— studio atheric / liquid chrome № 1

we engineer weightless software.

interfaces and systems for clients who care about the difference. two to three at a time. that is the point.

2–3 commissions / yr

∞ iterations

№ 1 edition · mmxxvi

claim a commission →

no mesh. no texture. no photograph. the blob is a signed-distance field — four metaballs fused with a smooth minimum — raymarched in real time, seventy-two steps per pixel, on your gpu.

its surface is a thin-film approximation: a spectral ramp keyed to the viewing angle — gold on the faces that meet you, magenta and blue as it curves, violet where it turns away. the bright edge is a fresnel bloom, pushed past the rest so it glows into the dark.

one fragment shader — a dozen kilobytes of math — redrawn fresh sixty times a second. it holds perfectly still when you ask it to.

sdf · smooth-union metaballs
72-step raymarch
thin-film iridescence
fresnel rim bloom
60 fps · dpr-clamped
reduced-motion aware

built by hand, in helsinki liquid chrome edition · mmxxvi

— fig. 01 / 05

the raymarch.

no polygons, no mesh. a ray leaves every pixel and steps through space, sampling a distance field until it lands on a surface — seventy-two steps, a 0.85 step factor: close enough to converge, loose enough to stay quick. the whole body lives inside one function, traced per pixel.

chrome.frag · raymarch

for (int i = 0; i < 72; i++) {
  p = ro + rd * t;
  float d = scene(p);
  if (d < 0.001) { hit = true; break; }
  t += d * 0.85;
}

one ray per pixel — small steps until it finds the chrome.

— fig. 02 / 05

metaballs, fused.

four spheres, blended with a smooth-minimum function. k is the surface tension: high, and the chrome holds as one body; drop it, and the marbles un-fuse. the same knob that holds the object together is the one that could let it go.

chrome.frag · smin

float smin(float a, float b, float k) {
  float h = clamp(0.5 + 0.5 * (b - a) / k,
                  0.0, 1.0);
  return mix(b, a, h) - k * h * (1.0 - h);
}

two distance fields, blended into one. k is the knob.

— fig. 03 / 05

thin-film iridescence.

the colour is not paint. a spectral ramp keyed to the viewing angle — gold on the faces that meet you, magenta and blue as the surface curves away, violet at the rim — with slow noise wobbling the bands so they never sit still. oil on water, computed.

chrome.frag · thinFilm

// gold, then magenta, blue, violet
vec3 c = cGold;
c = mix(c, cMagenta, smoothstep(0.00, 0.30, t));
c = mix(c, cBlue,    smoothstep(0.30, 0.55, t));
c = mix(c, cViolet,  smoothstep(0.55, 0.82, t));

the film reads the angle of your eye — nothing is textured.

— fig. 04 / 05

the fresnel bloom.

at grazing angles every surface reflects more than it should. the rim term is powered twice — a soft glow and a tight bloom — and pushed past white so the edge burns into the dark plane. that asymmetry is why chrome reads as chrome and not as a grey ball.

chrome.frag · rim

float fres = 1.0 - max(dot(-rd, n), 0.0);
float rim      = pow(fres, 4.0);
float rimBloom = pow(fres, 10.0);
col += vec3(1.00, 0.97, 0.95)
     * (rim * 0.50 + rimBloom * 1.55);

edges reflect more than middles — the rest is restraint.

— fig. 05 / 05

orbits, alive.

three satellites trace slow orbits in time; the dominant sphere leans toward your cursor. when you scroll on, the page paints the metal out — the chrome sets — and the render loop rests to spare the gpu. scroll back, and it wakes.

chrome.frag · scene

vec3 drift = vec3(
  cos(uTime * 0.42) * 0.55,
  sin(uTime * 0.31) * 0.38, 0.0);
vec3 c1 = vec3(uMouse * mouseW, 0.0)
        + drift;

quiet orbits, a cursor's pull, and a scheduled rest.

fig. — / 05 to exit

a small thing, and finish it well.

we engineer weightless software.

the raymarch.

metaballs, fused.

thin-film iridescence.

the fresnel bloom.

orbits, alive.

this is the drawing.

a small studio, a small system.

three movements, one object.

sculpt

forge

polish

two works, both live.

clara

under the code

what never set, still burns.

quiet, on purpose.

+ do

— do not

a small thing, and finish it well.