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>> The mix function is an interpolation function that linearly interpolates between the two input colors using a blend factor between and ( in our case).

>> A mix function for two colors works the same way, except we mix the color components. To mix two RGB colors, for example, we’d mix the red, green, and blue channels.

Colorspace alert! mix != lerp in sRGB

Very cool, but by css-rotating (skewY(-6deg)) the canvas at the last moment, you introduced aliasing on the border between the canvas and the rest of the page which kills the vibe. The browser can't automatically blend the canvas with the rest of the page. It's noticeable even on a brand new retina display. Maybe you could keep your canvas square and introduce the skew in the shader.

It is rare to see such detailed articles. And the result is very cool. Thanks

This effect kinda reminds me of the PSP menu background

We need more articles as polished as this one. WebGL is a topic I wanted to get into for a while now but it's really difficult to find good content about it. Please keep sharing more experiments!

This is so cool. These flowing gradients have a mesmerizing effect (almost like watching a lava lamp), and seem like a great way to add visual interest to a page. I'll have to play around with this and see if I can incorporate these flowing gradients into some of my web projects. Awesome job detailing the design process for this post.

The linked source code [0] doesn't seem to have any license attached to it. So how could I actually use this? Is it published as a package somewhere, like npm?

0. https://github.com/alexharri/website/blob/eb9551dd7312685704...

Jesus christ, this is such a polished article. Writing it must have taken at least 5 times as long as the shader!

Have reblogged it and will refer back to it if ever I have some time to learn how to write them :)

Great post Alex, the gradients are lovely, I'm just starting to play around with webgl so the timing is perfect ...

This looks very smooth. Would this be in 10 bit colour if the display supports it? I can't see any banding even when zoomed in Safari or Brave on a MBP with HDR display.

This is a great read. Very instructional. Build from simple concepts and explain clearly. Kudos for the work.

This is an excellent article. Thanks for this.

Fantastic post, very well written.

The whole time I was expecting just a 2d height field ("terrain") with animated noise as z, overlooked from an angle by an isometric camera, it could imo produce a same effect in a much simpler way (and without need for expensive blur), right?

Nice, it's a bit like an extremely modern version of the oldskool plasma effect!

Amazing writeup, very inspiring!

This is an exemplary post and what I come to HN for.

Fantastic article but it'd at least be nice to credit Stripe for the original design.

Reminds me of the JetBrains installer--not a bad reminder, I like the animations.

Looks pretty nice. I think there'd be a way of computing the blurriness without the iterative approach and without the aliasing produced in the process.