LUMEN is a fictional glassblowing studio. Its three vessels are computed live in WebGL with physically-based transmission — bending, tinting and iridising the studio's light exactly as annealed glass would.
Most craft sites photograph the object; this one manufactures it in the visitor's GPU. The page is one long working day at the furnace: the same three forms re-poured in clear, then amber, then smoke as you scroll — because in a glass studio, colour is an ingredient, not a filter.
The interface stays at dusk so the glass carries all luminance. Amber and lilac are the two point lights orbiting the set — the palette is literally the lighting rig.
Julius Sans One — display. Hairline geometric caps, blown thin and even; type you could shatter.
Mulish Extralight — body, with wide-tracked caps as the utility voice.
| Element | How it works |
|---|---|
| Real glass shading | MeshPhysicalMaterial with transmission: 1, thickness for internal refraction, IOR 1.5 (crown glass), clearcoat for the fire-polish, and the iridescence layer for fresh iridising film. Environment lighting via a PMREM-processed RoomEnvironment. |
| Blown forms | Three LatheGeometry profiles — vase, bowl, bottle — drawn as 2D silhouettes and spun at 96 segments, the digital equivalent of turning at the pipe. |
| Colour pours | Each scroll chapter retints color and attenuationColor and adjusts exposure through a GSAP tween — clear → iron amber → smoke — so the same geometry reads as three different pours. |
| Living light | Amber and lilac point lights orbit slowly; because everything is transmissive, the refractions never sit still. |
| Accessibility | Reduced motion stops rotation, orbits, and tint transitions become instant. All content is real text over the canvas. |
| You do | The page does |
|---|---|
| Scroll to chapter II | The vessels re-pour in iron amber; exposure warms |
| Scroll to chapter III | The smoke pour: darker glass, dimmer room |
| Scroll anywhere | The camera drifts down and closer, like leaning in at the bench |