SKILL

Atmosphere Background

From Skills by @mengto · View on GitHub

Create a dark atmospheric background with drifting vertical light folds, screen-blended glow, and a concentrated luminous corner or lower-edge bloom.

This skill ships inside the skills package. Install the package to get this skill plus everything else in the bundle.

sv install mengto/skills

Atmosphere Background Skill

Use When

  • Create a dark atmospheric background with drifting vertical light folds, screen-blended glow, and a concentrated luminous corner or lower-edge bloom.

Workflow

Scope

  • Apply this only to the immersive background layer, not to the full page layout, typography, or unrelated WebGL/particle systems.
  • Use it when the design needs a moody atmospheric backdrop with fluid light curtains or folds instead of geometric grids, blobs, or literal illustrations.

Visual target

  • Create a deep near-black background with soft vertical light folds drifting across the frame like illuminated fabric, fog sheets, or light curtains.
  • Build the glow from multiple overlapping vertical bands so the background feels layered and spatial rather than flat.
  • Let brightness accumulate more strongly toward one area, especially the lower right or lower edge, so the scene has a cinematic focal glow instead of uniform brightness.
  • Keep the palette restrained: dark navy or charcoal base, then derive the glow from the design's primary color or strongest accent color. If no clear brand color exists, a cool cyan-blue atmosphere is acceptable.

Implementation guidance

  • Prefer canvas or shader-driven rendering for this effect instead of static CSS gradients when motion is required.
  • Use multiple tall overlapping bands or folds with slow sine-wave drift so the structure reads as moving atmospheric light rather than hard columns.
  • Use screen or additive-style blending so the overlapping folds brighten naturally where they cross.
  • Shape each fold with vertical gradients that fade at the top and intensify toward the bottom or focal corner.
  • Add a subtle radial glow overlay near the focal edge or corner to reinforce depth and the main luminous area.
  • Motion should stay slow and meditative: gentle drift, slight intensity modulation, no noisy flicker or rapid pulsing.

Tuning knobs

  • Fold count: add or reduce the number of vertical folds depending on how dense the atmosphere should feel.
  • Drift: control horizontal sway amplitude and speed to keep motion calm.
  • Brightness focus: place the strongest glow near a corner, edge, or lower quadrant instead of spreading it evenly across the whole frame.
  • Color: tint the folds with the active design accent while preserving a dark, premium base.
  • Softness: adjust overlap width, gradient falloff, and post-glow strength so the background feels luminous but not washed out.

Avoid

  • Flat multi-stop gradients with no layered fold structure.
  • Loud rainbow color transitions or bright full-frame glow that competes with foreground content.
  • Hardcoded cyan if the design clearly uses another primary color.
  • Fast turbulence, noisy particle motion, or obvious repeating patterns that break the calm atmospheric look.