Trade notes

Cave unlocked

You found me.

Most people scroll past. You shone a light on the dark corner. Welcome to the side of the site I don't put on the front page.

Back to the surfaceVisit BigBeardedMan

Notes from the cave

  • The flashlight is real. A 220px radial gradient anchored to two CSS variables that a client component updates on every mousemove, eased with a 14% lerp inside requestAnimationFrame. No libraries.
  • You only saw me because of CSS masks. The cartoon paints over the whole hero, but a radial mask clips it down to whatever the cursor is illuminating.
  • The aurora is four blobs. Blurred at 110px, composited with mix-blend-mode: screen, drifting on four offset keyframes. The colors aren't random. Blue and violet are the brand; cyan is the bridge; magenta is depth.
  • There is no telemetry on this page. Whoever you are, what you found stays with you.