# Topo

Motion topography

A topographic map draws a landscape as contour lines, one for every step of height. Topo reads your picture as a landscape, bright parts high and dark parts low, mixes in terrain of its own, and draws the contours moving through the loop.

## Controls

### Style

- **Style** (Select: Pearl / Slate / Over image / Source color). The surface. **Pearl** is pale ceramic with slate lines. **Slate** is dark stone over a pool of light. **Over image** draws the lines on your picture. **Source color** draws them in the picture's own colors on dark ground.
- **Accent** (Select: None / Gold / Aqua / Gold + aqua). A color for the major lines. Gold inlay, glowing Aqua, or Gold and aqua in turn. Set **Major every** first.
- **Image** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 0). Lets the picture show through the ground. In **Over image** it darkens the picture so the lines stand out.

### Lines

- **Lines** (hero knob, 6 to 60, rests at 28). The hero. How many contour steps from lowest to highest. More lines pack the map tighter.
- **Weight** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 25). How thick the lines are. Major lines are always a bit heavier.
- **Major every** (Select: Off / 4 / 5 / 10). Every 4th, 5th or 10th line is drawn heavier, like the index lines on a real map. **Off** keeps them all alike.

### Terrain

- **Terrain** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 40). How much of the landscape is generated. 0 follows your picture alone, 100 is generated hills alone.
- **Terrain scale** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 40). The size of the generated hills. Higher packs in smaller, busier hills.
- **Detail** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 40). How much of the picture's fine detail the contours trace. Low is smooth and rounded.
- **Relief** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 50). Shades the slopes as if lit from the upper left, so the map reads in 3D.

### Motion

- **Flow** (Knob, 0×/loop to 4×/loop, rests at 1×/loop). The lines climb the slopes, up to four steps a loop, and land back where they started.
- **Drift** (Knob, 0 to 100, rests at 35). The generated hills slide in a slow circle through the loop. Needs some **Terrain**.

## Presets

- **Pearl Topo**: Pearl ceramic with slate contour lines and a gold inlay, slowly flowing.
- **Slate Topo**: Dark slate over a pool of light, pearl contours, aqua light lines.
- **Topo Overlay**: Your photo or video with drifting contour lines traced over it.
- **Survey Map**: The source redrawn as colored contour lines on dark ground.