I wanted to see what yeeting 1800 ATOM into the Abyss actually looked like. A black hole's signature shape, often depicted as a dark region surrounded by a glowing, circular "accretion disk," is a result of the extreme gravitational forces at play. These forces significantly bend and distort the path of light as it approaches the black hole, creating the iconic appearance. The key mechanisms at work are gravitational lensing and accretion disk illumination: Gravitational Lensing: Albert Einstein's theory of General Relativity predicts that massive objects, like black holes, warp the fabric of spacetime around them. When light from distant objects, such as stars or the accretion disk, passes close to the black hole, it follows the curved spacetime. This bending of light is known as gravitational lensing. It can cause the light to curve in a way that forms a circular path around the black hole, creating the appearance of a ring. Accretion Disk: The accretion disk is a swirling, flat disk of gas and dust that orbits the black hole. As material in the accretion disk spirals inwards due to the black hole's gravitational pull, it heats up and emits intense radiation, including visible light. This emitted light can be seen in the form of a luminous ring encircling the black hole. The combination of gravitational lensing and the illumination of the accretion disk is what gives a black hole its distinctive shape. To pull all of that off in a 3D animation I had to play with over-exaggerated Refractions on a clear sphere that were driven by the 3D cameras orientation. You can see this effect even more so as the ATOM swarm passes behind the Black Hole and arches up over the top. The actual scene looks like a "perfect" sphere and a ring around it, all of the bending of light is simulated.