01 / THE RIDGE
One function, seven times
Each ridge is a sum of sines with its own frequencies, so a silhouette that looks geological falls out of four lines of arithmetic.
Each ridge is a sum of sines with its own frequencies, so a silhouette that looks geological falls out of four lines of arithmetic.
Near ridges are dark and sharp, far ridges are pale and soft. Aerial perspective does the work of distance for you.
Every ridge is checked against a snowline. Above it, white; below it, forest. The line moves when you ask it to.
Every ridge is generated: a one-dimensional fractal built from summed sine functions with halving amplitudes and doubling frequencies, sampled across the width of the frame. It is the oldest technique in computer graphics and it is still the best way to make a mountain that nobody has seen.
What makes it read as distance is not the shape but the fog. Each successive layer is lighter, lower in contrast and drawn with a wider, softer stroke, which is exactly what a camera does to a mountain four kilometres away.