Articles
Sand table formats, image tracing, and the mechanics of drawing with a ball.
Kinetic sand tables look simple from the outside — a ball, some sand, a magnet — and the moment you try to put your own artwork on one you discover they are not. Why does a photograph come out looking like corduroy? Why do straight lines slash across a finished pattern? Why does a file that worked on one table drive the ball into the rim of another?
These articles work through the parts of that where the answer is genuinely interesting rather than just a setting to change. They are written from how SandPath actually converts files, so they get specific: the polar coordinate system circular tables use, the three tracing algorithms and what each one is really for, and why travel lines are a famous computer science problem wearing a disguise.
If you just want to convert something, the getting started guide is the faster route.
Circular tables speak polar, rectangular ones speak Cartesian. What that means for portability, why one format survives a table upgrade, and the two problems that only exist in polar coordinates.
Read article →The obvious way to convert an image for a sand table is the way that fails. Why raster scanlines produce corduroy, and what Sobel edges, marching squares, and skeletonisation do instead.
Read article →The ball cannot lift off the sand, so every move between shapes leaves a mark. Why this is the travelling salesman problem in disguise, and why fixing your source art beats fixing the algorithm.
Read article →New articles when they're ready — no schedule, no filler.
Subscribe on Substack →No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.