Good day, my title is Maximilian, and I’m a Artistic Developer. I’m at present primarily based in Amsterdam, the place I work at Antinomy Studio.
Firstly of my profession, I began working as a Designer, however I rapidly determined that, in knowledgeable context, I’d take pleasure in being a Developer extra. As we speak, I really feel like this expertise helps me quite a bit, particularly when engaged on animations or interactions.
Featured Work
10 Issues — Challenge 300
For a number of years, Your Majesty has been working a e-newsletter known as 10 Issues, during which they share—properly—10 hyperlinks each week. As we approached the three hundredth concern, we knew we wished to create a particular expertise to mark the event.
We rapidly settled on the thought of presenting the problems in an infinite grid. Whereas this idea is just not fully new and has been performed earlier than, it nonetheless presents loads of flexibility to create a singular expertise.
So whereas AJ Marshall began on the design, I began implementing the infinite grid logic, in addition to including some customized shaders and publish processing to offer it a particular look.
We additionally wished to incorporate a quick introduction to elucidate the location’s function. To realize this, I repurposed an earlier exploration that concerned putting particles on a mesh. Utilizing this method, we generated positions on three completely different meshes and used shaders to animate the particles as they transitioned between these positions.
The largest problem was the timeline—we had about two weeks from begin to end. On high of that, we had been nonetheless juggling our common shopper initiatives. It was a tricky dash, nevertheless it pushed us to search out options that struck the suitable steadiness between effort and impression.
Tech Stack: Subsequent.js, TypeScript, Three.js, GSAP
Doity
Doity is a manufacturing firm primarily based in Berlin. As with most initiatives at Antinomy, we collaborated with 27b for the design.
The largest problem for this undertaking was managing the big variety of movies and pictures. Since most of them had been fullscreen, we needed to steadiness high-quality visuals with cheap information consumption, particularly for cell units. To optimize efficiency, we enabled AVIF compression for photos and streamed movies within the M3U8 format. This allowed us to attenuate information utilization whereas sustaining excessive visible high quality.
We additionally wished to create fluid web page transitions that improve the consumer expertise. This has been a problem for a while within the Subsequent.js App Router, however we discovered an answer utilizing the AnimatePresence part from Movement.
Tech Stack: Subsequent.js, Tailwind, Movement, DatoCMS
New Aesthetic
That is fairly an previous undertaking, however I nonetheless prefer it as a result of it was the primary one I ever labored on utilizing WebGL. The purpose was to focus on the e-book whereas showcasing all of the contributors. I began by making a tough design, then rigged and animated the e-book in Blender. The rigging was performed utilizing bones, and I created a single animation sequence that was linked to the consumer’s scroll progress. As a remaining contact, I added a godray post-processing impact utilizing Three.js.
Wanting again, I now understand how a lot I’ve discovered since then. Nonetheless, it’s additionally a very good reminder to not fear an excessive amount of about excellent implementation—typically, it’s nearly creating one thing.
Tech Stack: Vanilla JavaScript, Three.js
Explorations
Through the years, my important purpose has been to dive deeper into 3D improvement with WebGL. It has at all times fascinated me as a result of the chances with this know-how are limitless in comparison with conventional web sites. Often, I choose a particular matter I need to discover after which create a small prototype, which I typically share on Twitter. The ideas vary from baking physics in Blender to utilizing instanced rendering or metaballs.
When engaged on these initiatives, I primarily use OGL, a lower-level WebGL library. I discover this significantly helpful for studying as a result of it forces me to create my very own shaders and achieve a deeper understanding of core ideas.
Tech Stack: Vite, TypeScript, OGL
About
I studied Interplay Design, a program that mixed design and programming with a concentrate on constructing interactive installations. All through my research, I labored with electronics, Arduino, soldering, Processing, Python, and even 3D modeling in Cinema 4D. In some ways, my background is sort of completely different from what I do now. Nonetheless, over time, I turned fascinated by internet improvement, impressed by the unimaginable web sites I found on Awwwards and SiteInspire. Whereas doing a design internship, I began constructing portfolios for myself and my pals to deepen my internet improvement expertise. A yr later, after ending college, I landed a job as a Artistic Developer at Zero Studios in New York.
In the meanwhile, my tech stack consists of Subsequent.js, Tailwind, and Movement. I like React due to its huge ecosystem, and instruments like react-three-fiber make working with WebGL a lot quicker. That stated, I’m not a die-hard React advocate—I imagine one of the best tech stack is the one you’re most snug with and may create the quickest in. Ultimately, it’s not concerning the know-how itself however what you’ll be able to obtain with it.
As I discussed earlier, my important purpose has been to additional discover WebGL. It’s an ongoing journey, and there’s nonetheless a lot to study. After creating many small prototypes, I’d additionally wish to tackle a bigger WebGL undertaking, as it could introduce new challenges and studying alternatives.
Remaining Ideas
I are usually fairly crucial of my work, at all times feeling that one of the best initiatives are nonetheless forward. But it surely’s additionally good to look again and recognize what I’ve created to this point.
If I might give two items of recommendation to anybody in the same place to the place I used to be as a pupil, it could be:
- At all times share your work on social media.
- Push your self to study not less than one new factor with each undertaking, so that you at all times get higher
I attempt to publish many of the issues I create on Twitter so be at liberty to observe me!
