Three shapes of light
Personal studies on light as an interface signal. A cloud to observe, a current to move, a beam to guide.
The beam lights only what is there.
Observe
A cloud. Diffuse, slow and without direction, for moments of arrival and waiting.
- One living background per screen, never behind long text or tables.
- It drifts slower than a tenth of a turn per second, and stops when motion is reduced.
- Detail lives on a second clock: a few sparks twinkle at their own pace.
Noise warped by noise warped by noise, two halves drifting in opposite directions, quantized to the ramp with an 8×8 Bayer matrix so the tone edges keep walking.
Move
A current. Always from a source to a destination, and it bends around what gets in the way.
- Motion has a direction or it does not move at all.
- Obstacles bend the flow instead of stopping it. Move your cursor through it.
- The destination lights up only when something arrives.
A real advection loop: every frame is carried from the previous one by a steady stream plus curl-noise gusts, so it never repeats.
Guide
A beam. One point, one direction, one rhythm, like a pulsar sweeping the sky.
- Light falls only where there is something to see.
- The accent means “this is new” or “the AI did this”, and nothing else.
- A steady pulse says “working”. It never flashes for attention.
Two opposite beams cross a haze field; the haze decides where the beam becomes visible, and objects turn to signal only while the beam is on them.
Ramps
All three end in the same yellow, #FBEF39, which is oklch(93.3% 0.185 105.4). They are interpolated in OKLCH so the lightness climbs evenly. In Ink & paper the yellow sits outside the ramp and only marks signal.
Emberink, wine, coral, orange, yellow
Night & signalblue ink, steel, mist, yellow
Ink & paperneutral ramp, yellow only as signal
Type “corgi”.