Signal field: a warped halftone grid in coral red and teal
Signal field is the starting point of Optical Motion Lab, a Halftone grid of round dots that swell and shrink with an invisible wave field. Coral red and teal trade places across the frame, a pale cream Light color gathers where the dots are largest, and the marks nearly vanish into the near-black Background at the bottom. A Wave distortion of 34 bends the rows just enough to make the flat grid read like a surface lifting off the page.
Make it yours
Shrink the dots into a finer screen
Pattern density is 48 here. Push it toward 90 and the grid packs in many more, smaller dots that read like the tone of a printed photo, or drop it to 20 for big graphic dots you could almost count.
Add a print misregister
Color separation starts at 0. Raise it to around 15 and every dot gains a red twin on its left and a teal twin on its right, the slightly doubled look of a print run that has drifted out of register.
FAQ
How does a halftone pattern create depth on a flat screen?
Halftone is the printing technique that builds tone from dots of different sizes: large dots read as solid color, small ones let the paper show through. Signal field applies the same idea as op art, with dot size following a wave field instead of a photograph.
How it works
Choose a visual system
Start from one of 16 looks such as Signal field, Interference study or Electric passage, or pick one of 8 pattern geometries.
Tune the illusion
Adjust pattern density, mark weight, spatial depth, wave distortion, pattern phase and color separation, then drag the artwork to position it.
Set it in motion
Press Play to move the marks as a flow, a breath or a counterflow, set the colors, then sign in with a free UX Pilot account to use it on the canvas or export it.