ben ebsworth
Generative Art

Ripple Grid

A dot grid pulsing with summed sine-wave interference.

knobs

How it works

A regular grid of dots samples a wave field. A few sources drift around the canvas, and at each dot we sum sin(distance · freq − time) from every source — classic wave interference, where overlapping crests reinforce and crests-meeting-troughs cancel. The averaged sum drives both the dot's radius and its opacity, so the grid breathes in bright ridges and dark valleys that sweep outward from the moving sources. With more Sources the interference pattern gets richer and less predictable.

Knobs

  • Dot spacing — grid gap; smaller = denser grid.
  • Amplitude — how much the wave changes each dot's size.
  • Frequency — wavelength of the ripples (higher = tighter rings).
  • Speed — how fast the waves and sources move.
  • Sources — number of interfering wave origins.
  • Color — dot colour.