In the third tutorial of the series, you learned about different methods and properties of the Body module in Matter.js. The Body module enables you to manipulate simple bodies like circles, rectangles, and trapeziums. Matter.js also has other modules to help you create and manipulate some complex but common composite bodies like cars, chains, pyramids, stacks, and soft bodies.
All these composites and the methods to manipulate them are available in the Composite
and Composites
modules in Matter.js. In this tutorial, you will begin by learning about different composites like pyramids and cars etc. that can be created using the Composites
module. After that, we will go over some important methods and properties available in the Composite
module.
A stack and a pyramid are both very similar to each other. A stack can be created by using the stack(xx, yy, columns, rows, columnGap, rowGap, callback)
function. Similarly, you can create a pyramid with the help of the pyramid(xx, yy, columns, rows, columnGap, rowGap, callback)
function. As you can see, all the parameters are the same in both cases. In fact, the pyramid formation is derived from the stack formation.
The names of all the parameters are self-explanatory. The xx
and yy
parameters used in this function are used to specify the starting point of the composite. The columns
and rows
parameters determine the number of columns and rows in the composite. The gap between different rows and columns can be controlled using the columnGap
and rowGap
parameters.
Under the influence of gravity, the rowGap
generally vanishes in most cases without changing the composite. However, sometimes the resulting momentum of individual bodies can move the bodies under them. This can change the shape of the composite.
The callback function is used to create bodies that can be arranged in either a grid arrangement or a pyramid arrangement based on the function used. This means that you can use it to create a stack or pyramid of rectangular boxes or trapezoids. You should keep in mind that using a circle will make the arrangements unstable. Here is the code to create a stack of rectangles:
var stack = Composites.stack(550, 100, 5, 3, 0, 0, function(x, y) { return Bodies.rectangle(x, y, 40, 20, { render: { fillStyle: 'orange', strokeStyle: 'black' } }); });
You can make the callback function as complex as you wish. In this case, I have used the render options that we learned about in the Body module tutorial to create only orange rectangles with black outlines.
Here is some very similar code to create pyramid shapes in Matter.js:
var pyramid = Composites.pyramid(0, 220, 11, 6, 0, 0, function(x, y) { return Bodies.rectangle(x, y, 30, 30, { render: { fillStyle: 'cornflowerblue', strokeStyle: 'black' } }); });
When you start creating a lot of pyramids with different parameters, you will notice that the number of rows created is sometimes less than the number of rows you specified. This is because the library uses the following formula to calculate the number of rows:
Math.min(rows, Math.ceil(columns / 2))
You can carefully place a stack or another pyramid over a pyramid to create interesting patterns. For example, you could place a smaller pyramid over the red one to create a complete pyramid with two colors.
A car in Matter.js is a structure consisting of two wheels and a body. The wheels are created with a friction of 0.8 and density equal to 0.01. You can create a car using the function car(xx, yy, width, height, wheelSize)
. The xx
and yy
parameters are used to specify the position of the car.
The width
and height
determine the dimensions of the main body of the car. The wheelSize
parameter is used to specify the radius of the wheels. There is no need for a callback function as the type of bodies needed to create a car is predetermined.
var car = Composites.car(190, 100, 100, 45, 30); $('.force').on('click', function () { Body.applyForce( car.bodies[0], {x: car.bodies[0].position.x, y: car.bodies[0].position.y}, {x: 0.5, y: 0}); });
You can use the chain(composite, xOffsetA, yOffsetA, xOffsetB, yOffsetB, options)
function in Matter.js to chain all the bodies in a given composite together using constraints. The offset parameters in the function are used to determine the relative position of the constraints connecting different boxes.
You will also need additional constraints to hang the chain from a point in the world. Here is the code to create a chain and hang it to the ceiling of our world.
var boxes = Composites.stack(500, 80, 3, 1, 10, 0, function(x, y) { return Bodies.rectangle(x, y, 50, 40); }); var chain = Composites.chain(boxes, 0.5, 0, -0.5, 0, { stiffness: 1}); Composite.add(boxes, Constraint.create({ bodyA: boxes.bodies[0], pointB: { x: 500, y: 15 }, stiffness: 0.8 }));
The boxes in our chain have been created using the stack()
function that you learned about earlier. The constraints created by the chain()
function have a stiffness of 1.
