Microdot
www.microdot.visiona VFX studio reel built as one giant black canvas where Mux-streamed clips hang in space, tiny 14px labels float at the edges, and a thumbnail filmstrip pinned across the bottom lets you scrub the whole body of work like a video timeline.
Design tokens
- display
- __font_1c1708 (obfuscated self-hosted sans)
- body
- __font_1c1708
- mono
- none
Do / Don't
Reference it for
- Portfolio-as-timeline: a pinned bottom thumbnail strip that scrubs the entire body of work, turning a feed into a scannable filmstrip.
- A pure white-on-black (#0D0D0D / #FFFFFF) canvas where video is the only colour, with one red highlight token (rgba(255,0,0,.2)) for selection.
- CSS-only motion done well: opacity crossfades (0.15-0.25s ease) for lazy media reveal, no GSAP, no Framer, no smooth-scroll library.
- Mux + Sanity + Next.js App Router as a reference stack for video-heavy studio sites (adaptive streaming, lazy autoplay, a CMS-driven feed).
- Extreme typographic restraint: one weight, three sizes, tiny 14px labels as the entire UI chrome.
Do not copy
- The floating-render hero and the exact corner-label layout are Microdot's signature framing. Borrow the filmstrip and the restraint, not the composition.
- Autoplaying 35-plus videos is bandwidth-heavy and needs Mux-grade adaptive streaming plus careful lazy loading. Do not naively port it to raw <video> tags.
- The obfuscated __font_1c1708 is a licensed face shipped by the studio. Substitute a neutral grotesque (Inter, Söhne, Helvetica Now).
Signature moves
portfolio-as-timeline filmstrip
a pinned bottom thumbnail strip scrubs the entire body of work, turning a feed into a scannable video-timeline filmstrip.
white-on-black video-only canvas + tiny chrome
a pure white-on-black (#0D0D0D / #FFFFFF) canvas where video is the only colour, with extreme type restraint (one weight, three sizes, tiny 14px labels as the entire UI chrome).
CSS-only crossfade media reveal
CSS-only motion: opacity crossfades (0.15-0.25s ease) for lazy media reveal, with no GSAP, Framer or smooth-scroll library, on a Mux + Sanity + Next.js stack.
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