My Attempt at that Joseph Luciano Thing
Okay, so I stumbled across some stuff by this guy, Joseph Luciano. Saw this really neat effect he did on a website, looked kinda slick, you know? Simple, but caught my eye. Figured, hey, I could probably use something like that, maybe adapt it a bit for a little side project I got cooking.
So, first thing, I tried to figure out how he actually did it. Spent a good chunk of time just staring at his site, using the browser tools, poking around the code. It wasn’t immediately obvious, gotta say. Not like there was a big sign saying ‘here’s the magic sauce’. Looked like some clever CSS, maybe a bit of JavaScript trickery thrown in.
Getting Started (or trying to)
I decided to just start messing around. Opened up my code editor, grabbed a basic HTML file. Started trying to recreate the layout first. That part was okay, standard stuff mostly. But then came the tricky animation, the way elements moved or faded in. That’s where Joseph Luciano really seemed to have put his spin on it.
- Tried some basic CSS transitions first. Kinda close, but not quite the same smooth feel.
- Then fiddled with keyframe animations. Got a bit closer, but timing was a real pain to get right.
- Looked into JavaScript libraries. Maybe he used one? Couldn’t tell for sure, and I wanted to try doing it more lightweight if possible.
Honestly, spent a couple of evenings just tweaking values, changing properties, refreshing the browser like a maniac. Felt like I was just guessing half the time. You see something cool online, and you think, ‘easy enough’, but then you actually try it… yeah, different story.
Hitting a Wall, Then a Small Win
Got pretty stuck on one specific part, how this one image overlay behaved on hover. Just couldn’t replicate that subtle bounce effect Luciano had. Almost gave up, thought maybe it was too fancy for me right now. Went back to basics, looked at transform properties again, messed with the `cubic-bezier` timing function. That seemed to be part of the key. Spent maybe an hour just playing with those bezier curve values. Finally, got something that looked kinda, sorta similar. Not perfect, but way better than before. Felt like a small victory, you know?
Making it Work (Sort Of)
Alright, so after that little breakthrough, I kept plugging away. Managed to get the main parts of the effect working. It’s not a carbon copy of Joseph Luciano’s original, mine’s a bit rougher around the edges. Probably less optimized too, if I’m being honest. But it functions. It does the thing I wanted it to do, more or less.
It took way longer than I expected. What looked like a simple visual trick ended up being a deep dive into CSS timing and transforms. It’s funny how much work can go into something that looks effortless on the screen.
So yeah, that was my little adventure trying to mimic that Joseph Luciano effect. Learned a few things, got frustrated a few times, ended up with something usable for my project. Guess that’s how it goes, right? You see something, you try something, you learn something. On to the next thing now.
