JavaFX meets Java 3D animation

In an earlier post, I featured the "JavaFX meets Java 3D" work that August Lammersdorf of InteractiveMesh.org is doing. In a nutshell, he is developing infrastructure that connects Java 3D and JavaFX, in which the 3D canvas is rendered in a lightweight component. This infrastructure makes it easy for developers to create JavaFX applications that contain a Java 3D universe. He has taken this work to a new level, as demonstrated by an animated 3D piston and propeller in a virtual universe being rendered on puzzle pieces in JavaFX.

The controls at the bottom of the UI are JavaFX components that control the Java 3D universe. For example, the Rotation slider controls the animation of the 3D piston/propeller. The Shuffle button breaks the propeller (whilst spinning if you please) into puzzle pieces as shown below:

You can then drag the puzzle pieces to their correct locations and solve the puzzle. Here's an exceprt of this program's description from the InteractiveMesh.org website, where you can play with this puzzle:

"The Java 3D scene of an animated propeller engine is rendered into several puzzle pieces. The puzzle board is resizeable from 2x2 up to 8x8 pieces on a screen of 1200 pixels height. This application is using source code of the JavaFX sample 'PuzzlePieces'. The engine animation, the viewpoint setting, and the 3D mouse navigation (on the puzzle board) are enabled even if the puzzle pieces are shuffled."