Painted shadows

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Canopy & host

Shadow construction

Patch density Fraying / openings

Host visibilityBillowing Darkness / opacity Coloured fringe Interior texture Agitation / arcs Bark edge energy Flow through bark Lightning arcs Host / motion Shape seed Cloud extent Spatial spread Branch pose

Cloud evolution speed Show shadow mantleShow expression sigilsWood wireframe

Lightning mix

Small arcs / second Medium arcs / second Large arcs / second Small arc reach Medium arc reach Large strike reach Large strikes to rocks (fraction) Flash duration multiplier Storm burstiness (0 = Poisson) Lull / active-spell timescale Re-flash tendency

Rates are long-run averages, not fixed intervals. Shared active spells alternate with lulls. Set burstiness to zero for independent Poisson arrivals. Re-flashes flicker along the same path; they do not count as new strikes. Agitation boosts all three rates. Large reach chooses nearer or farther real contacts; it never stops a strike short of its target. Preview freezes a flash. These controls apply to S4–S9.

Effect timing

Animate cloud, bark & lightningFrozen effect time

Agitation is an independent preview control. Higher values make discharges larger and more frequent; it is not yet wired to encounter completion.

Palette & local light

Colour / local lightLight strength

Actual point lights on 3D ground and rocks. This is actual local illumination; the mantle fringe is a separate additive effect.

Concept & method

Living canopy checkpoint →

S7–S9 reuse the living G1/G3/G2 patch layouts with shadow coverage, fibrous or turbulent masks. S4–S6 retain moving billows, brief forked exterior discharges and flowing rim light on the bark. Host visibility compares ordinary depth/transmission with deliberate protection of wood and sigils. The original forms retain their prior rendering; new visibility and billowing controls apply to S4–S6. Cloud lobes follow stable host members. The original living-canopy study is unchanged. The expression examples use 018's real rewrite layouts; this is a material study, not the playable encounter.

Study notes & references