Patterns / Agent

Pixel mascots

Expand Markdown apps/gallery/src/patterns/mascot.rs

use agent::Face;

// Size the box; the sprite centres inside it on whole device pixels.
div()
    .w(px(13.))
    .h(px(13.))
    .child(agent::mascot(&Face::from("bezel"), t))

mascot is not a second generator. It reads the same Shape and Eyes a name already produces and asks each cell whether the body covers it, so a rail and a chat header showing one name show one being. Nothing is picked from a roster: a name nobody has typed yet has a mascot already, for the reason the blob avatar has a face already.

The eyes are holes, not ink. The body takes one colour and the surface shows through where the eyes are, which is what lets a whole row dim at once — paint the eyes in a contrasting colour instead and they fight the fade rather than joining it. It also means the mascot never consults the theme for a second colour, where avatar has to.

A blink is the only motion that survives the trip. Breath moves the outline by about a twentieth of a cell and gaze drift by about an eighth, so at this size both are nothing; the wobble moves it far enough to flip cells on the edge at random, which reads as noise rather than life. The silhouette is therefore the resting one and lid does all the work — which is why a mascot is still, then blinks, rather than breathing the way its larger self does.