Softness

Watch Softness live in the browser

A soft, fluid colour field that keeps folding into itself, like ink in slowly stirred water. Every so often the lightness flips and the picture turns over like a puff of smoke.

There is no geometry. Each frame reads the previous one, and each pixel's colour is turned into a direction that says where to sample next, seven times over, so the image carries itself along. A little colour is fed in every frame and the hues drift slowly round the colour wheel, so the field never settles into a fixed pattern.

What it reacts to

• Bass hits: loosen the field so it changes faster, and push it upward
• Treble hits: twitch it sideways
• Strong treble hits on the beat, helped by the bass: flip the lightness in a smoky burst
• Mids: blend in a soft mirror image and shape the colour mixing
• Overall loudness: speeds up the colour drift

Music that suits it

Slow, textured music such as ambient, dream pop or downtempo suits it, and sharp percussion triggers the lightness flips.

How to play it

Install Deus, play music on Spotify, YouTube Music, Yandex Music or any other tab and click the Deus icon on that tab. Then pick Softness in the WebGL presets, or press ← → on the page until it comes up.