One weekend, I decided to challenge myself with a fun project: creating a custom 3D invitation for a friend's upcoming DJ event. Inspired by the playful invitations on Partiful, I wanted to capture that same energy but with a twist: incorporating 3D elements.

The first step was finding a 3D model of a turntable because, let's be honest, modeling one myself would've taken ages! I found a free one, converted it from GLTF to a React Three Fiber component, and hit the ground running.

The goal was simple: give people a cool spot to RSVP. I built a modal that connected to an email service so I'd get notified when someone RSVP'd. With the core functionality in place, it was time to crank up the vibe. I added a custom shader for the background, wrapping the scene in a giant sphere with a neon, color-changing atmosphere, and threw in some camera controls tied to mouse movement for a bit of interactivity.

Of course, a 3D turntable wouldn't be complete without music, so I rigged it to play a track from YouTube when the play button was pressed.

While I ran out of time before the event to add everything I envisioned, I was proud of the result and learned a ton in the process. Next time, I'll definitely spend more time optimizing the model to improve performance, but hey, that's what projects like this are all about!