6 ms·

I created this project back in 2004 together with a bunch of other illustrators. It grew out of a community where people collaborated on artwork over the intern

I created this project back in 2004 together with a bunch of other illustrators. It grew out of a community where people collaborated on artwork over the internet. Happy to see it continues to gather interest. You might also enjoy http://zoomquilt2.com http://zoomquilt2.com (2007) and http://arkadia.xyz http://arkadia.xyz (2015, my favourite)

sebmellen 6y ago
Amazing stuff! How did you do the scaling back in 2004? I can only picture doing this with a modern JS stack, but I suppose I'm a spoiled web developer in that way.
- baumgarn 6y ago
  The original wasn't done with code but animated with Macromedia Director and later ported to Flash. The smooth full window HTML5 version you see here I coded in 2013
eindiran 6y ago
The original one uses a red ribbon throughout the zoom; is there a reason why that helps visually maintain the illusion? Is it just a stylistic choice? The second one doesn't contain a static object that travels with the camera in the frame at all times, and the zooming in effect is still visually compelling, so it doesn't seem necessary. But I really liked the constant ribbon in the first. Also, who did the art for them? Was it a team effort or just a single person? [EDIT] It looks like Arcadia also has a sort of ribbon effect, though it is more subtle than the single, same color ribbon in the original.
- baumgarn 6y ago
  Zoomquilt 1+2 was done by a bunch of illustrators. A person would paint a single frame, which would be scaled down and given to another person to continue painting around while blending into the previous frame. The picture would develop much like the Cadavre Exquis surrealist drawing game, and part of the fun is to continue and transform what the person before you left. Arkadia I painted together with my friend Sophia Schomberg.
  - tartoran 6y ago
    Very pretty, thanks for sharing. In Arkadia spacebar pauses the zoom. After a few minutes of watching the illustrations zoom in the scene appears to be zooming out but of course it is not, just neat illusion.
    - olejorgenb 6y ago
      I think the color cycling (doesn't pause) might play a role also.
      - tartoran 6y ago
        Yes, that enhances the illusion for sure
    - core-questions 6y ago
      That effect carries through to anything else you're looking at (i.e. for me the HN comment box is shrinking right now...)
  - codetrotter 6y ago
    I remember those trees with the faces. I think I read about Zoomquilt in the mid 2000's in one of the magazines I used to buy. And I think they included a copy of the swf on the cover disc, which was nice because I probably didn’t have Internet on my computer back then. The magazine where I read about it and got the swf from was I think either Digital Creative Arts magazine, or Digital Arts magazine, or Computer Arts magazine. All of those were different magazines I used to buy from time to time. Could also have been ImagineFX magazine or in one of the web design magazines.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
codetrotter 6y ago
This is of the things I love about HN. Someone shares a link and within 30 minutes of the link having been shared the original author of the site shows up and gives us more details about it and answers questions :) I have no questions of my own but thank you for having given us these details and answers.
- Itsdijital 6y ago
  I shed a tear for the days when the major social news sites were like this.
pmoriarty 6y ago
Any chance these could ever be released as videos on youtube or vimeo? Or as a simple downloadable .mp4 (or format of your choice)? Or as a collection of still images? I ask because I'm wary of letting untrusted websites run javascript in my browser, and try to avoid it as much as possible. With the above options I can just use youtube-dl to download the videos (or download the videos directly in the case of a simple link to an .mp4) and play them in my video player without having to run any untrusted javascript.
- VBprogrammer 6y ago
  That's the most entitled comment I've read in a while. If you really are that worried why not create a virtual machine for browsing untrusted things.
  - pmoriarty 6y ago
    "That's the most entitled comment I've read in a while." What's so entitled about asking? I'm not demanding anything nor insisting that I have a right to it. It's a simple request. Nothing entitled about it. On the other hand, I find your baseless, unfounded accusation rather insulting. "If you really are that worried why not create a virtual machine for browsing untrusted things." Because my old, slow laptop is too weak to run a VM. Not everyone is so fortunate to have a powerful enough computer to run a VM whenever they need to browse an untrusted website. That's not to mention that there are ways to break out of a VM, so it's not the best solution as far as security goes anyway. In any case, if you think running a VM is a valid response, I don't see why you'd be so aghast at asking for a much simpler, much less resource-intensive way of viewing the content: by using a simple downloadable video. Of course the receiver of the request is under no obligation to comply. In fact, they usually don't because people like me who care enough about their security to want to avoid javascript are in the tiny minority, and can be safely ignored. I'm well aware of this, but it doesn't hurt to ask, does it?
    - VBprogrammer 6y ago
      I feel it was entitled because you asked for them to: a) spend a non-trivial amount of time creating a work around for you. b) release artistic control of their content in a way in which it will be shown to people alongside adverts and whatever else these platforms decide. c) a video would likely be larger than the original generated version, or suffer from video compression artifacts.
nkoren 6y ago
what i'm curious about is how the 2007 zoomquilt2 has an easter-egg for the 2015 zrkadia.xyz in it...? Did the former inspire the starting frame from the latter, or was it retroactively retrofitted?
- baumgarn 6y ago
  There was some nudity in there which I removed for the Android version to keep it family friendly as required by Google Play. I decided to change the web version as well.
Kagerjay 6y ago
is there source code for arkadia? I'm curious to see what the code looks like
- jb_s 6y ago
  http://arkadia.xyz/zoom.js?v=19 http://arkadia.xyz/zoom.js?v=19
  - jb_s 6y ago
    as a side note - it's great that the js is not minified :-)
throwaway888abc 6y ago
I somehow found it deeply relaxing. For sure amazing artwork, but the overall experience staring at it - magical. Thank you for your creativity and how you put it on! Bookmarked.
- knicholes 6y ago
  This is my first time seeing it, and it strangely made me start to feel anxious and maybe... nauseated?
sizzle 6y ago
Any easter eggs or cool background stories/inspiration/deeper meaning to any of illustrations? This creative work gives me life, thanks for sharing.
matlo 6y ago
Thank you for this. I was in high school around that time and started play around with Flash with my friends. This was mind-blowing when it came out. It has been one of my references of cool interactions for many years back in the days, thanks.
bartread 6y ago
This is incredibly cool: thanks for making and sharing it. Can't believe it's taken me 16 years to discover this gem.
bartread 6y ago
I particularly like arkadia too: fantastic use of colour. Do you sell your artwork, or prints, anywhere that's accessible to us norms? EDIT: I notice that at one point you were offering prints from Arkadia on Etsy but, unfortunately, they all seem to have gone. Do you have any plans to offer more?
- baumgarn 6y ago
  Thank You! We tried the prints thing but nobody ordered any, so we took it down again ;-) The one thing that is generating a bit of revenue is the Zoomquilt Android Live Wallpaper app were you can purchase Arkadia as an add-on. If you have an Android device you should definitely give it a go as the infinite zoom effect makes a super nice wallpaper.
  - bartread 6y ago
    Ah, that's a shame. I'm refurbishing my house and was thinking about something for one of the walls. Thanks for letting me know.

