— 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

— studio atheric
helsinki, fi
est. 2026 hel —:—:—
liquid chrome
№ 1 · ongoing

— the chrome is the machine

this is the drawing.

the molten thing above is the machine — liquid chrome, alive on your gpu. below it the metal cools, and what remains is the studio, measured: a small practice in helsinki that engineers interfaces and systems, drawn to scale.

— index № 01 / the studio

a small studio, a small system.

we engineer interfaces and systems — code, type, motion and copy, built in the right order, never decorated after. two to three commissions a year. that is the point.

x01 what: premium digital work. identities, websites, editorial systems — for clients who care about the difference.
x02 look: editorial, on paper. bone stock, near-black ink, one hot signal-orange accent. hairlines, not shadows.
x03 voice: quiet, declarative. lowercase, first-person plural, one italic-serif breath per line. no emoji, ever.
x04 type: three families. archivo for display, instrument serif for the breaks, jetbrains mono for labels.
x05 mark: a body in orbit. a hairline ring, structural ticks, and one glowing orange punctum.
x06 motion: slow, eased, weighted. long ease-outs. no bounces, no springs, no parallax. the system is calm.

— index № 02 / how we work

three movements, one object.

movement i

sculpt

we listen first, then shape the object in code, type, motion and copy — built in the right order, never decorated after.
movement ii

forge

we pour the system. tokens, surfaces, glass and grain. it runs in the browser the day it is born, not in a deck.
movement iii

polish

we refuse to ship until it feels still. the hum. a surface you are willing to come back to, twice.

— index № 03 / the cabinet

selected specimens.

specimen № 01interface

marais

mmxxv

specimen № 02type foundry

cipher

mmxxv

specimen № 03quarterly

under the code

mmxxiv

specimen № 04liquid glass

aeon

mmxxvi

different objects, one bench — breadth is the evidence, not the pitch.

the chrome crystallises — into paper

material — liquid chrome, cooled

finish — paper, cream

scale — 1 : 1

set solid — hel · mmxxvi

fig. 06 — the cast, certified

— index № 04 / voice

quiet, on purpose.

a surface should feel like a room you are willing to come back to, twice.

+ do

lowercase headlines — capitals are for mono labels and proper nouns.
one italic-serif word per heading — the breath.
em-dashes as punctuation; roman numerals for editions.
first-person plural — “we sculpt”, “we listen”.

— do not

title case or shouting capitals.
exclamation marks. ever.
“solutions”, “leverage”, “scale”, “world-class”.
emoji of any kind — typographic glyphs only.

— let's begin

a small thing, and finish it well.

write to us

quiet, on purpose. no retainers, on principle.