Overlay Effects are a stackable chain of GPU effects — glitches, lenses, distortions, glows, your own GLSL — that can sit on any layer. On a regular layer the chain styles that layer alone; on an adjustment layer it restyles everything composited below it. (The typed per-layer effects — Running Glow, 3D Depth, Motion Blur, Grow Fill — live in the separate LAYER EFFECTS section.)
Add effects
Open the layer’s OVERLAY EFFECTS section (or add an adjustment layer from Add Channel) and click + Select Effect. The picker is searchable — type to filter across names and packs, arrow keys + Enter to add — with a Recently used strip on top. Up to 4 effects stack per layer, in order.
Each effect card has:
- an enable key (lit when on),
- a Mix amount,
- a fold — click the effect’s name to collapse it,
- its own parameters, each keyframable with the usual stopwatch (they appear in the keyframe list as effect tracks).
Effects ride the layer
On a regular layer an effect runs in the layer’s own box: move the shape and its halftone screen, scanlines or vignette travel with it; rotate or scale the layer and the pattern turns and scales like a printed texture. Effects are also clipped to the layer’s real shape — a gradient sweeps the glyphs of a word and leaves the counter of an “O” empty. Effects that are supposed to spread past the edge (glows, warps) are not clipped, and every effect has a Clip to layer shape tick you can flip either way.
On an adjustment layer effects own the whole frame, as before.
Active Range — scope an effect inside the clip
Every effect has an Active Range: a two-handle slider that limits it to a slice of the clip. Inside a range the effect’s clock restarts from zero, so a glitch, pulse or sweep fires from its first frame exactly where you placed it.
Clips carrying effects show a yellow Fx chip — click it to open one lane per effect under the clip, where each range is a bar you can drag to move and trim by either end. A colour line along the clip’s bottom edge marks where each effect is active even with the lanes closed.
The catalog
Effects are grouped in packs. Highlights:
| Pack | Effects |
|---|---|
| Distortion | Fisheye, Wave Warp, Shockwave, Mirror (with reflection Fade), Turbulent Displace, Vector Field Warp |
| Glitch | Digital Glitch, VHS, RGB Split, CRT Pixel Matrix |
| Lens / Optical | Radial Blur, Vignette, Lens Prism, SDF Lens Blur (a travelling defocus lens with orbit/sweep paths and a Magnify loupe), Kaleidoscope |
| Glow | Glow, Aura Blur, Gradient Motion Beam, Neon Glow, Lines Draw |
| Material & Color | Material (Glass, Chrome, Gel, Frosted, Holographic), Colorama / Gradient Map (standard gradient picker ramp), Halftone / Engraving, Alpha Choker + Feather, Film Grain, Scanlines |
| Motion & Graphic | Directional Smear, Light Rays, Long Shadow / Faux Extrude, Animated Outline Bands, Pixel Stretch |
| Custom | Your own GLSL — most Shadertoy code pastes in unedited (iResolution, iTime, iFrame and friends are provided) |
Every effect ships with presets and works identically in preview and export.
Neon Glow (PRO)
A light runs along the layer’s own outline. What it follows depends on the layer: shapes use the real path; text and motion templates trace the actual glyph contours — at Trail 100% every letter gets its own closed neon ring, shorter trails run a single light across the letters like one bent wire; images use the traced alpha silhouette; other media use the (rounded) media frame. Speed and Hue Cycle are integrated rates, so keyframing them ramps smoothly.
Lines Draw (PRO)
Up to eight tapered, glowing ribbons chase each other along the layer’s outline. The signature behaviour is speed accumulation: ribbon width and trail length ride the head’s speed — trails bloom on sprints and collapse to a dot at stops. 16 speed profiles (AE Smooth, the editor’s easings, and rhythm profiles like Dash & Pause, Heartbeat, Chaos), Direction (Forward / Backward / Ping-Pong), Path Smooth for rounding sharp corners, and one-click colour palettes.
Ordering notes
- A regular layer’s Overlay Effects render before its transitions, so a transition receives the finished look.
- The Motion Blur layer effect runs last of all, blurring the layer’s finished look.
Where to go next
- Layer Effects — Running Glow, 3D Depth, Motion Blur, Grow Fill
- Grow Fill
- Keyframe Builder
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