8bitfiction
A pixel artist's gallery where each work dissolves into the next, pixel by pixel.
For a pixel artist, the transition between works is part of the show. A default CSS fade smooths the edges the whole practice is about, so it quietly contradicts the art it is presenting. The design problem was to move between pieces in a way that stays loyal to the medium, and to make that loyalty survive on real phones and tablets, not only on the machine it was built on.
The transition had to be drawn in the artist's own medium, pixel by pixel, and still hold up everywhere. Canvas rendering behaves differently across devices, so the effect that looked right on a laptop had to be checked against a full capture matrix before the claim could be made.
A pixel artist showing a small, tight body of work.
Interaction craft where the medium sets the rules, verified across devices.
- Works dissolve pixel by pixelCanvas draws each transition as a pixel dissolve, true to the medium.
- Holds across devicesPassed a full cross-device test matrix, not just one screen.
Draw the dissolve on canvas instead of reaching for a CSS fade. It is more work and more fragile, and it is the only version that respects the art: one piece resolves into the next as individual pixels, the same grammar the artist works in. The transition stops being chrome around the gallery and becomes another instance of the medium, which is the point of the whole site.
The dissolve timing is a fixed duration, so a dense, detailed piece and a sparse one resolve in the same beat even though the eye needs longer on the busy one. I would tie the transition length to the visual complexity of the outgoing frame, so each work gets the reveal time it actually earns.