# Time Grows Here — `time-garden@1.0.0`

A jewelled mechanical watch grows into a gold-and-copper flower: fourteen metal petals unfold from precision hinges around turning gears and a ruby. Loops.

A compact, jewel-set watch movement sits in a brass case: cut-out gears turn, a coiled balance spring winds and ruby filaments stand. Fourteen concave metal petals unfold from precision hinges until the watch has become a gold-and-copper flower, then they fold back into the case, so the 12 seconds loop. The metal is ray-marched with polished and satin finishes, contact shadows and reflections of a studio light panel. The film has no settings.

- Kind: background; status: published; digest sha256:8008a70b9b8815b1e45cb594ac98a188b8119a6c154abded1371c6c6f950884d
- Role: Shader film (three.js): Kinetic metalwork, a finished 12-second portrait film with no settings.
- Implementation: three; entry `src/time-garden.js`
- Files: https://aipixelwizard.com/registry/time-garden/1.0.0/<path> (`LICENSE`, `asset.json`, `demo.js`, `index.html`, `src/time-garden.js`)
- Manifest JSON: https://aipixelwizard.com/api/v1/visuals/time-garden/versions/1.0.0
- Runnable demo: https://aipixelwizard.com/registry/time-garden/1.0.0/index.html (open over http; it imports sibling packages by relative path)
- Dependencies (exact): `three@0.185.1` (source) — Renderer and a full-screen shader material.; `apw-runtime@1.0.0` (demo) — Demo harness.

## Exports
- `createTimeGarden() => { scene, camera, setSize(width, height), update(time), dispose() }` — The film as one full-screen shader; render its scene with its camera straight to the canvas.

## Composition
- Inputs: The time in seconds, 0 to 12. The film has no other settings.
- Outputs: An opaque full-frame picture, already in display colours: render it straight to the canvas.
- Coordinates: Composed for a 4:5 portrait frame and measured by the frame height: in a wider frame the picture stays centred at full height and its background fills the sides; in a narrower one, such as 9:16, the sides are cropped.
- Lighting: A large softbox above left, a cool blue edge light and a warm low kicker, reflected in polished gold and copper, with contact shadows.
- Timing: The watch mechanism turns, the fourteen petals extend on their hinges into a flower, then fold back into the watch.
- Works with: —
- It is the heaviest film in the collection: about 90 ms a frame on an integrated GPU. Use the rendered video for playback.
- The petals are thin shells, so they have no holes or gaps at any angle.
- Every pixel is a function of the time alone, so frames can be rendered in any order.

## Output and loop
- 1080×1350, 30 fps, 12 s, procedural
- Seamless loop: yes — Every part of the film is a function of the time modulo its length, and every motion completes whole cycles, so the last frame meets the first.
- Verified 2026-10-10 in Chrome 154.0.8037.97 headless on Linux 7.0.0-38-generic (x64), Node 22.14.0 (WebGL 2 via SwiftShader (software)); deterministic: yes; loop check: Frame 0 vs end state (progress 1): mean |Δ| 0.0000, max |Δ| 0 of 255.

## Use it
New project: Create a WebGLRenderer on a canvas (no antialiasing), call createTimeGarden() once and film.setSize(width, height); then for each frame call film.update(timeInSeconds) and renderer.render(film.scene, film.camera).

Existing project: Copy src/time-garden.js, which needs only three. Render film.scene with film.camera into your own canvas or render target; the output is opaque and already in display colours, so use no tone mapping or colour conversion.

Reuse ideas:
- Luxury launch: the flower stands fully open through the middle of the loop.
- Seamless loop: it folds back into the watch, so it repeats for any length.
- Time-and-growth metaphor: a ready-made single shot for annual reports and keynotes.

## Limitations
- The film is finished: it has no settings. To change colours or timing, edit the shader.
- It is composed for a 4:5 portrait frame.
- Its length is fixed at 12 seconds; repeat the loop to fill a longer clip.

## License
MIT. Copyright (c) 2026 AI Pixel Wizard. Released under the MIT License. See LICENSE in this folder.

Provenance: From the owner's collection Twenty Impossible Worlds: the original GLSL ES 3.00 shader of the film “Time Grows Here”, created with ChatGPT / Codex and used as published, wrapped for AI Pixel Wizard as a three.js full-screen shader in October 2026. The collection's synthesised soundtrack is not part of this ingredient.