Ripping Open Reality

The grid is part of Blackbox's identity. On Vision Pro it became a three-dimensional place around the player, rather than a selection screen on a phone.

To enter it, the player brings two pinched hands together and pulls them apart. A tear opens in the room, with the grid visible through the gap. As the gesture grows, the opening expands until the grid surrounds them.

Show the destination during the action

The preview through the tear matters. It connects what the hands are doing with the place the player is entering before the environment changes completely.

The effect develops through an initial opening, the grid appearing through the gap, a wider tear and finally the surrounding environment.

Make a return with the same idea

The return gesture uses the same physical action. The effect looks as though the room is being distorted through the dark grid surface.

Underneath, that surface uses a reflective environment-map treatment. It is an illusion built from the available reflection information, followed by the reveal of the real surroundings. It is not a newly rendered reconstruction of everything in the room.

That distinction matters in a technical breakdown. A believable transition can use a limited representation if it gives the player the right visual information during the action.

Work on the hands and the image together

The gesture alone would not describe a change of world. The visual effect alone would be a transition playing in front of the player. We developed the response so the opening belonged to the motion of their hands.

The project was a small collaboration led by Ryan McLeod. My contribution crossed the interaction prototyping and material work needed to make that moment hold together.