
color: 'yellow',
}));
light = new THREE.DirectionalLight('white', 1);
// light.position.set(0,-400,400).normalize();
light.position.set(0,10,10).normalize();
//get points covered by Spline
getSplineData();
}
//save points in geometry.vertices
function getSplineData() {
var curve = new THREE.CubicBezierCurve3(
new THREE.Vector3( -5, 0, 10 ),
new THREE.Vector3(0, 20, 0 ),
new THREE.Vector3(0, 20, 0 ),
new THREE.Vector3( 2, 0, -25 )
);
splineGeometry = new THREE.Geometry();
splineGeometry.vertices = curve.getPoints( 50 );
animate();
}
//scheduler loop
function animate() {
if(count == 50)
{
cancelAnimationFrame(animationTracker);
return;
}
//add line to the scene
drawLine();
renderer.render(scene, camera);
// renderer.render(scene, sphereCamera);
count += 1;
// camera.position.z -= 0.25;
// camera.position.y -= 0.25;
animationTracker = requestAnimationFrame(animate);
}
function drawLine() {
var lineGeometry = new THREE.Geometry();
var lineMaterial = new THREE.LineBasicMaterial({
color: 0x0000ff
});
console.log(splineGeometry.vertices[count]);
console.log(splineGeometry.vertices[count+1]);
lineGeometry.vertices.push(
splineGeometry.vertices[count],
splineGeometry.vertices[count+1]
);
var line = new THREE.Line( lineGeometry, lineMaterial );
scene.add( line );
}
// calls the init function when the window is done loading.
window.onload = init;
</script>
<body>
</body>
</html>
Drawback : The drawback of doing it the above way is that, end of the day, I'm drawing a line between consecutive points, and so I lose out on a lot of the effects possible in TubeGeometry such as, thickness, transparency etc.
Please suggest me an alternative way to get a smooth incremental load for the TubeGeometry.

THREE.TubeGeometry returns a THREE.BufferGeometry.
With THREE.BufferGeometry, you have access to a property drawRange that you can set to animate the drawing of the mesh:
let nEnd = 0, nMax, nStep = 90; // 30 faces * 3 vertices/face
...
const geometry = new THREE.TubeGeometry( path, pathSegments, tubeRadius, radiusSegments, closed );
nMax = geometry.attributes.position.count;
...
function animate() {
requestAnimationFrame( animate );
nEnd = ( nEnd + nStep ) % nMax;
mesh.geometry.setDrawRange( 0, nEnd );
renderer.render( scene, camera );
}
EDIT: For another approach, see this SO answer.
three.js r.144

Normally you would be able to use the method .getPointAt() to "get a vector for point at relative position in curve according to arc length" to get a point at a certain percentage of the length of the curve.
So normally if you want to draw 70% of the curve and a full curve is drawn in 100 segments. Then you could do:
var percentage = 70;
var curvePath = new THREE.CurvePath();
var end, start = curveQuad.getPointAt( 0 );
for(var i = 1; i < percentage; i++){
end = curveQuad.getPointAt( percentage / 100 );
lineCurve = new THREE.LineCurve( start, end );
curvePath.add( lineCurve );
start = end;
}
But I think this is not working for your curveQuad since the getPointAt method is not implemented for this type. A work around is to get a 100 points for your curve in an array like this:
points = curve.getPoints(100);
And then you can do almost the same:
var percentage = 70;
var curvePath = new THREE.CurvePath();
var end, start = points[ 0 ];
for(var i = 1; i < percentage; i++){
end = points[ percentage ]
lineCurve = new THREE.LineCurve( start, end );
curvePath.add( lineCurve );
start = end;
}
now your curvePath holds the line segments you want to use for drawing the tube:
// draw the geometry
var radius = 5, radiusSegments = 8, closed = false;
var geometry = new THREE.TubeGeometry(curvePath, percentage, radius, radiusSegments, closed);
Here a fiddle with a demonstration on how to use this dynamically