This prevents the length of rope between different boxes from changing at all. The additional constraint that we have created here keeps our boxes hanging from the ceiling.
Here is a demo with a car and the chain created from the above code. You can move the car forward and backward using the orange buttons. Each click applies a force at the center of the first wheel, moving the whole car.
A soft body is similar to a stack, with two major differences. The individual elements of the soft body are held together by constraints, and a soft body can only have circles as its constituent elements. You can consider a soft body to be a cross between a mesh and a stack. Creating a soft body is as simple as calling softBody(xx, yy, columns, rows, colGap, rowGap, crossBrace, pRadius, pOptions, cOptions)
with the appropriate parameter values.
You are already familiar with the first six parameters of the function. The crossBrace
parameter is a Boolean value that determines if the cross braces should be rendered or not. The pRadius
parameter determines the radius of circles, and the pOptions
parameter can be used to control other properties of the particles, like mass and inertia.
The cOptions
parameter specifies various options for the constraints that bind the particles together. The following code will create a soft body for our Matter.js world.
var particleOptions = { friction: 0.05, frictionStatic: 0.1, render: { visible: true } }; var constraintOptions = { render: { visible: false } }; var softBody = Composites.softBody(450, 200, 10, 5, 0, 0, true, 15, particleOptions, constraintOptions);
Creating a Newton's cradle is also very straightforward using the built-in newtonsCradle(xx, yy, number, size, length)
function. The number
parameter determines the number of balls in the cradle. The size
parameter determines their radius, and the length
parameter determines the length of the rope to which the balls are attached. The library sets the restitution and friction values to zero so that they can continue their motion for a long time.
The following code creates the cradle and moves the first ball to a higher position so that it has some velocity when it falls down and strikes other balls. The position specified by the translate()
function is relative to the current position of the body. All these functions and properties of the Body
module have been discussed in more detail in the previous tutorial of the series.
var cradleA = Composites.newtonsCradle(200, 50, 5, 20, 250); Body.translate(cradleA.bodies[0], { x: -100, y: -100 });
Now that you have learned how to create different kinds of composite bodies, it is time for you to learn about different methods and properties available in the Composite module to manipulate these composites. You can use rotate(composite, rotation, point, [recursive=true])
, scale(composite, scaleX, scaleY, point, [recursive=true])
and translate(composite, translation, [recursive=true])
to rotate, scale and translate any composite. These functions are very similar to their Body module counterparts.
You can also add or remove one or more body(s), constraint(s) and composite(s) from a given composite using the add(composite, object)
and remove(composite, object, [deep=false])
functions respectively. If you want to move some bodies from one composite to another, you can do so with the help of the move(compositeA, objects, compositeB)
function. This function will move the given objects from composite A to composite B.
If you ever want to access all the bodies, composites and constraints that are direct children of the given composite, you can use the composite.bodies
, composite.composites
and composite.constraints
properties to get access to all of them in the form of an array.
We have already seen how to use the bodies
property to translate a ball from the Newton's cradle to the left and apply a force on the wheel of our car composite. Once you have a reference to individual bodies from the composite, you can use all the methods and properties of the Body module to manipulate them.
In this tutorial, you learned how to create some complex composites using the Composite and Composites modules in Matter.js. You also learned about different methods and properties that you can use to manipulate these composites.
This series was aimed at getting people started with the Matter.js library in a beginner-friendly way. Keeping that in mind, we have covered important functions and properties of the most common modules in the library.
Matter.js also has a lot of other modules, which we briefly discussed in the first tutorial of the series. If you want to use this library to its full potential, you should read the documentation of all these modules on the official website.
If you have used Matter.js in any of your projects, please tell us about your experience in the comments.
The Best Small Business Web Designs by DesignRush
/Create Modern Vue Apps Using Create-Vue and Vite
/How to Fix the “There Has Been a Critical Error in Your Website” Error in WordPress
How To Fix The “There Has Been A Critical Error in Your Website” Error in WordPress
/How Long Does It Take to Learn JavaScript?
