Gmira Hero

Hero

The first viewport spends the whole page's effect budget. Decide what it buys.

Load ../gmira/references/DOCTRINE.md first. This skill implements Law 3 and Part 4. For the shader itself load gmira-canvas. For install and repair load gmira-arsenal.

The premise

One heavy effect per route. The hero is where it goes, or it goes nowhere. Every section below the fold is then DOM, CSS, and type. That is not a compromise, it is the reason the hero reads as the loudest thing on the page instead of one of nine competing loud things.

Two consequences that people skip:

1. If the hero spends the budget, the footer cannot have a second fluid sim. closing-plasma is the one exception in the arsenal because it is the same raw-WebGL1 family and adds no library.
2. If the brief cannot afford the effect (Operate, Read, paid traffic on mobile), the hero has to win on type, crop, and structure. That is a harder hero, not a lesser one.

Step 1: write the first viewport in nouns

The direction contract's FIRST VIEWPORT block is a noun list, not a mood. Write it before placing anything.

INCORRECT   FIRST VIEWPORT  a bold, premium hero that immediately communicates trust
CORRECT     FIRST VIEWPORT  the model name as a catalogue title, a 9-character stock number
                            in mono, one three-quarter photograph bleeding off the right edge,
                            a hairline rule under the title at 40% width, a bounded chrome
                            panel five columns wide behind the emblem, one link: See this car

If you cannot list the nouns, the hero is not decided and no component will fix it.

Step 2: refuse these four shapes

Not bans. The brief's own words can earn any of them, and then you log it. Reaching for one when the axis is free means you were not deciding.

Two more that are structural rather than visual: the centered column with nothing to its left or right at every breakpoint, and the full-bleed effect turned down far enough to read as a filter.

Step 3: answer frame 0, out loud

An effect must earn its place at frame 0, with no input. Most visitors land, read, and leave without moving the pointer across the hero. A gallery GIF never shows this because the person recording it is already dragging.

Three permitted resolutions. Pick one explicitly and write which one in the component comment.

The cheapest resolution is to pick an effect with no pointer input at all. dither-gradient has none, so frame 0 is never a question.

INCORRECT   <SilkAurora mouseInfluence={1} interactive />
            // the pointer term is the only thing carrying the composition
CORRECT     <SilkAurora speed={0.6} intensity={1} mouseInfluence={0.35} interactive>
            // gmira: Law 3 resolution = autonomous idle. Ribbons animate from u_time.
            // mouseInfluence is a perturbation of a composition that already reads at t=0.

Step 4: bounded, at full strength

Restrained settings make effects invisible; loud settings make them slop. The answer is compositional, not parametric.

A full-bleed backdrop must stay quiet enough not to fight the headline, which is exactly how it ends up reading as a filter someone left on. A bounded region running at full strength reads as intent.

INCORRECT   <section className="relative min-h-svh">
              <LiquidChrome className="absolute inset-0" amplitude={0.15} speed={0.4} />
              <h1 className="relative z-10 ...">   {/* text over the whole thing, effect turned down */}
CORRECT     <section className="relative grid min-h-svh grid-cols-12 items-end gap-6">
              <div className="col-span-5 col-start-7 row-start-1 relative aspect-[4/5] overflow-hidden">
                <LiquidChrome baseColor={[0.06, 0.07, 0.08]} amplitude={0.6} speed={1} />
              </div>
              <h1 className="col-span-5 row-start-1 self-end ...">   {/* text on clean ground */}

Bounded also raises the GPU ceiling: DPR caps at 2.0 inside a bounded surface versus 1.5 full bleed, and sim or display textures may double. A 5-column panel at full strength costs less than a full-bleed field at half strength and looks like a decision.

Where a full-bleed field is genuinely right (Experience mode, a gallery, a single-object page), mask it rather than fade it: mask-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, black 55%, transparent) keeps the top loud and clears the type band completely.

