Day 009 — Orion Tears

Water ripple simulation as graphic mask, revealing the Carina Nebula and Roy Batty's tears-in-rain monologue.

How it works

Three layers composited via CSS stacking and WebGL alpha:

1. Background — JWST Carina Nebula image (CSS)
2. Text — Blade Runner monologue, bold uppercase, mix-blend-mode: overlay against the image
3. Water mask — WebGL2 canvas with alpha transparency; calm water = darkened image (opaque), wave crests = transparent holes revealing text + image

Simulation

• Wave equation with Stormer-Verlet integration (stable for c² < 0.25)
• Biharmonic surface tension via 13-point stencil — produces capillary ripples
• Ring-based impact model (Engel/Rein) — crater, crown ring, Worthington rebound, secondary collapse
• Absorbing boundary — 35% edge zone with quadratic falloff, no reflections
• 3D perspective mesh (1000x1000 grid) with heightmap displacement

Rendering

• Hard black/white threshold on surface normal vs light direction (scherenschnitt aesthetic)
• Screen-space anti-aliasing via fwidth() — sharp edges without jaggies
• Normal scale decoupled from geometry height — flat surface, strong shading response