DESIGN OBJECTIVE
Create a principled fun background which allows the Start screen to shine. It can only cover 50% of the screen and it must work on every background color. There was an additional challenge to add motion to background that embraces the new capabilities of 8.1 while maintaining lean performance bar.
My first motion study began with a seriece of objects which all rotated in a sweeping circle motion. The timing of each one was offset just slightly. This created an interesting motion which looked like the ocean.
That initial motion got much more interesting when I nested rotating objects inside a container which rotated in the opposite direction. For instance, the graphic is spining counter-clockwise while it container it lives in is moving in a larger clockwise motion.
When taken to an extreme this can create a number of interesting design explorations.
I even considered making it look like a dragon at one point. The cloud would move to the left while the dragon undulated in place giving the appearance that it was flying with a fluid motion. This direction turned out to be a dead end but the learning did inform the final direction.
This was the first hint of the final shape.
Once it came time to finalize and implement the designs I had to plan out the placement and individual movement by trial and error. This was more math than you might think to code into the product.
This promotional piece was a 383 inch Surface in downtown London.
