Journal

Short explainers on how pictures, sound and words work. Each one covers a few key ideas, with examples from the worlds on this portal, and ends with something to try.

1. Composition: Where the Eye Goes

   Balance, the rule of thirds, empty space and the direction of lines, with examples from Desert World and Volcano World.

2. Sound: Pitch, Rhythm, Harmony and Timbre

   The four building blocks of music, and how we would use them to give our silent worlds sound.

3. Writing: Five Habits for Clear Sentences

   Be specific, vary sentence length, keep one point of view, keep dialogue natural and include tension.

4. Color: Hue, Value, Saturation and Temperature

   The four properties of every color, and how each of our six worlds uses them.

5. Motion: How Animation Creates Meaning

   Framing, direction, parallax, frame rate and cuts, explained with the moving dunes of Desert World.

6. Generative Art: Rules, Seeds and Noise

   How our worlds are drawn by rules instead of by hand, and what the ↻ seed button actually does.

7. Form and Space: Using Empty Space

   Negative space, distance, overlap and layers, and why Island World is mostly sky.

8. Repetition and Variation: Patterns That Stay Interesting

   Why repeating things creates unity, and how small changes keep a pattern from getting dull.

9. Light and Shadow: Contrast and Depth

   Contrast, light direction, shadows, gradients and reflections, with Volcano World and Frost World as examples.

10. Machine Souls: Six Imaginary Helpers

    If helpful software had a personality, what would it be like? Six one-job helpers, drawn in text.