Serpentine epicycles

A polyline of four segments rotates around a moving center, progressively changing its configuration. The center of rotation moves from a random point at the top left and descends following a serpentine path. The changes are made by rotating the first segment around the center and subsequent segments around the end vertex of the previous one. A new polyline is added at each frame, and all others are shifted along the path.

The lengths of the four segments and their rotation speeds are defined randomly at the beginning and are different for each mint.

The color palettes are defined algorithmically from the randomly chosen background color. The colors of the polylines are then derived from the opposite ones in the color wheel, lightening the initial ones to white and darkening the final ones.

Antonio Belluscio (@livinbits)
December 2021

Through a click or tap, you can jump to a different moment in the virtually infinite evolution of the waves.