# Plushies Turns AI Helper Cursors into Plush Toys

A look at Plushies, a library for soft 3D characters in Three.js. It ships 17 shapes and a separate package for AI helper cursors. It is still an alpha release, so this post is an observation.

- Language: en
- Published: 2026-10-29
- Tags: web, three-js, plushies
- URL: https://devs7ud.io/en/blog/plushies-three-js-ai-cursors-en
- Translation (ko): https://devs7ud.io/blog/plushies-three-js-ai-cursors.md

## Your AI helper cursor, as a plush toy

Plushies is an open-source library that draws soft plush characters on top of Three.js, the JavaScript library for 3D on the web. It is MIT licensed and made by Patrick Rathje. It offers 17 shapes. The eyes, glasses and hats float in front of the body as separate pieces, and the characters squash and stretch when they move.

According to the npm record, `plushies` was first published on 2026-10-03 and the latest version is 0.1.0-alpha.0. It had 3 downloads in the week of 2026-10-21 to 2026-10-27. Honestly, that is not a number that says "trending". So please read this post as an observation of one interesting object, not as a confirmed trend.

![The first screen of the Plushies demo page](/blog-img/plushies-three-js-ai-cursors/1.png "zoom")

_Image: [prathje.github.io](https://prathje.github.io/plushies)_

## 17 shapes, inflated

The first line of the demo page explains most of it. You pick a flat silhouette such as a heart, a star or a cloud, and the library inflates it into a pillow and covers it with fur. The package description calls the fur shell-textured, meaning it is drawn as stacked shells.

The clip below was drawn by us with the installed package. All 17 shapes hop one after another. Lined up like this, the shapes feel pretty different from each other.

![17 plush shapes hopping one after another](/blog-img/plushies-three-js-ai-cursors/clip-1-en.mp4)

_Video: drawn by us with [plushies](https://www.npmjs.com/package/plushies) 0.1.0-alpha.0_

## Fur, eyes, hats: pick and wear

The extras sit on top of the body as separate pieces, so eyes, mouths, glasses and hats can be swapped by changing a value. The demo editor lets you choose a shape, a fabric and a face and shows the code as you go. Buttons such as Hop, Squish, Blink and Surprise me let you test the movement.

![Switching hats, glasses and fur textures](/blog-img/plushies-three-js-ai-cursors/clip-2-en.mp4)

_Video: drawn by us with [plushies](https://www.npmjs.com/package/plushies) 0.1.0-alpha.0_

## Cursors get a name tag and a status box

The part the title points to is a separate package, `@plushies/cursors`. A plush character floats along with its own pointer, a name tag and a live status box. It is meant to make visible where an AI helper is looking and what it is doing.

The demo has 4 designs (Live, Buddy, Island, Mixed) and 4 follow-me characters (Nobody, Pip, Biscuit, Moss). It shows the helpers at work in a video editor, a design file, a website, a spreadsheet, a document and a render pipeline.

![An AI helper cursor fixing a headline and pressing a button](/blog-img/plushies-three-js-ai-cursors/clip-3-en.mp4)

_Video: drawn by us with [plushies](https://www.npmjs.com/package/plushies) and `@plushies/cursors`_

| Package | Version | What it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| plushies | 0\.1.0-alpha.0 | Draws plush characters |
| @plushies/cursors | 0\.1.0-alpha.2 | AI helper cursors |

_Source: npm_

## View

It is an alpha release with 3 downloads, so this is not about putting it into a product right away. In your place I would only try the demo and the editor. Installing is `npm i plushies three`, and Three.js 0.160 or later is required.

What catches my eye is the cursor. A named character that moves on screen may feel less worrying than a line of text saying what the AI is doing. That is my reading, and this record says nothing about how real users react.

## Sources used in this post

- [plushies package (npm)](https://www.npmjs.com/package/plushies)
- [Plushies demo](https://prathje.github.io/plushies)