How to decide whether bloom, grain, and other WebGL effects improve a website enough to justify their mobile GPU cost.
A raw Three.js render is technically correct and emotionally flat. What separates a tech demo from a premium, cinematic experience is post-processing — the layer of effects applied after the scene renders, the same stage where film gets its color and mood. Used carefully, it is the difference between "3D on a website" and "an experience you remember."
The effects that matter
A few well-chosen passes do most of the work. Bloom gives light sources a soft, luminous glow. Chromatic aberration adds a subtle lens-like fringe that reads as expensive optics. Film grain and noise break up flat gradients and stop the render from looking sterile.
- Bloom for luminous highlights and depth
- Chromatic aberration for a cinematic lens feel
- Subtle noise/grain to avoid banding on gradients
- Vignette to guide the eye toward the center of interest
The cost, and how to control it
Every post-processing pass is another full-screen render, and they add up fast on mobile GPUs. The craft is knowing which effects earn their frame budget — combining passes where possible, scaling them down on weaker devices, and never letting the polish cost you the performance.
Cinematic, responsibly
Post-processing adds visual character but consumes frame time and memory. Choose effects against a measured device budget, reduce or remove them on constrained hardware, and retain a static presentation when the rendering budget is unavailable.