Harmonic Shell

Harmonic Shell surrounds an object with an iridescent bubble that never holds still: its surface swells and dips in slowly changing lobes, soap-film colours slide over it, and fine glowing lines trace the places where the surface is at rest. It can also morph into a word, a shape or another object in your scene.

How it works

The shell starts as a sphere and is pushed in and out by a blend of spherical harmonics, the smooth patterns that describe a vibrating ball or a ringing bell. The colour comes from thin-film interference, as on a soap bubble: a film of a given thickness splits white light into coloured bands, and the film is thicker where the shell bulges, so the bands follow the shape. The glowing nodal lines mark where the vibration crosses zero. With a target set, every point of the sphere travels onto the target's surface as Morph goes from 0 to 1. Objects listed under Inside take on the film, or a ghost tint, where they cross the shell.

Settings

• Degree: the highest harmonic; higher means more lobes.
• Amplitude: how far the surface moves in and out.
• Film Thickness: sets which colour bands appear.
• Target, Text, Font and Shape: what the shell becomes; Morph animates the change.

Use it for

Energy shields, word and logo reveals, music visuals, organic sci-fi. The In shell object effect is what lights up the objects inside it.