The landing
The front page in about thirty seconds: dark, then light, then the whole county falling into place as glass.
make it a fast pour, 3s towards downtown as the landing
Sep 30, 15:03
The landing opens dark, looking straight down on the county. Light pours in along every road and races to downtown in three seconds. Then: “when it finishes, begin the lean back and the pan and the rain.” And then: “complete the camera circle to land on a leaned back but mostly north-south orientation.”
That became one full turn of 372 degrees, through the rain and the hold. The camera passes by the east and Paducah, over Illinois, round by the west, and comes to rest leaned back, north up, eight degrees off for depth.
The heartbeat
In the second half of the turn, the year’s sales “pulse way harder on the red-green.” Only the green and red glass beats, every 1.2 seconds, throwing a ring out for green and in for red. When the arc ends it stops, and the county settles into what was asked for: “a beautiful glassy finished end.”
honestly really good.
Sep 30, 15:57
In from the county line
The first pour ran backwards along the travel times from downtown. The data team’s note suggested something better, and we took it: start the light where the roads actually enter the county, 67 road ends counting the far ends of the Ohio bridges, and light each junction at its share of the trip from the county line to downtown. The little lights walk inward with it and vanish when they reach the centre.
Fast on a phone
Two network captures showed the network was never the problem. Phones were slow to start because of the work done before the first frame. So every download now starts before anything compiles, and the pour needs only the roads, about 400 KB instead of 2 MB. Only 7 of the 21 shader programs compile before the light starts moving. The rain waits gracefully for the glass.
Words on the way down
The captions were rewritten until each one earned its line. It opens on Welcome to McCracken County. As the view leans back: Established in Kentucky, in 1824. As the glass falls, the month and the running total. And it ends on Net change in sale price · +$34.5M.
The card, and the escape hatch
The card at the top left was asked to get out of the way, “reclaim that screen real estate for more county,” so it folds to three pills: Glass Rain, which unfolds it; Stained Glass, the room; and Bore Me. Bore Me goes to the plain map: thin blue outlines on a pale background, the way a county parcel viewer draws them, with the same hover and pin. In the room, the same door is labelled Whimsy is Inefficient.
that third boring pill is literally (Whimsy is Inefficient)
Sep 30, 19:33
Unfolded, the card offers two panels, one at a time: Show controls (places, glow, Money, effects) and Show UI config, the tweak lab itself.
A clean edge
“The west border is kinda jagged, as we process big squares of map data.” The ground under the glass comes from the terrain in square cells, and its edge stepped. Now the ground fades into the background over the last 1,500 feet inside the county line, all the way round: along Ballard County, along the south, and along the Ohio.
gorgeous.
Sep 30, 19:56
The picture you share
The share card became the landing’s own last frame: the county in glass at rest, with nothing over it. A capture mode plays the landing at the card’s exact size, and the still was saved in an ordinary browser. The moving card it replaced weighed about 800 KB with its video, “almost rude to push onto someone’s phone.” This one is 210 KB, for every app.
A voice
Last came a short spoken voice. A storyboard laid the landing’s camera, second by second, against the voice’s own marks, and a retimed version was proposed. Then: “don’t bother with the sync just yet. let’s see how it lands naturally.” It was squeezed from 1.27 MB to 129 KB, fetched only when the pour starts, and given two small controls in bright green at the top right: restart, and sound.
ship it. this is mccracken.properties
Sep 30, 20:40
- A landing that doesn’t begin at the room.
- The full circle.
- The heartbeat, then calm glass.
- “Honestly really good.” The first candidate.
- In from the county line; roads first for phones.
- “Welcome to McCracken County.”
- The county line fades.
- “Gorgeous.” The production candidate.
- One still for every share.
- The front page.