Falling Letters
X-ray · layers
Parameters
How this effect works
Each letter is a tiny falling body with two numbers: a vertical position and a velocity. Every frame gravity adds to the velocity and the velocity moves the letter — v += GRAVITY; y += v; — the oldest trick in animation, and the reason the fall accelerates instead of sliding at a constant speed. Turn gravity off and the letters drift down linearly, which immediately looks wrong; that one addition is what makes it read as weight.
When a letter reaches the baseline it doesn't stop, it bounces: the velocity flips and is scaled by BOUNCE, so each hop is shorter until it settles — a real damped bounce, not a scripted keyframe. Stagger is the last piece: each letter's start is delayed by its index, so the word assembles left to right instead of dropping as a block. Everything runs the same three lines; the only difference between letters is when they begin and how far they started up.