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No.119 · Backgrounds

Wave Mesh

A perspective field of dots rolling to the horizon like a slow sea. The pointer lifts a soft hill wherever it points on the ground, and a click sends a ring travelling out across the field.

The prompt

Written for the variant you picked above: Night

Build a canvas 2D background of a dot terrain in perspective, with no 3D library. Lay out a grid of world points: x across, z (depth) from 0.35 to 3.4 spaced geometrically (so rows sit roughly evenly on screen), with the ground's half-width chosen from the far edge so the field always fills the frame. Project each with a pinhole camera 0.62 above the ground: sx = W/2 + x/z·f, sy = horizon + (camera − y)/z·f, horizon at 30% of the height. Height is three summed sines in x, z and time, a Gaussian hill under the pointer, and click rings. The pointer maps back to the ground by inverting the projection for y = 0 (z = camera·f / (sy − horizon)), eased at 10% per frame; the hill grows in and fades as it enters and leaves. A click adds a ring at that ground point: a Gaussian band at distance age × 1.15 that decays with age and is dropped after 5s. Draw rows far to near; each row shares a dot size (2.3/z, 0.8–3.2px) and a fog alpha, so a row is one fillStyle and many fillRects. Optionally draw the highest crests in an accent colour in a second pass. Stop requesting frames offscreen or in hidden tabs; draw one frame under reduced motion. Colours are a prop [background, dots, accent]. Selected variant — Night: Colours [#06070a, #c9d6ea, #f0b37a], crests off: pale blue-white dots on black; overlay text white.

Notes

Interaction
A hill follows the pointer across the ground; click or tap to send a ring outward from that spot.
Motion
The surface rolls continuously; the pointer hill eases at 10% per frame; rings travel at 1.15 units/s and fade over ~4s.
Accessibility
The canvas is aria-hidden and decorative. Reduced motion draws one still frame.
Responsive
Grid density follows the container (56–150 columns, 48–90 rows); the focal length adapts so the horizon stays put.
On touch
No hill on touch; tap to send a ring. Runs at ~33fps.

Featured

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81Atmosphere CardSmoked-glass link cards: colour pooled in the corners, slow contour currents underneath, a field that leans toward you.93Eclipse Event CardAn editorial event plate with an oversized date and an orbital eclipse bleeding in from the right, alive with slow drift.94Specimen CardAn object mounted under glass: hover lifts the pane with a sweep of reflection and swings out a paper catalogue tag.
95Silk FieldDomain-warped light that pours like liquid silk, with an optional glass lens that refracts the flow under your cursor.106IsobarA living weather map — contour lines traced over a drifting pressure field, with your cursor as a system of its own.
151Prompt ComposerA chat composer where attached files tuck into its top edge like tabs in a folder — they rise from behind it when added and sink back when removed. Send turns into stop while the reply streams.157Aura FieldA writing field where colour only exists while the AI is touching your text: the edge becomes a turning band of light and the words are rewritten in place, one by one, out of a soft blur.
205Halftone CTAA tall CTA banner where slow gold paint drifts beneath a fixed halftone grid, visible only through the dots.
212Nocturne Sign-inA single quiet column on near-black with a breathing seam of frost light behind it — email, password, magic link, nothing more.222Sigil Sign-inA split sign-in whose left half grows a geometric mark from your email — the same address always draws the same sigil.
275Voices CarouselA testimonial exhibition: one large quote at a time on frosted glass, crossfading between voices without ever resizing.
279Feral TitleA brutal condensed wordmark — heartbeat in the dark, letters slam in, a gash tears through and the word bleeds.
301 components