Cracktro vs Metalheart
クラックトロ / メタルハート
Cracktro comes from Digital Art and Metalheart from UI Expression. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.
Cracktro
A short screen bolted to the front of cracked software as a group's calling card. An oversized group name, text scrolling without end and a run of greetings turned the home computer display into a stage.
Metalheart
Early 3D software gave this fin-de-millénaire style its chrome, liquid metal, aggressive bevels and lens flare. Dressed in techno and science-fiction imagery, it ruled rave flyers and games magazines around Y2K.
| Cracktro | Metalheart | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1980s-1990s | 1995–2004 |
| Family | Digital Art | UI Expression |
| Kind | Style | Style |
| Cues | Text scrolling endlessly across the screen / Bands of color running behind it / An oversized group name held at the center / A run of greetings naming other groups | Liquid-metal chrome / Aggressive bevels / Lens flares / Techno and sci-fi typography |
| Best used for | Bolting a short screen to the front of something being passed around, to give the group's name · Packing a burst of sound and image into an executable with a small size budget | Club and rave announcements rebuilt with the texture of that era's 3D · Showing off technology through excess instead of refinement |
| Type | Monospaced bitmap letters running the greetings along the bottom without a break | Extrude the letters, bevel them deep, and bake in mirror reflections |
| Composition | Hold the oversized group name at the centre and keep the effect moving around it | One large object at center, the ground filled with grids and beams |
| Material | Patterns generated from formulas and a short looping tune, built with no asset files | Chrome, liquid metal, lens flare, reflections carrying surrounding color |
| Caution | Line up the effects but drop the name and the run of greetings, and the calling card is gone, leaving only a short piece of animation. | Polishing it clean in current software removes the rawness that came from the crude renderers of the time, and it becomes something else. |