The Shimmer

FORM / LIGHT / MOTION

Inside the surface.

The exterior boundary in Annihilation combines organic, almost architectural folds with the optical qualities of oil on water. Its color belongs to the surface: it changes with thickness and angle.

This original WebGL study uses vertically stretched noise fields, thin overlapping sheets, surface normals, and a three-wavelength approximation of thin-film interference. Uneven columns rise at different rates, while lateral eddies curl their edges and create local downward motion. Behind the main membrane, sparse ribbons drift downward and a more distant layer curls sideways. The front surface refracts both, creating moving overlaps and depth. Set Depth layers to zero to compare with the main membrane alone.

Load a photograph to see real background refraction. The default environment is procedural. This is a real-time interpretation, not the film’s production shader or a frame-exact reproduction.

References examined