I'm not really that familiar with three.js. But I think I can be of assistance. I have two solutions for you. Both based on the same principle: build a new TubeGeometry or rebuild the current one, around a new curve.
Solution 1 (Simple):
var CurveSection = THREE.Curve.create(function(base, from, to) {
this.base = base;
this.from = from;
this.to = to;
}, function(t) {
return this.base.getPoint((1 - t) * this.from + t * this.to);
});
You define a new type of curve which just selects a segment out of a given curve. Usage:
var curve = new CurveSection(yourCurve, 0, .76); // Where .76 is your percentage
Now you can build a new tube.
Solution 2 (Mathematics!):
You are using for your arc a quadratic bezier curve, that's awesome! This curve is a parabola. You want just a segment of that parabola and that is again a parabola, just with other bounds.
What we need is a section of the bezier curve. Let's say the curve is defined by A (start), B (direction), C (end). If we want to change the start to a point D and the end to a point F we need the point E that is the direction of the curve in D and F. So the tangents to our parabola in D and F have to intersect in E. So the following code will give us the desired result:
// Calculates the instersection point of Line3 l1 and Line3 l2.
function intersection(l1, l2) {
var A = l1.start;
var P = l2.closestPointToPoint(A);
var Q = l1.closestPointToPoint(P);
var l = P.distanceToSquared(A) / Q.distanceTo(A);
var d = (new THREE.Vector3()).subVectors(Q, A);
return d.multiplyScalar(l / d.length()).add(A);
}
// Calculate the tangentVector of the bezier-curve
function tangentQuadraticBezier(bezier, t) {
var s = bezier.v0,
m = bezier.v1,
e = bezier.v2;
return new THREE.Vector3(
THREE.CurveUtils.tangentQuadraticBezier(t, s.x, m.x, e.x),
THREE.CurveUtils.tangentQuadraticBezier(t, s.y, m.y, e.y),
THREE.CurveUtils.tangentQuadraticBezier(t, s.z, m.z, e.z)
);
}
// Returns a new QuadraticBezierCurve3 with the new bounds.
function sectionInQuadraticBezier(bezier, from, to) {
var s = bezier.v0,
m = bezier.v1,
e = bezier.v2;
var ns = bezier.getPoint(from),
ne = bezier.getPoint(to);
var nm = intersection(
new THREE.Line3(ns, tangentQuadraticBezier(bezier, from).add(ns)),
new THREE.Line3(ne, tangentQuadraticBezier(bezier, to).add(ne))
);
return new THREE.QuadraticBezierCurve3(ns, nm, ne);
}
This is a very mathematical way, but if you should need the special properties of a Bezier curve, this is the way to go.
Note: The first solution is the simplest. I am not familiar with Three.js so I wouldn't know what the most efficient way to implement the animation is. Three.js doesn't seem to use the special properties of a bezier curve so maybe solution 2 isn't that useful.
I hope you have gotten something useful out of this.

Update height/radius of 3D Cylinder created with Three.js at runtime

Like we are changing height/width/depth of 3D cube at run time in this Fiddle:
http://jsfiddle.net/EtSf3/4/
How can we change the Radius and Length at runtime of Cylinder created using Three.js
Here is my code:
HTML:
<script src="http://www.html5canvastutorials.com/libraries/three.min.js"></script>
<div id="container"></div>
JS
//Script for 3D Cylinder
// revolutions per second
var angularSpeed = 0.2;
var lastTime = 0;
var cylinder = null;
// this function is executed on each animation frame
function animate() {
// update
var time = (new Date()).getTime();
var timeDiff = time - lastTime;
var angleChange = angularSpeed * timeDiff * 2 * Math.PI / 1000;
cylinder.rotation.x += angleChange;
cylinder.rotation.z += angleChange;
lastTime = time;
// render
renderer.render(scene, camera);
// request new frame
requestAnimationFrame(function () {
animate();
});
}
// renderer
var container = document.getElementById("container");
var renderer = new THREE.WebGLRenderer();
renderer.setSize(container.offsetWidth, container.offsetHeight);
container.appendChild(renderer.domElement);
// camera
var camera = new THREE.PerspectiveCamera(50, window.innerWidth / window.innerHeight, 1, 1000);
camera.position.z = 700;
// scene
var scene = new THREE.Scene();
// cylinder
// API: THREE.CylinderGeometry(bottomRadius, topRadius, height, segmentsRadius, segmentsHeight)
cylinder = new THREE.Mesh(new THREE.CylinderGeometry(150, 150, 500, 100, 100, false), new THREE.MeshPhongMaterial({
// light
specular: '#cccccc',
// intermediate
color: '#666666',
// dark
emissive: '#444444',
shininess: 100
}));
cylinder.overdraw = true;
cylinder.rotation.x = Math.PI * 0.2;
//cylinder.rotation.y = Math.PI * 0.5;
scene.add(cylinder);
// add subtle ambient lighting
var ambientLight = new THREE.AmbientLight(0x444444);
scene.add(ambientLight);
// directional lighting
var directionalLight = new THREE.DirectionalLight(0xcccccc);
directionalLight.position.set(1, 1, 1).normalize();
scene.add(directionalLight);
// start animation
animate();
Here is the Fiddle for the same: http://jsfiddle.net/dpPjD/
Let me know if you need any other information.
Please suggest.

Once the object geometry is added to the mesh, it is converted to face/vertex/UV/normals and stored as part of the mesh. For example, the cylinder shape you have specified is tessellated (divided) by Three.js into triangles with a vertex count of more than 10,000.
Hence while the global mesh properties like transforms can be updated, updating the individual geometries is as good as creating a new geometry every animation-frame. If you happen to know precisely the vertices you need to modify, you can update it directly using the geometry.vertices property. But if not, I do not think there is a way.

You can try overwriting the geometry of an object by doing something like this:
cylinder.geometry.dispose();
cylinder.geometry = new THREE.CylinderGeometry(botRad, topRad, height, 32);
where: botRad, topRad and height are new values from initial or a variable that is constantly changing if you are planning on oscillating cylinder height.
The dispose makes sure that it deletes the previous geometry of the object before overwriting a new geometry to it.