The homepage looked like a screensaver

Once all six demos ran, I invited their cousins onto the homepage.

The lab has fluid, particles, a shader desk, physics, a flow field, a morphing surface. I wanted them to show I understood the floor, not that I can tune a kit. The fluid went black on some machines because a location was left implied. Title particles clipped the bottom of serif letters because the sample sat on the wrong midline. When those were fixed I was pleased. Pleasure turns easily into more.

So the homepage grew a starfield. Light mode got a wash of color. Skill cards hid little living windows. Too many things lit at once and the eye had nowhere to land. The particle title — the one piece I actually wanted people to see — sat inside a room where everything was breathing.

Someone looking from outside said attention was fighting itself. I dropped the sky’s opacity, then the wash. Only one skill card moves by default; the others wake if you come close. A wave divider looked too much like the other fluid and came out entirely. Deleting it felt cleaner than writing it.

What I like now is what remains when motion cannot. Weak machine, reduced motion, no canvas — the title is still a line you can read. The six lab windows, with the 3D off, still leave a still or a caption you can understand. Without script the page can still be finished.

I do not think I found the line between showing and showing off in one pass. Adding a layer is almost always easier than taking one away. After the taking-away, the homepage felt like a door again.

I still open the lab and drag the fluid around. That is play. Play can stay in the room. If the doorway plays too, people arrive and do not know which way to walk.