The Masked

Minimal seed explorer with automatic palette and texture selection.

The Masked

The Masked is the minimal seed explorer. No sidebars, no sliders: just the swarm, the mascot, and three buttons. Each seed deterministically selects a palette and texture profile, with per-seed color drift creating infinite variation within each family.

Open the Masked →

How It Works

The Masked runs two physarum simulations (background + mascot), just like the Stencil, but with a fully automated parameter system. Instead of manual controls, the seed number determines everything:

1. Palette selection: seed % 8 picks from 8 color palettes

2. Texture selection: Math.floor(seed / 8) % 8 picks from 8 texture profiles

3. Color drift: Per-seed PRNG applies subtle hue, saturation, and luminance shifts within the selected palette

4. Parameter jitter: Each simulation parameter gets a ±10% seed-based variation within its texture profile

This means every seed has a unique look, not just different positions, but different colors and behavioral character.

The 8 Palettes

Each palette defines three color stops for the mascot trails and three for the background.

Palette	Mascot Colors	Character
Ember	Dark brown → Gold → Warm orange	Default Shumi warmth
Frost	Dark blue → Sky blue → Ice blue	Ethereal, cold intelligence
Moss	Dark green → Lime → Pale green	Organic, bioluminescent growth
Pearl	Dark gray → Warm gray → Off-white	Minimal, elegant, neutral
Bloom	Dark magenta → Pink → Rose	Soft organic energy
Honey	Dark amber → Yellow-gold → Warm gold	Rich, saturated warmth
Tide	Navy → Steel blue → Periwinkle	Ocean depth, calm flow
Rust	Dark brown → Copper → Terracotta	Earthy, oxidized metal

The 8 Textures

Textures define the behavioral character: how fast cells move, how trails diffuse, and how much structure vs. haze the swarm produces.

Texture	Character	Key Traits
Standard	Warm, steady glow	Medium everything (the baseline)
Crystalline	Sharp defined veins	Low diffusion, high deposit, gem-like facets
Smoke	Soft ghostly haze	High diffusion, low deposit, trails dissolve
Coral	Dense branching networks	Slow speed, wide sensing, organic growth
Silk	Thin delicate threads	Fast speed, quick fade, silk in water
Electric	Long streaky paths	Very fast, tight sensors, lightning energy
Flow	Wide flowing rivers	Heavy diffusion, low deposit, lava lamp
Spore	Tight clusters with bright nodes	Short sensors, high deposit, constellation map

Per-Seed Color Drift

Even within the same palette, no two seeds look identical. The drift system applies:

• Hue drift: ±8° shift

• Saturation drift: ±5 units

• Luminance drift: ±3 units

Background colors receive a dampened version of the drift (60% hue, 40% saturation, 30% luminance) so the background stays complementary without competing with the mascot.

Masking System

The mascot physarum doesn't just overlay the swarm. It grows through the mascot shape using a multi-pass analysis:

1. Luminance pass: Converts mascot pixels to brightness values

2. Sobel edge detection: Identifies sharp boundaries (cap outline, eyes, face border)

3. Density map: Combines edge strength with luminance to guide where trails grow densest

4. Edge food sources: High-contrast points become attractors, pulling cells toward structural features

5. Edge distance fade: Trails fade near mask boundaries for clean edges

The result is a swarm that traces the mascot's internal structure, concentrating along edges, eyes, and outlines.

Ghost Afterimage

On each new seed, a ghost layer appears: a barely-perceptible retinal-burn echo of the original mascot. As the physarum trails build, the ghost fades over about 4 seconds, giving the appearance of the swarm replacing the original image.

Chromatic Aberration

The mascot layer orbits with a subtle RGB channel separation effect:

• Desktop: 5px offset, 30% opacity, 6-second orbit cycle

• Mobile: 3px offset, 20% opacity, 8-second orbit (lighter for performance)

The background canvas also gets a dim, slow chromatic effect (14-second cycle) on desktop. Mobile disables background chromatic entirely.

Interface

The Masked has the most minimal UI of all three simulators:

Control	Action
New Seed	Generate a random seed and restart both simulations
● Record	Start/stop WebM video recording
Save PNG	Capture the current composite frame as PNG

A status indicator at the top center shows brief messages (seed number, recording state) that fade after display.

Composite Recording

When recording, the Masked composites all visible layers (background swarm, ghost, mascot physarum) onto a hidden canvas, then records that composite as WebM. The watermark (seed number) is included in the recording.