I was struck with the inspiration to create Mercalli while riding my motorbike to the fish market. The winding road that leads up the mountain may take longer, but the stunning sea views and lush jungle surroundings serve as a powerful reminder of nature's vastness and might.

Just before setting out on my journey, I saw harrowing images of the recent earthquake that devastated Turkey and Syria. Entire cities reduced to rubble in mere moments, leaving behind only despair, dust, and chaos. It was yet another devastating example of nature's unstoppable force.

We usually feel powerless in front of such events but witnessing the incredible efforts of the Tezos community to provide concrete aid to those affected by this tragedy moved me to take action and contribute in my own small way. So I started to wonder how I could capture, with a still image, the impact made by an earthquake.

How it works

I envisioned a temporal rendering engine that stacks frames in transparency, leaving behind a fading trail that gradually disappears with the passage of time. To replicate an earthquake, I employed Matter.js, a physics library.

The buildings are constructed using basic stacked cubes, while the ground is represented as a plane that received a rapid sequence of impulses, simulating the Earth's shaking and causing the buildings to crumble.

The Rendering Process

As the buildings disintegrate, their colors slowly transition to shades of grey, resulting in a collection of monochromatic ruins.

Two photos are taken during the generation process, one prior to the event and the other after it has occurred. These photos are then composed together with the sky and the trails in order to form the final image.

Shapes are rendered using a simple script that randomizes and stacks a shape in transparency multiple times in order to make it appear blurred or hand drawn.