Polaroid Burn
Scattered polaroid photos developing warm abstract memories, overexposing, and burning out with ember edges.
What is Polaroid Burn?
Polaroid Burn is a free WebGL web effect in the TappyPrism library. Scattered polaroid photos developing warm abstract memories, overexposing, and burning out with ember edges. It is rendered on the GPU by a fragment shader, so it costs almost nothing on the CPU and works well as a full-screen background. It ships as a single self-contained HTML file (polaroid-burn.html) with zero dependencies — no npm package, no framework, no build step. It exposes 2 live parameters — Burn Speed, Photo Count — adjustable in the browser or at runtime.
Parameters
| Parameter | Key | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Burn Speed | BURN_SPEED | 0.2 – 2 | 0.6 |
| Photo Count | PHOTO_COUNT | 3 – 8 | 5 |
How to add Polaroid Burn to your page
- Download the standalone file polaroid-burn.html and copy its source into your project.
- Or embed it as a background iframe:
<iframe src="https://prism.tappypotato.com/fx/polaroid-burn.html" style="position:fixed;inset:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;z-index:-1" title="Polaroid Burn"></iframe> - Tune it at runtime with postMessage:
iframe.contentWindow.postMessage({ type: 'param', name: 'BURN_SPEED', value: 0.6 }, '*');
Frequently asked questions
What is Polaroid Burn?
Polaroid Burn is a free WebGL web effect in the TappyPrism library. Scattered polaroid photos developing warm abstract memories, overexposing, and burning out with ember edges. It is rendered on the GPU by a fragment shader, so it costs almost nothing on the CPU and works well as a full-screen background. It ships as a single self-contained HTML file (polaroid-burn.html) with zero dependencies — no npm package, no framework, no build step. It exposes 2 live parameters — Burn Speed, Photo Count — adjustable in the browser or at runtime.
How do I add Polaroid Burn to my website?
Download the standalone file at https://prism.tappypotato.com/fx/polaroid-burn.html and copy its source into your page, or embed it as a background iframe: <iframe src="https://prism.tappypotato.com/fx/polaroid-burn.html" style="position:fixed;inset:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0;z-index:-1" title="Polaroid Burn"></iframe>. Tune it live with postMessage, e.g. iframe.contentWindow.postMessage({ type: 'param', name: 'BURN_SPEED', value: 0.6 }, '*').