sebmellen 6y ago

Amazing stuff! How did you do the scaling back in 2004? I can only picture doing this with a modern JS stack, but I suppose I'm a spoiled web developer in that way.

baumgarn 6y ago
The original wasn't done with code but animated with Macromedia Director and later ported to Flash. The smooth full window HTML5 version you see here I coded in 2013

eindiran 6y ago

The original one uses a red ribbon throughout the zoom; is there a reason why that helps visually maintain the illusion? Is it just a stylistic choice? The second one doesn't contain a static object that travels with the camera in the frame at all times, and the zooming in effect is still visually compelling, so it doesn't seem necessary. But I really liked the constant ribbon in the first. Also, who did the art for them? Was it a team effort or just a single person? [EDIT] It looks like Arcadia also has a sort of ribbon effect, though it is more subtle than the single, same color ribbon in the original.

baumgarn 6y ago
Zoomquilt 1+2 was done by a bunch of illustrators. A person would paint a single frame, which would be scaled down and given to another person to continue painting around while blending into the previous frame. The picture would develop much like the Cadavre Exquis surrealist drawing game, and part of the fun is to continue and transform what the person before you left. Arkadia I painted together with my friend Sophia Schomberg.
- tartoran 6y ago
  Very pretty, thanks for sharing. In Arkadia spacebar pauses the zoom. After a few minutes of watching the illustrations zoom in the scene appears to be zooming out but of course it is not, just neat illusion.
  - olejorgenb 6y ago
    I think the color cycling (doesn't pause) might play a role also.
    - tartoran 6y ago
      Yes, that enhances the illusion for sure
  - core-questions 6y ago
    That effect carries through to anything else you're looking at (i.e. for me the HN comment box is shrinking right now...)
- codetrotter 6y ago
  I remember those trees with the faces. I think I read about Zoomquilt in the mid 2000's in one of the magazines I used to buy. And I think they included a copy of the swf on the cover disc, which was nice because I probably didn’t have Internet on my computer back then. The magazine where I read about it and got the swf from was I think either Digital Creative Arts magazine, or Digital Arts magazine, or Computer Arts magazine. All of those were different magazines I used to buy from time to time. Could also have been ImagineFX magazine or in one of the web design magazines.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

codetrotter 6y ago

This is of the things I love about HN. Someone shares a link and within 30 minutes of the link having been shared the original author of the site shows up and gives us more details about it and answers questions :) I have no questions of my own but thank you for having given us these details and answers.

