[baumgarn]

I created this project back in 2004 together with a bunch of other illustrators. It grew out of a community where people collaborated on artwork over the internet. Happy to see it continues to gather interest. You might also enjoy http://zoomquilt2.com (2007) and http://arkadia.xyz (2015, my favourite)

[codetrotter]

This is of the things I love about HN. Someone shares a link and within 30 minutes of the link having been shared the original author of the site shows up and gives us more details about it and answers questions :)

I have no questions of my own but thank you for having given us these details and answers.

[Itsdijital]

I shed a tear for the days when the major social news sites were like this.

[eindiran]

The original one uses a red ribbon throughout the zoom; is there a reason why that helps visually maintain the illusion? Is it just a stylistic choice?

The second one doesn't contain a static object that travels with the camera in the frame at all times, and the zooming in effect is still visually compelling, so it doesn't seem necessary. But I really liked the constant ribbon in the first.

Also, who did the art for them? Was it a team effort or just a single person?

[EDIT] It looks like Arcadia also has a sort of ribbon effect, though it is more subtle than the single, same color ribbon in the original.

[baumgarn]

Zoomquilt 1+2 was done by a bunch of illustrators. A person would paint a single frame, which would be scaled down and given to another person to continue painting around while blending into the previous frame. The picture would develop much like the Cadavre Exquis surrealist drawing game, and part of the fun is to continue and transform what the person before you left. Arkadia I painted together with my friend Sophia Schomberg.

[codetrotter]

I remember those trees with the faces. I think I read about Zoomquilt in the mid 2000's in one of the magazines I used to buy. And I think they included a copy of the swf on the cover disc, which was nice because I probably didn’t have Internet on my computer back then.

The magazine where I read about it and got the swf from was I think either Digital Creative Arts magazine, or Digital Arts magazine, or Computer Arts magazine. All of those were different magazines I used to buy from time to time. Could also have been ImagineFX magazine or in one of the web design magazines.

[tartoran]

Very pretty, thanks for sharing.

In Arkadia spacebar pauses the zoom. After a few minutes of watching the illustrations zoom in the scene appears to be zooming out but of course it is not, just neat illusion.

[core-questions]

That effect carries through to anything else you're looking at (i.e. for me the HN comment box is shrinking right now...)

[olejorgenb]

I think the color cycling (doesn't pause) might play a role also.

[tartoran]

Yes, that enhances the illusion for sure

[bartread]

I particularly like arkadia too: fantastic use of colour. Do you sell your artwork, or prints, anywhere that's accessible to us norms?

EDIT: I notice that at one point you were offering prints from Arkadia on Etsy but, unfortunately, they all seem to have gone. Do you have any plans to offer more?

[baumgarn]

Thank You! We tried the prints thing but nobody ordered any, so we took it down again ;-) The one thing that is generating a bit of revenue is the Zoomquilt Android Live Wallpaper app were you can purchase Arkadia as an add-on. If you have an Android device you should definitely give it a go as the infinite zoom effect makes a super nice wallpaper.

[bartread]

Ah, that's a shame. I'm refurbishing my house and was thinking about something for one of the walls. Thanks for letting me know.

[throwaway888abc]

I somehow found it deeply relaxing.

For sure amazing artwork, but the overall experience staring at it - magical. Thank you for your creativity and how you put it on! Bookmarked.

[knicholes]

This is my first time seeing it, and it strangely made me start to feel anxious and maybe... nauseated?

[sizzle]

Any easter eggs or cool background stories/inspiration/deeper meaning to any of illustrations?

This creative work gives me life, thanks for sharing.

[bartread]

This is incredibly cool: thanks for making and sharing it. Can't believe it's taken me 16 years to discover this gem.

[matlo]

Thank you for this. I was in high school around that time and started play around with Flash with my friends. This was mind-blowing when it came out. It has been one of my references of cool interactions for many years back in the days, thanks.

[sebmellen]

Amazing stuff! How did you do the scaling back in 2004? I can only picture doing this with a modern JS stack, but I suppose I'm a spoiled web developer in that way.

[baumgarn]

The original wasn't done with code but animated with Macromedia Director and later ported to Flash. The smooth full window HTML5 version you see here I coded in 2013

[nkoren]

what i'm curious about is how the 2007 zoomquilt2 has an easter-egg for the 2015 zrkadia.xyz in it...? Did the former inspire the starting frame from the latter, or was it retroactively retrofitted?

[baumgarn]

There was some nudity in there which I removed for the Android version to keep it family friendly as required by Google Play. I decided to change the web version as well.

[swaggyBoatswain]

is there source code for arkadia?

I'm curious to see what the code looks like

[jb_s]

http://arkadia.xyz/zoom.js?v=19

[jb_s]

as a side note - it's great that the js is not minified :-)

[pmoriarty]

Any chance these could ever be released as videos on youtube or vimeo? Or as a simple downloadable .mp4 (or format of your choice)? Or as a collection of still images?

I ask because I'm wary of letting untrusted websites run javascript in my browser, and try to avoid it as much as possible.

