What is a Project in Theatre.js?

All your work in Theatre.js is organized into Projects. Projects are a way to organize related work.

Theatre.js allows you to save the state of projects and consume them in @theatre/core. We can create multiple Projects on a single web page, but often one project is sufficient for a whole website.

Creating projects

You can create a project with the getProject function in @theatre/core. If a project with the given name already exists, it will return the existing project instead of creating a new one.


import { getProject } from '@theatre/core'
// This will create a project called "My Project"
// or return it if it already exists:
const project = getProject('My Project')

State

All the tweaks and animations that you create with Theatre.js are considered the project's state. @theatre/core uses the project state to run your tweaks and animations, and @theatre/studio is an editor for the project state.

This state is stored as a JSON object in localStorage when the studio is open and can be exported as a JSON file.

The state of the project in the local storage

To export the project, click on the name of the project in the Outline Panel of the studio and then click on the "Export [Project's name]" button in the top right corner of the screen as seen below.

You can load a project's state from a JSON file by passing the state down as an object in the configuration of getProject:


import { getProject } from '@theatre/core'
import projectState from './state.json'
// This will load the state from the `state.json` file
const project = getProject('My Project', { state: projectState })

Currently, the configuration object of getProject consists only of the state property.

When using Studio, loading a project happens asynchronously. You can wait for the project to load through Project.ready and Project.isReady


project.ready.then(() => console.log('Project loaded!'))

API

Learn more about related API at Project API docs.

Learn more

Want to learn more? Take a look at some more in-depth topics from our manual:

Sheets

This guide covers Sheets in Theatre.js

Sheet Objects

This guide covers Sheet Objects in Theatre.js.

Prop types

Learn how to customize the props you want to animate with Theatre.js. When creating a Sheet Object, we define the props that we want to animate on it. Props can have different types which can be imported from "@theatre/core".

Working with Sequences

In this guide, we'll explore the tools that Theatre.js offers for creating animations.

Assets

Learn about assets in Theatre.js

Using Audio

Learn how to load and synchronize music or narration audio to an animation.

Studio

Learn the different parts of the Studio.

Authoring extensions

The Theatre.js Studio API enables you to define extensions that extend the Studio's UI and/or extend the functionality of Studio.

Keyboard & Mouse Controls

A catalog of controls in Theatre.js Studio.

Advanced uses


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Last edited on February 01, 2024.
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