Parallax Canyon

A canyon cross-section, not a wallpaper loop

The canyon works best when the cut stays readable, so the scene is built as an exposed slit with layered shelves instead of a distant postcard view. The field journal is long enough to pressure the layout while the canyon stays pinned beside it.

• Foreground rock lips should feel heavier than the back shelves.
• Scroll needs to change perspective without turning into a gimmick.
• Controls belong inside the scene language as a brass-and-sand instrument deck.

Layer travel is the main event

Every canyon wall is cut from its own stratum band so the viewer can feel the depth stack. The back mesas barely slide. The mid bands tug harder. The front lip does the obvious hauling. If those speeds collapse toward one value, the experiment stops reading as a canyon.

Use the exaggerated foreground drift control when you want the nearer shelves to pull harder than the horizon line and make the slit feel almost theatrical.

Wind needs to be visible without becoming fog

Dust ribbons cross the slit in long blurred lanes so the parallax still reads through them. The drift slider does not only move the dust faster; it also changes how much the atmospheric motion argues with the rock walls. That tension is the point.

The label lengths are intentionally roomy and a little stubborn so the interface stays intact with worst-case copy, not just ideal short words.

Lighting angle changes the volume of the canyon

The lighting control moves the sun and changes the shadow rake so the canyon widens or tightens under the same geometry. Heat haze stays present, but never opaque enough to hide the survey cut itself.

Push the sun higher for a flatter, harsher wash or drag it down for a heavier diagonal rake across the walls. The scene should always stay readable first and atmospheric second.