/The Best Way to Deep Copy an Object in JavaScript
/Adding and Removing Elements From Arrays in JavaScript
/Create a JavaScript AJAX Post Request: With and Without jQuery
/5 Real-Life Uses for the JavaScript reduce() Method
/How to Enable or Disable a Button With JavaScript: jQuery vs. Vanilla
/How to Enable or Disable a Button With JavaScript: jQuery vs Vanilla
/Confirm Yes or No With JavaScript
/How to Change the URL in JavaScript: Redirecting
/15+ Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
/27 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress (Free & Premium)
/21 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress (Free & Premium)
/30 HTML Best Practices for Beginners
/31 Best WordPress Calendar Plugins and Widgets (With 5 Free Plugins)
/25 Ridiculously Impressive HTML5 Canvas Experiments
/How to Implement Email Verification for New Members
/How to Create a Simple Web-Based Chat Application
/30 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/Top 18 Best Practices for Writing Super Readable Code
/Best Affiliate WooCommerce Plugins Compared
/18 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/10+ Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
/20+ Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Working With Tables in React: Part Two
/Best CSS Animations and Effects on CodeCanyon
/30 CSS Best Practices for Beginners
/How to Create a Custom WordPress Plugin From Scratch
/10 Best Responsive HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text… and 3 Free Options
/16 Best Tab and Accordion Widget Plugins for WordPress
/18 Best WordPress Membership Plugins and 5 Free Plugins
/25 Best WooCommerce Plugins for Products, Pricing, Payments and More
/10 Best WordPress Twitter Widgets
1 /12 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts for 2020
/20 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/10 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/12 Best CSS Animations on CodeCanyon
/12 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/12 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/24 Best WordPress Form Plugins for 2020
/14 Best PHP Event Calendar and Booking Scripts
/Create a Blog for Each Category or Department in Your WooCommerce Store
/8 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Best Exit Popups for WordPress Compared
/Best Exit Popups for WordPress Compared
/11 Best Tab & Accordion WordPress Widgets & Plugins
/12 Best Tab & Accordion WordPress Widgets & Plugins
1New Course: Practical React Fundamentals
/Preview Our New Course on Angular Material
/Build Your Own CAPTCHA and Contact Form in PHP
/Object-Oriented PHP With Classes and Objects
/Best Practices for ARIA Implementation
/Accessible Apps: Barriers to Access and Getting Started With Accessibility
/Dramatically Speed Up Your React Front-End App Using Lazy Loading
/15 Best Modern JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular, and Vue.js
/15 Best Modern JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular and Vue.js
/19 Best JavaScript Admin Templates for React, Angular, and Vue.js
/New Course: Build an App With JavaScript and the MEAN Stack
/Hands-on With ARIA: Accessibility Recipes for Web Apps
/10 Best WordPress Facebook Widgets
13 /Hands-on With ARIA: Accessibility for eCommerce
/New eBooks Available for Subscribers
/Hands-on With ARIA: Homepage Elements and Standard Navigation
/Site Accessibility: Getting Started With ARIA
/How Secure Are Your JavaScript Open-Source Dependencies?
