I came across Scale Space some time ago and ended up talking with its creator, setz. He sent me an early build of Cymatist to test with my own music, and I ended up making a video of my workflow with it. I've followed the project since.
I'm posting it here because I genuinely think the software is interesting - I've actually used it - but also because I learned today that his personal situation has become pretty dire.
Cymatist is a real-time cymatics / particle instrument built around WebGPU and three.js. Rather than just making conventional audio-reactive visuals, the particle simulation can be explored and it's parameters can be mapped to music. It can apparently run up to a million particles and is packaged as an offline-capable browser application. It's great to play around with sober and not sober.
The creator, setz, has roughly 20 years of experience in UX and web/design work based in Chicago. Despite that, he's been unable to find enough work. Today he posted that he expects to become homeless tomorrow. He's tried rental assistance and other aid, has a social worker, and is currently asking whether anyone around Chicago might have a spare room or basement where he and his older dog (Doxl) could stay.
I'm in the Netherlands, so there isn't much I can practically do for him locally. But looking at the quality of what he's built, it felt absurd to just watch this happen without at least putting his work in front of more people.
Have a look at Cymatist first. I think it's an interesting piece of software in its own right. But if it happens to be useful or interesting to you, right now seems like a particularly good time to buy it.
And perhaps more importantly: if anyone here knows of UX research, interaction design, creative technology, visualization, or related work that might fit someone who builds things like this, that could be worth considerably more than a one-off donation.
I'm posting it here because I genuinely think the software is interesting - I've actually used it - but also because I learned today that his personal situation has become pretty dire.
Cymatist is a real-time cymatics / particle instrument built around WebGPU and three.js. Rather than just making conventional audio-reactive visuals, the particle simulation can be explored and it's parameters can be mapped to music. It can apparently run up to a million particles and is packaged as an offline-capable browser application. It's great to play around with sober and not sober.
The creator, setz, has roughly 20 years of experience in UX and web/design work based in Chicago. Despite that, he's been unable to find enough work. Today he posted that he expects to become homeless tomorrow. He's tried rental assistance and other aid, has a social worker, and is currently asking whether anyone around Chicago might have a spare room or basement where he and his older dog (Doxl) could stay.
I'm in the Netherlands, so there isn't much I can practically do for him locally. But looking at the quality of what he's built, it felt absurd to just watch this happen without at least putting his work in front of more people.
Have a look at Cymatist first. I think it's an interesting piece of software in its own right. But if it happens to be useful or interesting to you, right now seems like a particularly good time to buy it.
His post about the situation: https://www.reddit.com/r/ScaleSpace/comments/1vxfvf7/scale_s...
Cymatist: https://setzstone.itch.io/cymatist
And perhaps more importantly: if anyone here knows of UX research, interaction design, creative technology, visualization, or related work that might fit someone who builds things like this, that could be worth considerably more than a one-off donation.