Step 5: pick the component

Real names, real dependency cost. clsx and tailwind-merge are already in any shadcn project via cn, so components declaring only those are effectively zero-install.

Seven items ship webgl-error-boundary.tsx alongside (animated-gradient, dither-prism-hero, image-ripple-effect, particle-galaxy, ripple-transition, silk-aurora, webgl-liquid). It is identical content each time, so installing several is idempotent, and you do not wrap them again. Its WebGLFallback is a dark zinc gradient with role="status", which is not your palette. Restyle it or the unsupported path ships someone else's brand.

The three that usually lose

Trade to make explicitly: 600 KB of JavaScript against 3.5 KB. On a paid-traffic landing page, page weight is revenue. Install three.js only when a named component earns it and the user knows the bill.

Step 6: own the type, never the component's props

silk-aurora, webgl-liquid, and dither-prism-hero all ship title / subtitle / description props. Those props carry the registry's house typography, including patterns the craft floor bans.

INCORRECT   <WebGLLiquid title="Built for speed" subtitle="Every trim, in stock" />
CORRECT     <WebGLLiquid colorDeep="#07100c" colorMid="#123024" colorHighlight="#d8b24a"
                         revealDuration={1.2} delayMs={0}>
              <h1 className="max-w-[16ch] text-[clamp(2.75rem,6vw,5.5rem)] font-medium
                             leading-[0.95] tracking-[-0.03em] text-balance">
                Built for speed
              </h1>
            </WebGLLiquid>

Type floor for a hero: display max 6rem, tracking -0.02em to -0.03em (floor -0.04em), real copy at every breakpoint, zero overflow, balanced headings. Mono only on metadata: part numbers, stock numbers, measurements, cohort codes. Never mono as a costume for "technical".

Step 7: delete the canvas

Everything the page says must remain readable and operable with the canvas removed. Test by deleting the element in devtools, not by trusting a fallback branch.

This has one concrete design consequence people miss: with the canvas gone, the background is whatever the parent's background-color is. So set that color explicitly, and measure the headline contrast against it, not against the rendered shader.

INCORRECT   <section className="relative">      {/* transparent, inherits body */}
              <SilkAurora className="absolute inset-0" baseColor="#050807" />
              <h1 className="text-white">       {/* 21:1 against the shader, 1.1:1 against white body */}
CORRECT     <section className="relative bg-[#050807]">
              <SilkAurora className="absolute inset-0" aria-hidden baseColor="#050807" />
              <h1 className="relative text-[#f4f1ea]">   {/* measured against #050807 */}

The canvas is aria-hidden and pointer-events: none. The content was never inside it.

Worked heroes

Four full recipes: world, component, palette, type, frame 0. Each traces to a direction contract.

A. Car shop, single model page

• World: a 1970s Porsche parts catalogue. Monospace part numbers, hairline rules, photographs on a neutral card, no rounded corners anywhere.
• Component: liquid-chrome, bounded to a 5-column panel at aspect-[4/5], baseColor={[0.06, 0.07, 0.08]}, amplitude={0.6}, speed={1}, interactive. Chrome reads as metal, weight, manufacture, which is the one shader family that is literally on brief here. Spec figures go to split-flap-display (zero deps, CSS 3D keyframes), not to a stat row.
• Palette: catalogue paper #e8e4dc, ink #14161a, one oxide #b5451f used on part numbers and the single link, chrome panel near-black. Accent covers the rules and the numbers, roughly 35% of the surface, not one button.
• Type: one sans for everything, weight carries hierarchy. Title 4.5rem / -0.03em. Mono (tnum, slashed zero) on the stock number and every spec figure only.
• Frame 0: autonomous idle. The FBM has its own clock, so the panel is already flowing before any pointer event. interactive perturbs it.
• Canvas deleted: the panel becomes a flat #0f1113 rectangle behind the emblem. The title, the stock number, the photograph, and the link all still read.
• Repair note: liquid-chrome imports cn from ../lib/utils. Rewrite to @/lib/utils.

