Effect recipes

01A glitch title

A line of type that tears a little, all the time, and panics on a beat if you later bind Speed.

1. Draw an artboard (A) and a text layer (T). Type the title. Pick a heavy weight so the slices read.
2. With the text selected, + Add › Effects › + Effect. Add Glitch, then Chromatic aberration, then Film grain.
3. On Glitch, set Amount to 0.04, Rows to 14, Speed to 0.4. Leave Motion on Timeline.
4. On Chromatic aberration, set Amount to 0.012.
5. On Film grain, set Amount to 0.08 and Speed to 0.3.

The stack runs top to bottom: the type tears, then the torn edges split red/blue, then grain sits on everything.

02A VHS frame

The whole artboard looks like a tape. One Effect Layer, the size of the artboard, so every layer underneath goes through it.

1. Draw the scene first — type, a photo, whatever sits in the frame.
2. Pick the Effect layer tool (Shift+E) and drag a box that covers the artboard. It should sit above the other layers in the tree.
3. + Effect: VHS, then CRT screen, then Vignette.
4. On VHS, Amount 1.2, Speed 0.5, Motion Free run — the tape should keep moving when the timeline is stopped.
5. On CRT screen, Scanlines 0.55, Curvature 0.12, Chromatic 0.012, Speed 0.2.
6. On Vignette, Intensity 0.7, Size 0.45, Softness 0.5.

03A glass card

A rounded rectangle that bends whatever is behind it.

1. Draw a background — a photo, a gradient, a busy group. This is what the glass will refract.
2. Draw a rectangle (R) on top. Round its Corners so the pane has soft corners. Do not fill it solid; a low-opacity fill is fine, a full fill hides the glass.
3. + Add › Effects › + Effect › Glass. Preset Frosted.
4. Raise Frost if the card should read as frosted; keep Refraction around 0.7 so the backdrop still moves when you drag the card.
5. Optional: Drop shadow on the same layer, after the glass, so the card lifts off the page.

Glass lives on the card, not on an Effect Layer — it reads the scene painted so far and shows it inside the shape. See Effects on a layer vs the Effect Layer.

04A bloom that pulses with the beat

A glow that opens on the kick. Needs a sound on the timeline first — Audio clips and Visuals that react to sound.

1. Put a track on the timeline (♪ + Audio) and play it once so analysis has something to read.
2. Select the layer that should glow — a title, a shape, a neon line. + Add › Effects › Bloom.
3. Set Threshold so only the bright bits glow (0.55 is a start). Intensity 1.2, Radius 3.
4. Click the ⏱ next to Intensity, then the ∿ on that row and pick Audio › Beat (or Bass if you want a longer swell).
5. If the glow never quite shuts, lower Threshold or put a small Mix keyframe at rest.

05What to read next

The family pages are the catalog with every knob: Blur, Color, Distort, Stylize, Light. Driving a parameter from sound, scroll or the pointer is Animating effects.