# Three Graces: shadows that are only light and material

> A museum landing page where a cursor-driven light makes statues look as if they cast shadows, without any shadow maps in the scene.

Canonical page: https://andersonmancini.dev/blog/three-graces-cursor-light

Published: 2026-09-02 · 1 min read · Tags: three.js, webgl, lighting, design, launch

Three Graces is a small experiment with one question: how much depth can a few carefully driven lights give a scene **without real shadows**?

![The Three Graces statues](https://andersonmancini.dev/images/three_graces.webp)

## The trick

The page is a simple museum-style landing page. The layout and the art direction are adapted from a design I found on Dribbble. As the light moves across the statues, they seem to cast shifting shadows and volume. In fact, there is **no real shadow in the scene**. The effect comes from lighting and material response alone, which sells depth without the cost of shadow maps.

## Why I like it

It is a quiet study of how far a few lights can go on a clean, editorial page. It is cheap to run, and it reads well on any device.

## The videos

There is a [first look](https://andersonmancini.dev/videos/threejs-three-graces-design-concept.md) and a [video of the finished page](https://andersonmancini.dev/videos/threejs-graces.md), and the source is public on the [GitHub repository](https://github.com/ektogamat/threejs-graces).

## Try it

The page is live at [threejs-graces.tiiny.site](https://threejs-graces.tiiny.site/), and the details are on the [project page](https://andersonmancini.dev/projects/three-graces.md).

## Related projects

- [Three Graces](https://andersonmancini.dev/projects/three-graces.md) — Museum landing page with cursor light