Light Board

Another interactive toy in Spline. This may also kill your battery.

Simple reactions to movement are compelling. Simple to start, with detail to pick apart when you repeat the action, but slightly differently each time.

This was inspired by those panels of soft pins that you can push your hand (or face, always the face) into to make a temporary imprint.

With Spline I tried to push as far as I could, but hit many limitations (and performance bottlenecks). This is the most reasonable, somewhat optimized version I could do.

The pegs are just 2, fairly low poly cylinders. The inner, coloured section does most of the leg work. It has 2 depth materials applied in world space.

The first is the colour gradient across the board, and the second is a depth mask that hides the peg as it retracts into the base.

The result is a system that looks like a light bursts into life and fades out on each movement.

Simple, reactive, and fun.