EPIC: The Musical Timeline

Seven design directions for an interactive timeline. Pick one, or mix several. Sample content: placeholder lyrics and unverified details, for comparing designs only.

• 01

  Editorial scroll

  A clean horizontal line in a parchment-and-serif editorial style, with motifs as thin coloured threads underneath.

  Try this: Pan sideways, notice gap length tracking in-story time, and open a song.

• 02

  Vertical story

  The voyage scrolls downward; songs reveal one at a time beside a sticky detail panel.

  Try this: Scroll and watch the sticky detail panel update.

• 03

  Transit map

  Each motif is a coloured metro line and each song a station; shared stations are interchanges.

  Try this: Follow a line between stations, find an interchange, and check the legend.

• 04

  Greek frieze

  The timeline as an unrolled black-figure vase frieze, panned sideways.

  Try this: Pan the frieze and open a song panel.

• 05

  Score / waveform

  The line is a music staff or waveform; song parts are segments and motifs are recurring marks.

  Try this: Look at song parts as segments and follow motif marks as they recur.

• 06

  Constellation (3D)

  Songs are stars along a path through space, joined by motif constellation lines (three.js).

  Try this: Fly the camera through, hover a star, and open a song.

• 07

  Sea voyage (3D)

  A ship crosses a 3D sea past saga islands while the camera follows the route (three.js).

  Try this: Watch the ship sail the route, spot the saga islands, and open a song.

• Round 2: sea charts

  Ways to make the sea chart as easy to browse as the editorial scroll and transit map.

• 08

  Sea chart + log line

  A navigator's chart for place, with a synced editorial log line beneath it for time; motifs as coloured sea routes.

  Try this: Pick a motif, scrub the log line, and watch the chart follow.

• 09

  Schematic sea chart

  The voyage straightened into a transit-style diagram laid over a faint chart; motif lines run alongside the ship's course.

  Try this: Follow a motif line from port to port and open one.

• 10

  Unrolling chart

  An editorial horizontal scroll whose ground is a long chart unrolling as you pan; motif threads trail beneath the route.

  Try this: Pan sideways and watch the ship and coastline move with you.

• 11

  Atlas with insets

  An overview chart of the whole sea; each saga island opens an inset chart with its songs as ports.

  Try this: Open an island's inset, then a song, then zoom back out.