This is the animation that was at the top of the vandeblaak.com homepage until October 2026. It is already in the first commit of this site, from January 2026. On the homepage it has been replaced by a new animation; here it still runs as it was.
The word ERIK is in the code as a pattern of five lines of text. Every asterisk becomes a cube, a space stays empty. That gives 50 cubes in a grid 24 columns wide. Each cube gets a small turn that depends on its number, so they do not all line up exactly.
All cubes share the same six materials. Two faces show a photo, the other four play a video. Because the materials are shared, each video plays on all 50 cubes at once. When the animation is out of view, the videos pause and the render loop sleeps.
The camera moves in an ellipse around the letters, about one round every 33 seconds, rising and falling a little. Each cube turns slowly on its axis and grows and shrinks over 14 seconds, each with its own delay. Behind them are three layers of stars with 2,500, 4,000 and 6,000 points, each turning at its own speed.
Point at a cube and a raycaster finds which cube is under the mouse. It moves forward, turns a little and its edges light up; GSAP handles those transitions. Now and then the signature 'Erik van de Blaak (2026)' appears at the bottom, with every letter turning on its own axis.
This standalone version adds a full-screen button. The camera path was made for the wide strip on the old homepage, so on narrower screens the camera moves further back to keep ERIK in view.
The word ERIK is in the code as a pattern of five lines of text. Every asterisk becomes a cube, a space stays empty. That gives 50 cubes in a grid 24 columns wide. Each cube gets a small turn that depends on its number, so they do not all line up exactly.
All cubes share the same six materials. Two faces show a photo, the other four play a video. Because the materials are shared, each video plays on all 50 cubes at once. When the animation is out of view, the videos pause and the render loop sleeps.
The camera moves in an ellipse around the letters, about one round every 33 seconds, rising and falling a little. Each cube turns slowly on its axis and grows and shrinks over 14 seconds, each with its own delay. Behind them are three layers of stars with 2,500, 4,000 and 6,000 points, each turning at its own speed.
Point at a cube and a raycaster finds which cube is under the mouse. It moves forward, turns a little and its edges light up; GSAP handles those transitions. Now and then the signature 'Erik van de Blaak (2026)' appears at the bottom, with every letter turning on its own axis.
This standalone version adds a full-screen button. The camera path was made for the wide strip on the old homepage, so on narrower screens the camera moves further back to keep ERIK in view.
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