Generative art · WebGL / Web Audio
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.
- Free
- Open source
- Web
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.
Open Afterlight
Full setup, configuration and troubleshooting are in the Afterlight documentation.
Found a bug or want something added? Report a bug or request a feature on GitHub. No GitHub account? Email me.
Afterlight questions
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.
Documentation
