Introduction

Veena is a deterministic, code-first animation engine built on the web platform. A scene is ordinary TypeScript, visual objects live in a mathematical world, and every rendered frame is sampled at an exact virtual time.

The browser is a rendering surface, not the clock. Preview, MP4 export, PNG export, screenshots, and GIF captures all sample the same scene model. Given the same code and inputs, Veena produces the same picture at the same time.

The name, and the three ovals of the mark, are explained in The logo.

Why Veena?

• Deterministic timelines — animation state is derived from scene time rather than wall-clock playback.
• A mathematical coordinate system — compose in world units and choose pixel resolution only when rendering.
• One hybrid scene — DOM/SVG, React, and Three.js tattvas can share a timeline and camera.
• Reusable visual language — primitives, mathematical notation, AI diagrams, particles, 3D objects, and storytelling components use the same core model.
• Production output — preview while authoring, then export video, stills, timestamped screenshots, GIFs, and optional audio.

The core vocabulary

Concept	Meaning
Scene	Owns the frame, camera, tattvas, timeline schedule, theme, fonts, updaters, and captures.
Tattva	Any visual element: a shape, label, formula, group, 3D object, or reusable composition.
Timeline	Describes how sampled state changes over time.
Clip	A reusable timeline fragment that can be sequenced or overlapped.
render()	Bundles the scene and opens preview or produces an artifact.

A first look

import { render } from "veena";
import { Scene, clip, timeline } from "veena/core";
import { Circle } from "veena/primitives";
import { Label } from "veena/text";

class HelloVeena extends Scene {
  override construct() {
    const title = this.add(Label("Hello, Veena").height(0.55));
    const circle = this.add(Circle().radius(0.7).fill("#58c4dd"), { at: [-4, 0] });

    this.play(timeline()
      .then(clip((local) => {
        local.animate(title).duration(0.7).typewrite();
        local.animate(circle).at(0.25).duration(1.8).ease("inOutCubic").moveTo([3, 0]);
      }))
      .wait(0.6));
  }
}

render(import.meta.url, HelloVeena, { output: "./output/hello.mp4" });

Continue with Installation, Your first scene, and the mental model.

Native engine

This portal documents Veena, the web-powered engine. If a specialised project needs lower-level native control, visit Murali, the Rust-powered engine.