B. Applied AI school, admissions page

• World: a lab notebook and an instrument panel. Ruled grid, labelled measurements, a real diagram rather than a metaphor.
• Component: silk-aurora full-bleed but masked to the top 55% so the type band is clean, speed={0.6}, intensity={1}, grain={0.85}, mouseInfluence={0.35}. Below it in the same viewport, circuit-board (SVG plus framer-motion, cheap) drawing the actual pipeline the course teaches: nodes with real status values, connections with animated. That is the diagram carrying the argument, not decoration.
• Palette: near-black #050807, deep green mid #123024, gold sheen #d8b24a. Verify by screenshot sampling: additive shader stacks trend to white, so compare rendered pixels against these hexes before trusting the props.
• Type: one family. Module codes in mono, everything else sans. No eyebrow.
• Frame 0: autonomous idle. Three ribbons on different phases plus the glint term move without input. Pointer adds a falloff highlight.
• Refused explicitly: matrix-rain and particle-galaxy. Using the two most exhausted "we do AI" cliches undercuts the exact credibility the page is buying.
• Canvas deleted: headline, the circuit diagram (SVG, unaffected), cohort dates, and the apply link all survive.

C. GTM / UGC school, offer page

• World: a broadcast switcher rack and tape labels. Hot, fast, legible at a glance on a phone.
• Component: webgl-liquid full-bleed, reveal={true}, revealDuration={1.2}, delayMs={0}, flowStrength={1.4}, contrast={1.15}, grain={0.05}. Headline authored in children, timed to land after the shader settles. Total npm cost: clsx and tailwind-merge, both already present.
• Palette: colorDeep="#120306", colorMid="#5c0a1e", colorHighlight="#ff4d1f". Loud is correct for this audience; the restraint is that the effect appears once, in the hero, and never again on the page.
• Type: display at the 6rem cap, -0.03em, text-balance, one line of body at 65ch. One action.
• Frame 0: seeded. The reveal timeline runs on mount, so the first second is authored rather than empty.
• Refused explicitly: dither-prism-hero and particle-galaxy. Page weight is revenue on paid traffic, and 600 KB of three.js buys nothing this audience will notice.
• Canvas deleted: #120306 ground, headline at #fff3ec, CTA still clickable.

D. E-commerce category header

• World: a printed swatch card. Dye lot numbers, registration marks, a limited palette that is the season's actual three colors.
• Component: dither-gradient, bounded to a 42vh header band, colorFrom / colorMid / colorTo taken from the season palette, intensity={0.15}, speed={3}, angle={45}. 3.5 KB, canvas2d, zero deps, cheap enough to ship on every category page without touching Core Web Vitals.
• Palette: the three dye colors, nothing else. Product photography carries the rest.
• Type: nothing above 3rem. The product names are the type. Category name at 2.25rem, count in mono.
• Frame 0: autonomous, and the component has no pointer input at all, so the question does not arise. This is the cheapest correct answer.
• Refused explicitly: infinite-image-field and cursor-driven-particle-typography. Canvas text and canvas images are invisible to search engines, screen readers, and Ctrl+F, which is fatal on a commerce surface.
• Canvas deleted: the band becomes a flat season color. The grid below is untouched.

Checks before this skill is done

• FIRST VIEWPORT exists in nouns, in writing, and the built hero traces to it noun by noun
• Zero of the four refused shapes present, or one is present and logged with the brief words that earned it
• The Law 3 resolution is named in a comment in the component file
• Bounded at full strength, or full-bleed with a real mask and a documented reason
• The component's own title / subtitle / description props are unused; type is in children
• Headline contrast measured against the container background-color, not against the shader
• Canvas element deleted in devtools: headline, copy, and the action all still read and work
• WebGLFallback's zinc gradient restyled to the brief's palette
• One heavy effect on the route, and it is this one
• Rendered pixels sampled from a screenshot match the intended palette (additive stacks trend to white)
• No three.js in package.json unless a named component earned it and the user was told the size