EXP·011 Driftfield — a generative design experiment: curl-noise-like strands drift across a vector field, colored by direction, redrawn as trails

Design Lab · Experiment 011 · flow field

Drift, don't jump.

A field of unseen forces, made visible by a few hundred particles. Each one follows the current at its position, leaves a fading trail, and never touches the others. No noise library — just layered sine waves standing in for curl noise.

drag · watch it settle
scroll
[00]The field

what's actually driving those strands

01 · vector field

Direction, everywhere

Every point on screen has an invisible angle, built from two layered sine waves offset in time — cheap enough to evaluate 400 times a frame.

02 · trails

Fade, don't clear

Each frame paints a near-transparent rect instead of clearing — motion becomes the drawing.

03 · palette

Direction is color

Hue maps to heading, so the field's structure reads at a glance — teal flowing one way, violet the other.

04 · drag

Reach in and stir

The pointer becomes a local vortex — particles nearby get pulled into a spiral, then rejoin the current.

05 · lifespan

Born, drift, fade

Each particle resets after a few seconds so the field never gets crowded.

06 · restraint

One effect, whole hero

Ten experiments in, the pattern holds: pick one force, commit to it, let the rest of the page stay quiet.

[01]Turbulence

drag to change how tangled the field gets · low = calm river, high = storm · steers the hero up top too

turbulence 35
Field note: real curl noise needs a gradient library; this fakes it with two sine fields at different frequencies, added together and rotated 90°. Close enough to feel organic, light enough to run on a phone.