What this is
Particle universe reads your image one sample at a time and gives every sample a point in space, so the picture becomes a point cloud you can walk around. Each point is pulled towards a target and pushed by your pointer, so the cloud can leave the flat picture and settle into a sphere, a galaxy, a DNA helix, a cube or open scatter. Everything is drawn on the GPU, and the image never leaves your device.
How to use it
- Drop an image on the canvas, or keep the sample that loads.
- Pick a formation and watch the points travel into it, then shape the flight with the physics sliders.
- Drag to turn the cloud, move your pointer through it to push the points, and save a PNG or record a video.
Read the guide
Words: point cloud · GPU · WebM
Common questions
Does it work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Drag with one finger to turn the cloud and push the points under it; pinch with two fingers to move closer or further. Phones and touch screens make at most 30,000 points, and draw fewer pixels.
How big can my picture be?
Any size the browser can open. The points are taken from a copy at most 400 pixels on its long side, so fine detail is lost; the line under the preview still shows your picture's own size. If nothing changes after you choose a file, the browser could not open it: save it as a PNG or JPEG and try again.
Is my picture uploaded?
No. The picture is read on your device and never leaves it.
Why is a picture from another tool here?
Pictures you add are kept on this device for every lab tool that takes one, so you need not add them again. Press × on a tile to forget that picture; the sample comes back.