A digital photo of a serene landscape being physically torn in half from top to bottom, revealing another photo underneath, rendered in 3D.

Tearing Paper Photo Gallery

This Tearing Paper Photo Gallery is a technical marvel that simulates the physical act of ripping a photograph in half. Unlike simple 2D masking effects, this component uses WebGL (Three.js) to deform the geometry in 3D space. As the user drags downward, the “paper” mesh splits, rotates, and tears along a procedural edge, complete with lighting and shadow effects generated by custom shaders. (Requires: Three.js, GSAP)

Technologies:
HTML SCSS Babel
Difficulty: Advanced
Browser Support (as of Jan 2026):
Chrome Chrome 90+ Edge Edge 90+ Safari Safari 15+ Firefox Firefox 90+
Features:
Physics-based Tearing Custom Shaders Interactive Geometry Procedural Texture Generation
Code by: Steve Gardner Steve Gardner
License: MIT

See the Pen Tearing Paper Photo Gallery.