Itsdijital 6y ago
I shed a tear for the days when the major social news sites were like this.

pmoriarty 6y ago

Any chance these could ever be released as videos on youtube or vimeo? Or as a simple downloadable .mp4 (or format of your choice)? Or as a collection of still images? I ask because I'm wary of letting untrusted websites run javascript in my browser, and try to avoid it as much as possible. With the above options I can just use youtube-dl to download the videos (or download the videos directly in the case of a simple link to an .mp4) and play them in my video player without having to run any untrusted javascript.

VBprogrammer 6y ago
That's the most entitled comment I've read in a while. If you really are that worried why not create a virtual machine for browsing untrusted things.
- pmoriarty 6y ago
  "That's the most entitled comment I've read in a while." What's so entitled about asking? I'm not demanding anything nor insisting that I have a right to it. It's a simple request. Nothing entitled about it. On the other hand, I find your baseless, unfounded accusation rather insulting. "If you really are that worried why not create a virtual machine for browsing untrusted things." Because my old, slow laptop is too weak to run a VM. Not everyone is so fortunate to have a powerful enough computer to run a VM whenever they need to browse an untrusted website. That's not to mention that there are ways to break out of a VM, so it's not the best solution as far as security goes anyway. In any case, if you think running a VM is a valid response, I don't see why you'd be so aghast at asking for a much simpler, much less resource-intensive way of viewing the content: by using a simple downloadable video. Of course the receiver of the request is under no obligation to comply. In fact, they usually don't because people like me who care enough about their security to want to avoid javascript are in the tiny minority, and can be safely ignored. I'm well aware of this, but it doesn't hurt to ask, does it?
  - VBprogrammer 6y ago
    I feel it was entitled because you asked for them to: a) spend a non-trivial amount of time creating a work around for you. b) release artistic control of their content in a way in which it will be shown to people alongside adverts and whatever else these platforms decide. c) a video would likely be larger than the original generated version, or suffer from video compression artifacts.

nkoren 6y ago

what i'm curious about is how the 2007 zoomquilt2 has an easter-egg for the 2015 zrkadia.xyz in it...? Did the former inspire the starting frame from the latter, or was it retroactively retrofitted?

baumgarn 6y ago
There was some nudity in there which I removed for the Android version to keep it family friendly as required by Google Play. I decided to change the web version as well.

Kagerjay 6y ago

is there source code for arkadia? I'm curious to see what the code looks like

jb_s 6y ago
http://arkadia.xyz/zoom.js?v=19 http://arkadia.xyz/zoom.js?v=19
- jb_s 6y ago
  as a side note - it's great that the js is not minified :-)

throwaway888abc 6y ago

I somehow found it deeply relaxing. For sure amazing artwork, but the overall experience staring at it - magical. Thank you for your creativity and how you put it on! Bookmarked.

knicholes 6y ago
This is my first time seeing it, and it strangely made me start to feel anxious and maybe... nauseated?

sizzle 6y ago

Any easter eggs or cool background stories/inspiration/deeper meaning to any of illustrations? This creative work gives me life, thanks for sharing.

matlo 6y ago

Thank you for this. I was in high school around that time and started play around with Flash with my friends. This was mind-blowing when it came out. It has been one of my references of cool interactions for many years back in the days, thanks.

bartread 6y ago

This is incredibly cool: thanks for making and sharing it. Can't believe it's taken me 16 years to discover this gem.

bartread 6y ago

I particularly like arkadia too: fantastic use of colour. Do you sell your artwork, or prints, anywhere that's accessible to us norms? EDIT: I notice that at one point you were offering prints from Arkadia on Etsy but, unfortunately, they all seem to have gone. Do you have any plans to offer more?

baumgarn 6y ago
Thank You! We tried the prints thing but nobody ordered any, so we took it down again ;-) The one thing that is generating a bit of revenue is the Zoomquilt Android Live Wallpaper app were you can purchase Arkadia as an add-on. If you have an Android device you should definitely give it a go as the infinite zoom effect makes a super nice wallpaper.
- bartread 6y ago
  Ah, that's a shame. I'm refurbishing my house and was thinking about something for one of the walls. Thanks for letting me know.