Apply one of 116 deterministic GPU effects to an image or video with a visual thumbnail picker, effect-specific controls, position picking, live previews, and free local rendering.
Where: Flowgen -> Add -> Image & Vector -> Edit -> Effects, or Video & Motion -> AI Edit -> Effects
Before you start
- Use a browser/device with working WebGL for preview and rendering.
- Connect an image or video to Image or Video / layer_in for an output based on your own media.
Key ideas
- One medium-polymorphic input: layer_in accepts one image or video. The node publishes image_out for a still and video_out for a clip. If stale image and video data both exist, the clip is the active medium.
- A visual effect library: The picker renders thumbnail previews of the connected media, or a built-in sample when nothing is connected. Its 116 shaders are grouped as Color, Texture, Pattern, Optical, Painterly, Characters, Warp, Motion, Time, and Depth and Matte.
- Descriptor-driven controls: Every effect declares its own sliders, switches, Colors, gradients, enums, advanced groups, defaults, and hints. The same descriptor drives the card preview, sidebar, durable render, and MCP property contract.
- Still and video commit differently: Images redraw live and save a full-resolution frame after edits settle; there is no image Run button. Video previews live for free but requires Run to decode, shade, and encode the complete clip.
- Local and deterministic: Effects uses browser GPU shaders, not a provider model, and costs no Sparks. Use Gen Effect only when the edit must semantically understand or reconstruct the scene.
- Effects card: EffectsNode uses the authored shared-card path. Apply descriptor-driven GPU effects to an image or video.
- Properties sidebar: Card-owned effect picker and parameters; common properties shell
- Opened surfaces: Live image/video effect preview
Steps
- Connect an image or video to Image or Video / layer_in.
- Open the effect chip and browse the visual thumbnails by group. Search from the Add catalog when you already know a name such as Halftone, VHS, ASCII Art, Kaleidoscope, or Depth Fog.
- Choose an effect, then adjust its descriptor-specific controls and master amount.
- When a Pick control is offered, arm it and click the media to place the light, flare, motion centre, or warp centre accurately.
- For an image, inspect the live canvas and wait for the full-resolution save after the controls settle. Selecting/deselecting or leaving the card flushes pending edits.
- For a video, play or scrub the source to inspect the free live preview, review the quoted frame count/time/output support, then click Run to encode.
- Connect image_out or video_out to the next compatible node and inspect the saved result, not only the lightweight card preview.
Socket and property contract
- layer_in: one image, video, or compatible layer value.
- image_out: saved still result when the input is an image.
- video_out: encoded clip when the input is a video.
- fxId: stable effect id.
- fxAmount: master strength from 0 to 1.
- fxParams: the complete parameter bag declared by the selected effect. Replace the bag when fxId changes because keys differ between effects.
Color and Texture
- Color includes Warm, Cool, Cinematic, Vintage, Noir, Dramatic, Neon, Bleach Bypass, Cross Process, Technicolor, Infrared, Faded, Duotone, Tritone, Gradient Map, and Thermal.
- Texture includes Film Grain, Vignette, Light Leak, Color Wash, Dither, Posterize, Pixelate, Scanlines, Pixel Art, Paper, Dust and Scratches, and Halation.
Pattern, Painterly, and Characters
- Pattern includes Halftone, Ben-Day, Dot Matrix, LED Panel, Aperture Grille, Crosshatch, Engraving, Stipple, Woodcut, Newsprint, Risograph, Screen Print, Blueprint, contour/topographic treatments, fabric stitches, mosaics, Voronoi, Low Poly, and geometric grids.
- Painterly includes Brush Smear, Impasto, Watercolor, Pencil, Charcoal, Ink Wash, Comic, and Poster Edge.
- Characters includes ASCII Art/Color, Matrix and Binary Rain, Block Mosaic, Teletype Dither, Typewriter, Emoji Mosaic, and Glyph Halftone.
Optical, Warp, and Motion
- Optical includes Color Fringe, Lens Flare, Glitch, VHS, Bloom, Sharpen, Edge Detect, Fisheye, Anamorphic, Starburst, God Rays, Tilt Shift, and Lens Distortion.
- Warp includes Ripple, Wave, Twirl, Bulge, Pinch, Polar, Tunnel, Mirror, Kaleidoscope, Glass Blocks, Refract, and self-displacement.
