Max Ropohl

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SVG empty state animation with playground to fine tune motion values - vibecoded in @v0.

@dan_w1d1 So cool! Really need to up my shader game and learn how to do them from scratch

been deep in shader exploration for our orbs. skia + reanimated driving an “acid” look. also built a little agent skill that helps me iterate faster on animations + shaders (patterns, perf checks, parameter tweaks). link in thread

Little fun project: implementing different ai avatar state. Currently done using multiple unicorn.studio files and switching between them. Might try to recreate it in rive in order to get smooth transitions between states 🤔

@joshpuckett Wil def do this for the design system I’m working on right now. So far started with building a custom variable explorer and editor where I can play around with my design variables which is already awesome.

New Tools for a New Era. Coding agents like Claude and Cursor have dramatically reduced the time it takes to go from idea to functional software. But the experience of designing and refining with them sucks. One reason for this is that while the terminal is an incredible tool for communicating direction with language, it is a terrible tool for defining and exploring visual and interactive objects. Here is one idea for how we might fix a small part of that. In the old world, when you wanted to create a transition or animation in your app, you would type some code, refresh your local server, and click to run your animation. It probably wasn't right, because after all no one can know what 'cubic-bezier(0.3, 0.05, 0.45, 1)' really feels like when you read it. You need to see it. Feel it. Interact with it in a real world context. So you'd edit some values, save, refresh, and keep guessing and checking until it felt right. Today, you can write a quick, single-use tool that's a visual studio for designing animations. You can then configure some components and containers common in all apps, and explore different animations in real time, adjusting key properties, and getting it just right. Then, you can copy a highly detailed prompt (or export a skill containing all your animations) that captures your intent and direction with perfect clarity. Paste this into your terminal and your agent instantly implements it everywhere. To me, this is an improvement over the old world, and a better way to work in today's. I'm extremely excited to see the ways in which our ability to rapidly create software will shape how we design software tomorrow. Feedback, ideas, and critiques welcome!

@cameronmoll Super cool, thanks for mentioning me!

@ehrenrax Hey-o Max! You're featured on Varchive, which just launched today. varchive.ai/apps/114-max-s…

Collection 01 of @hiunicornstudio experiments

Back with some ai avatar explorations 🏀

I think there is always a right tool for whatever you want to do. Most of the time it’s more efficient to just prototype in code right away, you understand the actual experience of using it so much better. Figma still has a use for me though, especially when trying to iterate different ui styles or rougher sketches I prefer going there.

this is something I’ve practiced at @polar_sh since I joined as a founding designer. we rarely design in figma. if you can express design with code — then you’ll be incredibly efficient.

@mikesmith187 @SuperhumanHQ @GammaApp @perplexity_ai Completely insane run 🔥

This is the time of year that I start getting reflective & I was feeling very proud that over the past 3 years we've branded 3 unicorn co's. For a little studio that started in my 1 bedroom apt, we've come an incredibly long way. @SuperhumanHQ + @GammaApp + @perplexity_ai

@gabrielvaldivia Such a fun idea!

I updated my website to give folks the ability to consume my bio in prose, as a list, or as a timeline. You can also tweak how verbose it is and filter the timeline by projects, work experience, and talks.

@pizzaboy Really cool concepts - I wish I would be as good in logo design. Currently struggling a lot with this haha

Fired this over to the client this morning. It may look like a random collection of logos but most of it is intentional based on the kick off call. We have: + Sharp edges + Rounded edges + Letters + 4 of our own logos + Some link based logos We ask them to return a list of "Love it" and "Hate it" and that gives us a pretty good idea on what to start concepting. It's essentially a psyop based on the kick off call because we know what they should like, so this will just confirm it! ✌️

@Yanick_Jimenez @jittervideo Looks great. I can see some use cases for something I’m working on right now. Could be super nice for doing some small in-product help videos to explain how something works in a 5 sec ui animation - if that makes sense.

@ehrenrax @jittervideo You can create showreels much faster than with Figma or other tools thanks to built-in interaction presets. Here’s a quick example from one of my wip case studies:

Had on my list to give @jittervideo a try - made a super quick animation with some shots from my portfolio redesign. Pretty neat to present designs.

@Yanick_Jimenez @jittervideo nice, gotta check it out again!

@ehrenrax @jittervideo Been using Jitter it for case study showreels. Its game changer for what I needed it for.

@ryolu_ hey, I think the optical alignment of these icons is not right. Please fix, so I can vibe code in peace without staring at it 🙏

@fatih @workspacesxyz Looks fantastic

I changed the layout of my desk. My desk is now facing my room instead of the wall. Not sure why I didn't do it earlier, but it feels much better to work like that. Also, people still message me due to recent photos from @workspacesxyz, but those photos are quite old. Since then, I've changed it quite a bit. Instead of having a "tech only" desk, I changed the way I think about a desk. Nowadays, I have a single huge desk, but separated into two sections. The digital part is for work and technical stuff. Quite minimal. The other, analog part is for winding down, reading books, writing to a journal, or just planning. That part is not minimal, it is more functional and allows for creative work. Sometimes I also use the analog part to work on small DIY projects; sometimes it's used with my kids where we build LEGO or sketch/draw things. I'm using this setup now for almost 9-10 months and am super happy how it end up.

@m_strba Beautiful 🔥

Wavelength gradient exploration for app icon

@notime2exercise @Wellgraf We even have this in Germany now - at least at the Berlin airport 🙃 def a huge upgrade haha

@Wellgraf Jeez you guys are doing it right

Forget AI, the day you don’t need to take out your laptop when going through airport security is going to be one of the greatest advancements as a human race

@daltonuiux @exaltxstudio Looking clean 🔥

New brand identity we are working on. @exaltxstudio