Motion World · 2 of 6
Many small signals, one navigable collective.
Colorful Particle Journey is an experiment in collective legibility. Between 300 and 900 independent particles drift through a flowing field, each keeping its own colour and pace. Your pointer attracts them; they gather, but they never merge. GA made it to practise the data-to-motion metaphor behind good automation: many small events, made readable without being flattened.
Population is announced in the technical note and capped by screen area. Sound is off until you ask.
Poster: spectral particles in long-exposure trajectories.
A still field of coloured points: hundreds of small signals holding their own positions on deep space, related but never merged.
Move to gather the collective toward you. Sound is optional and off until you enable it. Nothing here tracks you.
Technical note
How it works
Each particle integrates a simple velocity model: a flowing field built from layered sine functions, gentle attraction toward the pointer inside a 180 pixel radius, and drag. Trails come from drawing a translucent wash each frame instead of clearing, so motion leaves a short memory. Colour is fixed per particle across the spectrum, which is how individuals stay visible inside the crowd.
The optional sound is WebAudio synthesis only: soft filtered noise under a slow sine pad. It starts when you press Enable sound, fades rather than clicks, and never records anything. There are no audio files and no microphone.
Performance choices
- Population scales with screen area and is capped between 300 and 900 particles, with a 380 ceiling on small screens.
- One drawing pass per frame: no per-particle gradients or shadows.
- The loop pauses when the stage scrolls offscreen, pixel ratio is capped at two, and Reset re-scatters the field instantly.
Accessibility and comfort
With prefers-reduced-motion set, the canvas never starts and the static interpretation above stands in. Sound is off by default and begins only from the explicit Enable sound button; muting is one press. Pause and Reset are keyboard reachable. The palette is bright against deep space, the motion is slow, and there are no flashes.
From laboratory to client work
What this practises
An automation system is the same problem wearing a uniform: dozens of small triggers, queues and retries that must stay individually inspectable while adding up to one supervised whole. That is the metaphor this world rehearses, and it is how GA designs automation: responsibility visible, identity preserved, no black box in the middle.
When telemetry or events need to become something a person can read at a glance, the same data-to-motion thinking carries into dashboards.
Watch the idea at other scales
The Samples page shows the same craft at rising levels of interaction and motion, with the cost of each level stated plainly.