An Arizona Sunset, Tucked Into My Portfolio Footer

Project description

I’ve spent a lot of time watching Arizona sunsets. I wanted the end of my portfolio to feel a little like that: a place where you can pause and stay for a while. So I built an interactive footer where I’m sitting on a cliff with my dog, Snoopy, and visitors can join us. You can choose a pixel character, bring a dog or cat, walk over, and take a seat. Your character becomes part of a shared guestbook, a little memory of your visit. The idea started with a pixel-art sunset image I made with Nanobanana. I used GPT Astra to help turn it into a React and TypeScript component, refining the artwork, sprites, and interactions along the way. Most of the work was in the tiny details. The footsteps needed to slow down. The pets needed to stay beside their owners. Snoopy’s tail needed to wag without making his whole body shake. And the speech bubbles needed to leave room for the sunset. I tried a drawer for the controls, saw it in context, and took it back out. That was a big part of the process: build something, spend time with it, and change my mind. Supabase now keeps the guestbook shared across visitors, with anonymous authentication so people can return to edit their character without signing up. The experience lives in a single Framer code component on my portfolio, and I keep the code, artwork, and database setup versioned on GitHub. It started with a sunset I wanted to share. Now you can bring your pet and sit with us for a bit.