The challenge: Corrosion happens at a scale no camera can capture — individual water molecules infiltrating a metal's atomic lattice and destabilizing it from within. How do you make an invisible, molecular-level process feel physical and legible?

The approach: I modeled the alloy's crystal structure as a dense lattice of spheres, then introduced water and oxidizing molecules as smaller, contrasting forms — colliding with, penetrating, and eroding the surface. The progression across the frame, from intact structure to visible breakdown, turns a static mechanism into a visual sequence the eye reads as before, during, after.

The result: A striking, physically intuitive visualization of atomic-scale degradation — used to communicate material stability research to non-specialist audiences.