With the above options I can just use youtube-dl to download the videos (or download the videos directly in the case of a simple link to an .mp4) and play them in my video player without having to run any untrusted javascript.

[VBprogrammer]

That's the most entitled comment I've read in a while.

If you really are that worried why not create a virtual machine for browsing untrusted things.

[pmoriarty]

"That's the most entitled comment I've read in a while."

What's so entitled about asking?

I'm not demanding anything nor insisting that I have a right to it.

It's a simple request. Nothing entitled about it.

On the other hand, I find your baseless, unfounded accusation rather insulting.

"If you really are that worried why not create a virtual machine for browsing untrusted things."

Because my old, slow laptop is too weak to run a VM.

Not everyone is so fortunate to have a powerful enough computer to run a VM whenever they need to browse an untrusted website.

That's not to mention that there are ways to break out of a VM, so it's not the best solution as far as security goes anyway.

In any case, if you think running a VM is a valid response, I don't see why you'd be so aghast at asking for a much simpler, much less resource-intensive way of viewing the content: by using a simple downloadable video.

Of course the receiver of the request is under no obligation to comply. In fact, they usually don't because people like me who care enough about their security to want to avoid javascript are in the tiny minority, and can be safely ignored. I'm well aware of this, but it doesn't hurt to ask, does it?

[VBprogrammer]

I feel it was entitled because you asked for them to:

a) spend a non-trivial amount of time creating a work around for you.

b) release artistic control of their content in a way in which it will be shown to people alongside adverts and whatever else these platforms decide.

c) a video would likely be larger than the original generated version, or suffer from video compression artifacts.

[Hnrobert42]

It was a simple request with a good explanation. The author can say no.

[lostgame]

I agree with pmoriarty in their statement that this is not only uncalled for; but offensive.

Nothing about that comment suggested pmoriarty felt 'entitled' to it - they were simply asking if it was an option / available.

[raindropm]

Well, it feel entitled because he mention about don't want to 'let untrusted websites run javascript in my browser'. Said untrusted website however, is the author's website. And it feel like the author need to answer these personal request.

I mean, it may technically true in every way, just not a nice way to ask for something. He can simply just ask(hell, I'd love that too) without giving his personal technical reason and it will feel a lot nicer.

Sometimes you don't have to say every single details...

P.S. I don't think OP has evil intention though. In the end it's matter of different perspective.

[pmoriarty]

I hope the person I responded to was not offended by some random stranger revealing that they didn't trust the javascript on their website, and would prefer a safer alternative.

I also have to disagree with the advice to keep my reasons for wanting a video secret. I feel it's important for content creators, executives and the many javascript developers on HN to be fully aware that javascript is a dangerous technology, which is not trusted by people like myself who care about their privacy and security.

I try to point this out every opportunity I get, and will continue to do so, so people can't claim they had no idea that javascript was so horrible because no one ever told them.

Javascript is horrible, and requiring your viewers to expose themselves to security vulnerabilities in order to view your content is not ok.

[sokoloff]

I understand your principled point of view (and I did not downvote), but at some point this becomes akin to a vegan or climate change activist chiming in on posts about steak-cooking techniques. It’s not wrong per-se[0], just pretty tiresomely off-topic if you point it out every time.

We get it. 1 in perhaps 1K web users doesn’t like Javascript. If you use it, your TAM shrinks to 99.9% of what it could otherwise be.

[0] - I think the danger is similarly blown out of proportion to the harm

[hombre_fatal]

Agreed. If your setup in 2020 is to ask people for a non-JS version, it's time to put in a little work yourself to run a VM instead of asking other people to do work for you.

Time to learn self-reliance and resourcefulness.

[alanbernstein]

The argument underneath this comment is unbelievable. I wonder if anyone arguing tried to just search for this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qnzfY4aODUc

[ranit]

> The argument underneath this comment

Keep in mind that the comments order changes in time and your comment may not stay above the comment you (tried to) point.

[alanbernstein]

I was referring to the siblings of my comment, being "underneath in depth" the parent in the tree, not "underneath in vertical pixels" my comment. It seemed unambiguous at the time, but clearly not.

[pmoriarty]

That's the original Zoomquilt, which is not either of the videos I asked about.

[alanbernstein]

Ackshually, you said "these" on a page about Zoomquilt 1, in a thread about Zoomquilt 2 and Arkadia, which is not specific. And my comment was meant to suggest that you can simply search youtube to find all of them. But here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4zeVrWsTHE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB8tohkO-bM

[bovermyer]

The trick here is that it's meant to be an infinite loop, so "give me da Yooo Toobs" isn't gonna work here.

If you don't trust JavaScript in general, then just accept that you can't experience this, and move on. No hard feelings.

[pmoriarty]

"The trick here is that it's meant to be an infinite loop, so "give me da Yooo Toobs" isn't gonna work here."

Except it would work perfectly, as I'd just download the video using youtube-dl and then play it in mpv, which can easily loop the video.