Animation Variants Backlog

Status: Living document — add ideas here, build them when the time is right
Last updated: 2026-03-30
Owner: NumberOne + Jonny Galloway

Currently Implemented

ID Name Variants fps Loop Notes
A01 typewriter typewriter 12 once reveal chars L→R, row by row
A02 scanline scanline 4 once reveal rows top→bottom
A03 glitch glitch 24 ∞ char corruption snap-back
A03a neon-glitch neon-cyan 12 ∞ per-row tube flicker, dim/dead/fringe
A03b neon-glitch neon-magenta 12 ∞ same, magenta bleeds red/blue
A03c neon-glitch neon-multi 12 ∞ JUST=cyan DO=magenta IT=yellow, independent flicker
A04 pulse pulse 24 ∞ brightness oscillation via ANSI codes
A05 dissolve dissolve 12 ∞ in→hold→out loop

Queued — Neon Glitch Variants (A03n)

Low-effort additions — neon_glitch preset already exists, just new color/param combos.

ID Label Color Notes
A03d neon-red red hot red, bleeds magenta/yellow — arcade feel
A03e neon-green green matrix green, bleeds cyan — hacker terminal
A03f neon-yellow yellow warm amber/yellow, bleeds green/red — retro diner
A03g neon-blue blue cold blue, bleeds cyan/magenta — sci-fi cold open
A03h neon-multi-v2 multi JUST=red DO=green IT=blue — holiday/RGB variant
A03i neon-flicker-heavy cyan crank flicker_prob=0.5, dead_prob=0.2 — failing sign
A03j neon-ghost cyan very low intensity, mostly off — ghost of a sign

Queued — New Presets

A06 — Living Fill (Cellular Automaton)

  • Vibe: letters filled with Conway/CA life that evolves over time
  • Input: rendered text as mask; cells inside letter boundary run CA rules
  • Variants: cells-life, cells-fire, cells-slime
  • fps: 12–24
  • Loop: ∞
  • Complexity: medium — needs CA runner that respects letter mask

A07 — Matrix Rain

  • Vibe: katakana/ASCII rain falls, letters materialize from the stream
  • Variants: matrix-green, matrix-cyan, matrix-white
  • fps: 24
  • Loop: ∞ (rain never stops)
  • Complexity: medium

A08 — Flame

  • Vibe: fire simulation fills letter silhouettes, rises upward
  • Variants: flame-orange, flame-blue, flame-plasma
  • fps: 24
  • Loop: ∞
  • Complexity: medium — upward particle sim with color gradient

A09 — Liquid Fill

  • Vibe: liquid rises from bottom to fill letter shapes
  • Variants: liquid-water, liquid-lava, liquid-acid
  • fps: 12
  • Loop: once (fill to top, hold)
  • Complexity: medium

A10 — Plasma Wave

  • Vibe: sinusoidal color wave washes across text
  • Variants: plasma-rainbow, plasma-heatmap, plasma-cold
  • fps: 24
  • Loop: ∞
  • Complexity: low–medium — sin/cos color cycling per cell

A11 — Transporter Materialize ⭐ FLAGSHIP

  • Vibe: Star Trek transporter effect — particles coalesce into letter forms
  • Variants:
    • transporter-tng — 24fps, classic TNG golden shimmer
    • transporter-tos — 30fps, faster/sharper TOS column effect
    • transporter-ent — 18fps, slower ENT prototype uncertainty
  • Test phrase: "ENERGIZE"
  • Loop: once (play-once, hold final frame)
  • Complexity: high — multi-session effort, flagship effect
  • Note: N12 particle volume fill (glyph as particle field) extends this

A12 — Warp Speed / Starfield

  • Vibe: stars stream past; text holds steady or warps in from center
  • Variants: warp-in, warp-hold, warp-out
  • fps: 30
  • Loop: ∞ or once
  • Complexity: medium

A13 — Typewriter Glitch Hybrid

  • Vibe: typewriter reveal but characters flicker/corrupt before snapping to final
  • Variants: type-glitch, type-neon-glitch
  • fps: 12
  • Loop: once
  • Complexity: low — compose typewriter + glitch

A14 — Turing Reaction-Diffusion Animate

  • Vibe: N09 Turing pattern evolving in real time inside letter mask
  • Variants: turing-spots, turing-stripes, turing-maze
  • fps: 12
  • Loop: ∞
  • Complexity: medium — needs incremental RD stepping per frame

Infrastructure TODOs

Task Status Notes
GitHub Pages workflow ⬜ not started ~20 min, wire docs/ to Pages
Wire anim gallery into docs/index.md ⬜ not started trivial
APNG background — transparent option ⬜ not started #111111 currently hardcoded
CLI --export-apng / --export-cast flags ⬜ not started see animation_gallery.md
asciinema.org upload automation ⬜ not started manual for now
HTML player for CO3DEX site ⬜ future self-contained, scrubbable
Per-effect fps_candidates benchmarking ⬜ future generate multiple fps and compare

Build Priority

Next:     A03d–A03j  (neon variants — 30 min, reuse existing preset)
Then:     A10        (plasma wave — low complexity, high visual payoff)
Then:     A08        (flame — medium, looks incredible)
Then:     A06        (living fill CA — medium, builds on existing generative work)
Flagship: A11        (transporter — multi-session, worth doing right)
Endgame:  A14        (Turing animate — builds on N09, already half-way there)

“Make it so.”