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Show HN: Psychedelic animation generator; (p)art of your next trip

by getToTheChopin on 3/13/25, 11:26 PM with 61 comments

Sharing an open source project for creating psychadelic art -- using liquid motion, distorted shapes, shadows and light. This tool works in real-time in the browser using webgl shaders.

This project was inspired by drum & bass / acid techno music, and 90s rave posters.

Use this to create art for a music video, concert posters, stylized animations in creative projects, or simply to enjoy alongside some fine music.

Use the detailed control menu (top-right) to set a custom canvas size, adjust animation speed, control pattern and colours, etc...

You can export your creation as an image or video afterwards.

How this works: this tool uses WebGL shaders to create a real-time animation (with a trippy liquid / shadow / blur aesthetic).

The animation is created using a random seed position and mixes in random noise (fractal brownian motion, 3D simplex noise), so each time you re-run it you're creating a unique piece of art.

Github repo: https://github.com/collidingScopes/liquid-shape-distortions

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I hope you enjoy the visuals. I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions.

  • by evanjrowley on 3/17/25, 7:24 PM

    IMO the most realistic generated psychedelic images were made by Google's Deep Dream 10 years ago. It seems like it's been mostly forgotten about after the advent of DALL-E, Midjourney, etc.

  • by taopai on 3/18/25, 8:50 AM

    I recall experiencing an incredibly fast hallucination with my eyes closed—like tiny dots moving at an extreme speed.

    Faster than anything I had ever seen, almost like an intense vibration, beyond the refresh rate of the eye. It was both intimidating and exhilarating.

    Perhaps screens are unable to replicate this type of hallucination.

    The animations on this website are impressive. However, in my experience, closed-eye visuals tend to have a central focal point, along with folding or tunnel-like movements and recurring patterns.

    I feel deeply grateful for having had some psychedelic experiences, even though hallucinations are the least interesting aspect of them. For me, they acted as a magnifying glass for my overall state of being—allowing me to step outside myself and honestly assess how I feel. They also foster a deeper appreciation for nature.

    It would be fascinating to have this discussion within this community. These substances are often demonized due to a lack of understanding, yet they can have a profound impact. For instance, after taking a small dose of LSD, I completely lost interest in alcohol. In the past six months, I’ve only had three nights of drinking, lost a significant amount of weight, and feel fantastic.

  • by mgraczyk on 3/17/25, 10:20 PM

    Very cool animations, but they don't strike me as "psychedelic". A bit too smooth and unstructured.

  • by evo_9 on 3/17/25, 11:43 PM

    Very similar to my favorite trip toy of the 90s… rock ‘star’ Todd Rundgren’s Flowfazer. Quite mesmerizing for toddlers, too.

    https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flowfazer/id507935335

  • by newobj on 3/18/25, 2:44 AM

    I've heard this music somewhere before.... Telefon Tel Aviv I think? why isn't it credited?

  • by typeofhuman on 3/18/25, 1:27 AM

    Cool. But this literally crashed my phone. I've never seen anything like it. Was impressed really. Little nervous. But it locked my Brave browser first then it locked my entire phone. System UI and Android crashed. It recovered but wow. What a trip.

  • by sixstring982 on 3/17/25, 7:56 PM

    Very nice! Reminds me of something I built on Shadertoy a while back: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/4ttGRf

  • by Distilitron on 3/17/25, 7:12 PM

    Telefon tel aviv is nice, gfx is crap

  • by nimzoLarsen on 3/14/25, 12:06 AM

    This is so beautiful! The outputs are trippy and the music fits well.

    Nice work

  • by qwertox on 3/17/25, 8:55 PM

    I think AI tools like Stable Diffusion have a big potential.

    Something along the lines of what Nexxus 604 is doing.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6m3OvB819s

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6s_Dtl1U9wU

  • by talles on 3/17/25, 7:31 PM

    I miss Winamp

  • by w_for_wumbo on 3/17/25, 10:06 PM

    I love these projects, I've been really passionate about including our own sensory inputs into the experience, whether it's voice, webcam input or (in the future health metrics) in order to tailor the experience to the experiencers' desires.

  • by int_19h on 3/18/25, 3:05 AM

    Long-running fractal zooms are really good for this purpose, e.g.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cgp2WNNKmQ

  • by adzm on 3/17/25, 7:55 PM

    I really do appreciate the 90s, Video Toaster-esque[1] aesthetics

    [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Toaster

  • by madmonk on 3/17/25, 8:05 PM

    Thank you for reminding me about Telefon Tel Aviv.

  • by deadbabe on 3/17/25, 7:59 PM

    this gave me an overwhelming sense of melancholy

  • by dalemhurley on 3/17/25, 10:18 PM

    I love it, it would be awesome if the controls could slowly and randomly adjust themselves so over time the images transition.

  • by DrSiemer on 3/17/25, 7:28 PM

    Any way to lerp transitions like Milkdrop does?

  • by j_san on 3/17/25, 8:06 PM

    Is there a way to make it loop? (So that one only needs to record e.g. 20 seconds, after which it loops to save space)

  • by newman8r on 3/17/25, 10:02 PM

    So cool! Would love to be able to easily make it full screen (maybe I'm missing the button for that)

    Bookmarked

  • by nosmokewhereiam on 3/18/25, 3:12 AM

    "...90's techno / Rave Posters..."

    This project speaks to me, thank you thank you thank you!

  • by andyjohnson0 on 3/17/25, 7:41 PM

    This is really nicely done. Kudos.

  • by dole on 3/17/25, 8:22 PM

    been tumbling down the old Cthugha and Milkdrop visualization rabbit hole recently, nice gfx and aesthetics on yours and it's always nice to see a fresh take on code

  • by grahamj on 3/17/25, 8:40 PM

    ah this takes me back. Thanks ;)

  • by brcmthrowaway on 3/17/25, 8:57 PM

    Do not take drugs! its bad for you

  • by lscdjlsdkf on 3/18/25, 11:43 AM

    Personally, i don't like them at all. This grainy feel with a lot of dark/black colors etc. i would not use this while tripping.