/New Course: Secure Your WordPress Site With SSL
/Testing Components in React Using Jest and Enzyme
/Testing Components in React Using Jest: The Basics
/15 Best PHP Event Calendar and Booking Scripts
/Create Interactive Gradient Animations Using Granim.js
/How to Build Complex, Large-Scale Vue.js Apps With Vuex
1 /Examples of Dependency Injection in PHP With Symfony Components
/Set Up Routing in PHP Applications Using the Symfony Routing Component
1 /A Beginner’s Guide to Regular Expressions in JavaScript
/Introduction to Popmotion: Custom Animation Scrubber
/Introduction to Popmotion: Pointers and Physics
/New Course: Connect to a Database With Laravel’s Eloquent ORM
/How to Create a Custom Settings Panel in WooCommerce
/Building the DOM faster: speculative parsing, async, defer and preload
1 /20 Useful PHP Scripts Available on CodeCanyon
3 /How to Find and Fix Poor Page Load Times With Raygun
/Introduction to the Stimulus Framework
/Single-Page React Applications With the React-Router and React-Transition-Group Modules
12 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts
1 /Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The ShapeSwirl and Stagger Modules
/Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The Shape Module
Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The HTML Module
/Project Management Considerations for Your WordPress Project
/8 Things That Make Jest the Best React Testing Framework
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Layers, Blend Modes, and Events
/New Short Course: Code a Front-End App With GraphQL and React
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Applying Basic Filters
/Creating an Image Editor Using CamanJS: Creating Custom Filters and Blend Modes
/Modern Web Scraping With BeautifulSoup and Selenium
/Challenge: Create a To-Do List in React
1Deploy PHP Web Applications Using Laravel Forge
/Getting Started With the Mojs Animation Library: The Burst Module
/10 Things Men Can Do to Support Women in Tech
/A Gentle Introduction to Higher-Order Components in React: Best Practices
/Challenge: Build a React Component
/A Gentle Introduction to HOC in React: Learn by Example
/A Gentle Introduction to Higher-Order Components in React
/Creating Pretty Popup Messages Using SweetAlert2
/Creating Stylish and Responsive Progress Bars Using ProgressBar.js
/18 Best Contact Form PHP Scripts for 2022
/How to Make a Real-Time Sports Application Using Node.js
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Delete Post
/Set Up an OAuth2 Server Using Passport in Laravel
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Edit Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Add Post
/Introduction to Mocking in Python
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Show Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Home
/Creating a Blogging App Using Angular & MongoDB: Login
/Creating Your First Angular App: Implement Routing
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 4
/Creating Your First Angular App: Components, Part 2
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 3
/Creating Your First Angular App: Components, Part 1
/How Laravel Broadcasting Works
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 2
/Create Your First Angular App: Storing and Accessing Data
/Persisted WordPress Admin Notices: Part 1
/Error and Performance Monitoring for Web & Mobile Apps Using Raygun
Using Luxon for Date and Time in JavaScript
7 /How to Create an Audio Oscillator With the Web Audio API
/How to Cache Using Redis in Django Applications
/20 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/Introduction to API Calls With React and Axios
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: HTTP
/Rapid Web Deployment for Laravel With GitHub, Linode, and RunCloud.io
/Beginners Guide to Angular 4: Routing
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: Services
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular 4: Components
/Creating a Drop-Down Menu for Mobile Pages
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Writing Custom Form Validators
/10 Best WordPress Booking & Reservation Plugins
/Getting Started With Redux: Connecting Redux With React
/Getting Started With Redux: Learn by Example
/Getting Started With Redux: Why Redux?
/How to Auto Update WordPress Salts
/How to Download Files in Python
/Eloquent Mutators and Accessors in Laravel
1 /10 Best HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text
/Site Authentication in Node.js: User Signup
/Creating a Task Manager App Using Ionic: Part 2
/Creating a Task Manager App Using Ionic: Part 1
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Reactive Forms
/Introduction to Forms in Angular 4: Template-Driven Forms
/24 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/25 Essential WordPress Utilities to Manage Your Site
/Get Rid of Bugs Quickly Using BugReplay
1 /Manipulating HTML5 Canvas Using Konva: Part 1, Getting Started
/10 Must-See Easy Digital Downloads Extensions for Your WordPress Site
22 Best WordPress Booking and Reservation Plugins
/Understanding ExpressJS Routing
/15 Best WordPress Star Rating Plugins
/Creating Your First Angular App: Basics
/Inheritance and Extending Objects With JavaScript
/Introduction to the CSS Grid Layout With Examples
1Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 5, Easing Functions and Attributes
Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 4, Animating Text
/Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 3, Animating SVG
/New Course: Code a Quiz App With Vue.js
/Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 2, Animating CSS Properties
Performant Animations Using KUTE.js: Part 1, Getting Started
/10 Best Responsive HTML5 Sliders for Images and Text (Plus 3 Free Options)
/Single-Page Applications With ngRoute and ngAnimate in AngularJS
/Deferring Tasks in Laravel Using Queues
/Site Authentication in Node.js: User Signup and Login
/Working With Tables in React, Part Two
/Working With Tables in React, Part One
/How to Set Up a Scalable, E-Commerce-Ready WordPress Site Using ClusterCS
/New Course on WordPress Conditional Tags
/TypeScript for Beginners, Part 5: Generics
/Building With Vue.js 2 and Firebase
6 /Best Unique Bootstrap JavaScript Plugins
/Essential JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks You Should Know About
/Vue.js Crash Course: Create a Simple Blog Using Vue.js
/Build a React App With a Laravel RESTful Back End: Part 1, Laravel 5.5 API
/API Authentication With Node.js
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: HTTP
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Routing
/Beginners Guide to Angular: Routing
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Services
/Beginner’s Guide to Angular: Components
/How to Create a Custom Authentication Guard in Laravel
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 3, Loops
/Build Web Applications Using Node.js
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 4, Functions
/Learn Computer Science With JavaScript: Part 2, Conditionals
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 5: Pie and Gauge Charts
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 4: Bubble and Dot Charts
Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 3: Bar Charts
/Awesome JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks You Should Know About
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 2: Line Charts
/Bulk Import a CSV File Into MongoDB Using Mongoose With Node.js
/Build a To-Do API With Node, Express, and MongoDB
/Getting Started With End-to-End Testing in Angular Using Protractor
/TypeScript for Beginners, Part 4: Classes
/Object-Oriented Programming With JavaScript
/10 Best Affiliate WooCommerce Plugins Compared
/Stateful vs. Stateless Functional Components in React
/Make Your JavaScript Code Robust With Flow
/Build a To-Do API With Node and Restify
/Testing Components in Angular Using Jasmine: Part 2, Services
/Testing Components in Angular Using Jasmine: Part 1
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 6: Tags
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 3
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 2
/React Crash Course for Beginners, Part 1
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 4
1 /Set Up a React Environment, Part 3
/New Course: Get Started With Phoenix
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 2
/Set Up a React Environment, Part 1
/Command Line Basics and Useful Tricks With the Terminal
/How to Create a Real-Time Feed Using Phoenix and React
/Build a React App With a Laravel Back End: Part 2, React
/Build a React App With a Laravel RESTful Back End: Part 1, Laravel 9 API
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 5: Profile Page
/Pagination in CodeIgniter: The Complete Guide
/JavaScript-Based Animations Using Anime.js, Part 4: Callbacks, Easings, and SVG
/JavaScript-Based Animations Using Anime.js, Part 3: Values, Timeline, and Playback
/Learn to Code With JavaScript: Part 1, The Basics
/10 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/Getting Started With the Flux Architecture in React
/Getting Started With Matter.js: The Composites and Composite Modules
Getting Started With Matter.js: The Engine and World Modules
/10 More Popular HTML5 Projects for You to Use and Study
/Understand the Basics of Laravel Middleware
/Iterating Fast With Django & Heroku
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 4: Update & Delete Posts
/Creating a jQuery Plugin for Long Shadow Design
/How to Register & Use Laravel Service Providers
2 /Unit Testing in React: Shallow vs. Static Testing
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 3: Add & Display Post
/Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 2: User Sign-Up
20 /Creating a Blogging App Using React, Part 1: User Sign-In
/Creating a Grocery List Manager Using Angular, Part 2: Managing Items
/9 Elegant CSS Pricing Tables for Your Latest Web Project
/Dynamic Page Templates in WordPress, Part 3
/Angular vs. React: 7 Key Features Compared
/Creating a Grocery List Manager Using Angular, Part 1: Add & Display Items
New eBooks Available for Subscribers in June 2017
/Create Interactive Charts Using Plotly.js, Part 1: Getting Started
/The 5 Best IDEs for WordPress Development (And Why)
/33 Popular WordPress User Interface Elements
/New Course: How to Hack Your Own App
/How to Install Yii on Windows or a Mac
/What Is a JavaScript Operator?
/How to Register and Use Laravel Service Providers
/
waly Good blog post. I absolutely love this…