- Motion includes Motion Streak, Zoom Burst, Spin Blur, Camera Shake, and Rolling Shutter.
Time effects require video
- Echo, Motion Trail, RGB Delay, Slit Scan, Datamosh, Strobe, Freeze Ghost, and Frame Blend use previous rendered frames.
- They are disabled/dimmed for still images rather than pretending a passthrough is an effect.
- Switching sources clears history so frames from an earlier clip cannot contaminate the new result.
Depth and Matte effects
- Examples include Depth Fog, Light Leak Behind, God Rays (Depth), Relight, 2.5D Parallax, Aerial Perspective, Background Blur/Grade, Subject Grade, and Rim Light.
- The node resolves its auxiliary depth or matte internally; no depth_in or matte_in socket is required.
- The first depth-based preview can download an approximately 47 MB local model and shows progress while preparing.
- For a video, the current shader render reuses an auxiliary map derived from the first frame, so a moving camera/subject can drift relative to the map.
Video planning and output
- Default sampling is 30 FPS with a maximum of 1,800 frames and a default longest side of 1,280 px; the planner can thin the effective FPS to stay within caps.
- With WebCodecs the encoder produces MP4. Without it, the fallback is an animated 256-color GIF and should be treated as a compatibility output.
- The Effects video renderer currently produces a silent video track; source audio is not muxed into the result.
- The card quotes the expected frame count and approximate time from the probed clip duration before committing.
Animated effects on stills
Effects that read time can move while a still-image card is selected. The saved still is exactly one frame from that animation, not a new animated file. Use a video input when the delivered effect must move.
Effects controls and presets
- Add path: Flowgen → Add → Image & Vector → Edit → Effects; Video & Motion → AI Edit → Effects.
- Card: EffectsNode.
- Properties: Card-owned effect picker and parameters; common properties shell.
- Controls: Effect category; Effect preset; Amount; Effect-specific parameters.
- Opened surfaces: Live image/video effect preview.
Tips
- Use the connected-source thumbnails: an effect that looks good on the sample can react very differently to your contrast and detail.
- Keep master Amount below 1 when an effect overwhelms the source before changing every individual control.
- Use click-to-pick rather than guessing centre or light coordinates.
- For time/depth effects, test a short clip before committing a long encode.
- Prefer Effects over paid generation for optical grades, grain, vignette, halftone, ASCII, distortion, flare, fog, and temporal trails.
Limitations and important notes
- Image live preview is capped for the card; the durable commit is full size.
- Video output is silent and defaults to a 1,280 px longest side.
- Temporal effects require a clip.
- Depth/matte video effects reuse a first-frame auxiliary map and can drift.
- The GIF fallback has 256 Colors and is not equivalent to MP4.
- Effects does not understand objects or synthesize missing scene content.
Troubleshooting
An effect looks unchanged on an image
Confirm it is not a Time/temporal effect, raise Amount, and wait for the GPU library to prepare. Temporal tiles are intentionally unavailable for stills.
A depth effect appears stuck while opening
The first local depth use can download the model and infer an auxiliary map. Watch the preparation progress and keep the source available.
The video preview looks right but video_out is empty
A clip preview is not a commit. Click Run and wait for decode/render/encode to finish.
The video has no sound
Effects currently encodes a silent video track. Preserve/mix the source audio later in Video Composition or an audio-aware render path.
A click placed a light or warp centre incorrectly
Click inside the actual displayed picture rather than the letterbox bars; use the effect Pick control so unit, percent, or polar coordinates are converted correctly.
Downstream still shows the previous effect
Wait for the two-second durable image commit or deselect the card to flush it, then confirm you connected image_out rather than the live preview surface.
FAQ
What is the difference between Effects and Gen Effect?
Effects is deterministic optical processing on existing pixels, local/free, and supports video. Gen Effect is a paid semantic image edit for changes such as weather, season, material, sky, or scene-aware reconstruction.
Can I wire a depth map into Effects?
No auxiliary socket is needed. Depth/Matte effects resolve their own local map.
Does an animated still effect create a GIF?
No. It previews motion while selected and saves one frame. Feed a video and run it for moving output.
Can MCP send only one changed fxParams key?
Do not rely on that. Send the complete bag, and replace it completely when changing fxId.