ARC Reactor: A 3D UI Experiment

Overview Built a holographic, Jarvis-inspired interface as an exploration of what real-time 3D interaction could feel like in a browser. No backend product behind it, this was a pure UI/motion challenge: could I make an interface feel like it belonged in a lab, not a chat window?

The Challenge Most "AI assistant" interfaces default to a chat box: text in, text out. I wanted something that felt alive, an interface with presence, not just function. The hard part wasn't rendering a 3D object, it was making it respond convincingly: color shifts on command, lights toggling on and off, a subtle pulsing animation that reads as a heartbeat rather than a static loop.

Approach Built the reactor as an interactive 3D scene, with each visual state (color, glow intensity, pulse rhythm) tied directly to user commands rather than pre-baked animation sequences. The goal was responsiveness that felt immediate, not a queued animation playing after a delay.

What Made It Hard Getting the "alive" feeling right took far more iteration than the initial build. A reactor that just changes color on command feels mechanical; getting the glow, pulse timing, and transition easing to feel organic, like something breathing rather than switching states, was where most of the actual effort went.

Outcome A fully interactive demo: users can trigger color changes, toggle lights, and watch the reactor pulse in real time. It's not a shipped product, it's a proof of concept for the kind of interface work I bring to client projects, motion and interaction that feels premium, not templated.

Stack Next.js, Shadcn, GSAP, Three.js, WebGL, custom shader/animation work, React.