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Op Art Tunnel

A black-and-white optical-illusion tunnel of counter-turning checked rings that seems to ripple and bulge. Loops perfectly.

Background, V1 Effects3DSeamless loop, verified85 lines of codev1.0.0

In Science & maths, Patterns & illusions

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Op Art Tunnel preview
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Effect controls

Presets

16
4

Rings passing per loop (even).

1

Pairs of tiles the rings turn per loop.

1
0.6

The preview runs the same code your AI receives. These settings travel with the hand-off.

View code Sample video (default settings, 1.7 MB)
Info

What it is

An optical illusion in the manner of the 1960s: a tunnel of black-and-white checks in which every other ring turns the opposite way, so the whole surface seems to ripple, breathe and bulge though nothing but flat tiles is moving. The rings race towards you and the checkerboard turns by whole pairs of tiles. Choose a round or square tunnel, the tones (classic, red, blue or gold), the number of tiles round each ring, how many rings pass per loop, the turn, the ring density and the shading.

Reuse it in your own idea

  • Art-house title: Round, black and white.
  • Fashion: Square, red glow.
  • Calm: Blue, fine tiles.

Which part is reusable

src/op-art-tunnel.js is the ingredient your AI reuses. demo.js is only the example scene around it, and uses the demo harness only for the demo.

Good to know

  • Strongly flickering checkerboards can be uncomfortable for some viewers; use a low ring count and a low tile count for a gentler look.
  • Tiles near the middle are smaller than a pixel, which shows as a grey haze.

Technical details

Technical details
Implementation
Three.js 0.185.1 (WebGL) · ES module src/op-art-tunnel.js
Exports
  • createOpArtTunnel({ shape?, palette?, tiles?, rush?, swirl?, density?, contrast? }) => { scene, camera, setSize(width, height), update(time, loopSeconds), dispose() }
  • PALETTES: { classic, red, blue, gold }
Dependencies (exact)
  • three@0.185.1 (source) — Renderer and a full-screen shader material.
  • apw-runtime@1.0.0 (demo) — Demo harness.
How it fits a scene

Coordinates: Screen-centred, ±1 vertically; the tunnel's axis points into the screen at the centre; distance down it is 1.2 / radius (or / the largest of |x| and |y| for a square tunnel).

Lighting: Flat tones with a soft shade at each ring's edge and an accent glow at the vanishing point.

Timing: update(time, loopSeconds) sets the loop phase; frames render in any order.

Output
1080×1080, 30 fps, 12 s · procedural (computed from the frame number) · seamless loop — The rings race a whole even number of rings per loop (so every other ring still turns the same way) and the tiles turn by whole pairs of tiles, so the last frame meets the first.
Tested
Rendered 360 frames on 2026-10-06 in Chrome 154.0.8037.97 headless on Linux 7.0.0-38-generic (x64), Node 22.14.0 (WebGL 2 via SwiftShader (software)). Same frame twice from fresh pages: identical. Loop: Frame 0 vs end state (progress 1): mean |Δ| 0.0000, max |Δ| 0 of 255.
Performance
One full-screen fragment shader with a few arithmetic operations: under 1 ms a frame at 1080² on an integrated Intel GPU. Software WebGL renders in about a second a frame.
Export a video yourself
Download the source, then in the folder: npm install npm run render -- op-art-tunnel/1.0.0 --out my-video.mp4Needs Node 18+, ffmpeg and Chrome/Chromium. Add --params my-settings.json (from Copy settings) for your own settings.
Version
1.0.0 · sha256:1fc7d9bb22711d51…
Files
License
MIT. Copyright (c) 2026 AI Pixel Wizard. Released under the MIT License. See LICENSE in this folder. License details
Provenance
Adapted from the owner's threejs-sketches/shaders-backgrounds/op-art-tunnel (MIT) and rebuilt for AI Pixel Wizard in October 2026 as an original shader: a checkerboard of ring and tile numbers with alternate rings counter-turning, racing an even number of rings per loop, on an exact loop.
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