pico_galaxies
Looping gif project exploring spirals, recursion, and dynamic equilibria on Pico-8.
Perfect Loops from Controlled Randomness
pico_galaxies was created in 2021 with an emphasis on perfect looping gifs. This was partly for market reasons—looping gifs were the dominant format on hicetnunc at the time—but also because I had just started learning how to control RNG to create random loops that repeat seamlessly.
The core technical challenge: how do you create complex, random-looking animations that tile perfectly? The solution: reset the random seed at loop boundaries while keeping all other state (time, rotation angles, positions) continuous.
This opened up a huge design space—heavy randomization for texture and detail while guaranteeing perfect 5-second loops.
From Gifs to Live Code
Eventually I broke free of the gif constraint and started minting looping code artifacts instead of specific outputs. This shift let me publish generators rather than individual outputs.
I am "code art native"—the art is the code and must be running live to really get it. That's the stance I came to in the end. But these early gifs still hold up as explorations of what you can achieve within severe constraints: 128×128 pixels, 32 colors, perfect loops, Pico-8 fantasy console.
The Separate Wallet
This series was minted on a separate wallet from my main profile. At the time, hicetnunc didn't have good ways to group collections, so using a dedicated wallet was my solution for keeping the series organized.
You can find the full collection at this wallet on Objkt.
Visual Themes
The galaxies explore:
- Spirals: Differential rotation creating arms that wind and unwind
- Decoherence/recoherence: Structure dissolving into chaos, then reforming at loop boundaries
- Dithering feedback: Sampling previous frames to create trails and texture
- Color cycling: Palette manipulation and burn effects
- Symmetry: Mirrored elements creating balance
On Looping Constraints
Constraints breed creativity. The requirement that every piece loop perfectly meant I couldn't rely on typical animation techniques (keyframes, tweens, linear progressions). Everything had to be derived from periodic functions or carefully controlled randomness.
The galaxies use rotation angles that cycle cleanly, shrinking factors that compound geometrically, and random seeds that reset at loop boundaries. These aren't limitations—they're the structural logic that makes the pieces possible.