Particle universe guide

Overview

Particle universe turns a picture into a cloud of points that can fly into new shapes.

Two thick strands wound into a spiral, fading from purple at the bottom to pale green at the top, on a dark ground
The sample's points wound into a DNA helix and coloured by where each point sits: 20,000 points, Point size 1.2, Trail 0, seen from a Distance of 8.

The tool lays a grid over your picture and takes one pixel from each cell. Each one becomes a point in space with that pixel's colour. Together they make a point cloud: a picture made of about 50,000 separate dots instead of a flat surface.

At first the points sit flat, in the shape of the picture. That is the image formation. Pick another formation and every point is given a new place on a sphere, a galaxy, a DNA helix, a cube, or a loose scatter.

The points do not jump. Each one is pulled toward its new place like a spring, and slowed by friction, so the cloud flows from one shape into the next. Your pointer pushes the points near it, and explode throws them all at once.

The dots are drawn by your GPU, and dots nearer the camera are drawn bigger. That is size attenuation. Drag to turn the cloud and look at it from another side.

Open Particle universe Start here

In this guide

  1. StartWhat you need, your first cloud, and how to turn it.
  2. Every controlEvery control in the panel, one line each.
  3. Three looksThree pictures and the settings that made them.
  4. Keep your workThe PNG, the copy, and the video.
  5. HelpWhat to do when something goes wrong.

It opens with a sample picture: three glowing circles, pink, violet and green, with the letters AK, on a dark ground.

It runs in your browser with WebGL 2. The picture never leaves your device. It works with a mouse, a pen or a finger.