# Afterlight: A playable universe of light and sound.

> Afterlight is an interactive artwork in the browser. Pull a galaxy with your cursor, fold it into a flower or a tide, add sound, and share the scene as a link.

By Donovan Baney (@baney75). Page: https://dbaney.com/projects/afterlight/

- **Price:** Free
- **Status:** Live
- **Runs on:** Any modern browser with WebGL (Canvas 2D fallback)
- **Built with:** JavaScript, WebGL shaders, Web Audio
- **License:** MIT
- **Source:** https://github.com/baney75/afterlight
- **Live:** https://baney75.github.io/afterlight/
- **Documentation:** https://dbaney.com/projects/afterlight/docs/ (Markdown: https://dbaney.com/projects/afterlight/docs.md)

## Why I built it

Not everything has to be a tool. Afterlight is something to play with: a field of light you can pull, fold and set ringing, built from scratch with custom WebGL shaders and a small Web Audio synth.

## Made to be shared

**Share scene** copies a link with the world, palette, variation, flow and energy, so someone else opens the same scene. **Save image** downloads the artwork without the controls.

It has no third-party runtime dependencies, no account, no analytics and no remote media. All the artwork and sound come from the project's own code.

## Bend the light, play the sound

- Three worlds - Nebula, Bloom and Tidal - with adjustable flow, energy and color.
- Hold and drag to bend the light; send a pulse to make a wave.
- An original ambient synth where gestures play notes.
- Save a PNG or share a link that restores the scene.
- Keyboard controls, reduced-motion support and a Canvas 2D fallback.

## Limits

A mathematical artwork, not an astrophysics simulation. Performance depends on the device.

## Questions and answers

### What is Afterlight?

Afterlight is an interactive artwork in the browser. Pull a galaxy with your cursor, fold it into a flower or a tide, add sound, and share the scene as a link.

### Is Afterlight free?

Yes. Afterlight costs nothing, and its source code is on GitHub under the MIT license.

### Do I need to install Afterlight?

No. Open Afterlight in a modern browser. It uses WebGL and falls back to Canvas 2D where WebGL is missing.

### Does Afterlight collect my data?

No. It has no account, no analytics, no third-party runtime dependencies and no remote media. All the artwork and sound come from the project's own code.

### Does Afterlight have limits?

A mathematical artwork, not an astrophysics simulation. Performance depends on the device.

## Related projects

- [He Lives](https://dbaney.com/projects/helives/): He Lives is a quiet, Scripture-centered website. One King James passage each hour, the words of Christ in red, and a visual meditation on Genesis 1–3.
- [Graze](https://dbaney.com/projects/graze/): A one-tap orbit arcade game with a library of real courses, including languages, anatomy and organic chemistry. Short lessons, recall gates and spaced review on your device.
- [SeroSlop](https://dbaney.com/projects/seroslop/): Browser-only scoring for signs of AI-generated images. The model runs entirely in the page. Nothing is uploaded to a server.