Effect catalog
275 effect types — 1.0 added sixty-nine, among them sixty more After Effects effects and three ink effects. Every numeric parameter on every one of them is keyframeable, and the folders below are the folders in Effects & Presets — searching by name is usually faster, but the grouping is what to scan when you do not yet know what you are looking for.
This count is derived, not written. scripts/featureCounts.cjs in the editor
repository reads EffectType — the union the renderer dispatches on — and a
test fails the build when the editor’s own reference disagrees with it. If this
page says 275 and the app shows more, the page is behind.
Effects are drawn by the engine, on the GPU. Since 0.9 they run inside the native engine on the same render graph the export uses, and an effect that is faded (Effect Opacity) or limited to a mask stays on the GPU rather than dropping to a per-frame CPU pass. At the 0.9 release, all 393 cases of the engine’s effects benchmark ran above 24 fps. Noise- and particle-based effects keep their controls and density, but a project from before the new engine can land in a different random arrangement.
Blur & Sharpen (18)
blur · sharpen · directional-blur · gaussian-blur · fast-box-blur ·
radial-blur · compound-blur · channel-blur · unsharp-mask ·
bilateral-blur · smart-blur · camera-lens-blur · vector-blur ·
radial-fast-blur · cross-blur · reduce-interlace-flicker · tilt-shift ·
frosted-glass
| Effect | Key parameters |
|---|---|
| blur | Radius |
| directional-blur | Angle, distance |
| sharpen | Amount |
compound-blur takes a second layer as its blur map, so the amount of blur varies per pixel — that is the one to reach for when a uniform blur looks flat. bilateral-blur and smart-blur preserve edges while smoothing everything between them, which is what makes them the skin and noise tools rather than the defocus ones.
Color Correction (47)
exposure · vibrance · colorama · lumetri · selective-color ·
shadow-highlight · apply-color-lut · brightness · contrast ·
saturate · grayscale · sepia · hue-rotate · hue-saturation ·
invert · levels · curves · posterize · tint · channel-mixer ·
color-balance · gamma-pedestal-gain · photo-filter · black-and-white ·
tritone · equalize · auto-levels · auto-contrast · auto-color ·
change-color · change-to-color · leave-color · toner ·
broadcast-colors · cineon-converter · color-offset ·
brightness-contrast · color-balance-hls · color-neutralizer ·
gradient-map · duotone · flicker · bleach-bypass · cross-process ·
split-toning · white-balance · clarity
| Effect | Key parameters |
|---|---|
| levels | Input black/white, gamma, output black/white |
| curves | A full tone curve — see the curve editor |
| hue-saturation | Hue, saturation, lightness |
| channel-mixer | The full 12-coefficient matrix, plus a monochrome switch |
| tint | Map black and white to two colours |
apply-color-lut runs on the GPU as a strip texture, so a .cube grade costs
about what a colour matrix costs. leave-color and change-to-color are
the selective ones: they read all three channels per output channel, which is
why they cannot be reduced to a lookup table the way the rest of this folder
can.
The four auto effects — Equalize, Auto Levels, Auto Contrast and Auto Color — read the frame’s histogram, so their result depends on the image and not only on their settings. That is also why they are recomputed rather than cached as a lookup.
Stylize (64)
mosaic · find-edges · roughen-edges · turbulent-noise · add-grain ·
median · glow · drop-shadow · inner-shadow · inner-glow · satin ·
bevel · noise · threshold · emboss · scatter · radial-shadow ·
cartoon · brush-strokes · strobe-light · color-emboss · halftone ·
kaleidoscope · vignette · burn-film · dust-scratches · noise-alpha ·
glass · texturize · threads · chromatic-aberration · hex-tile ·
cc-repetile · cc-scatterize · plastic · block-load · deep-glow ·
kernel · noise-hls · threshold-rgb · remove-grain · ink-bleed ·
noise-hls-auto · digital-glitch · vhs · crt · pixel-sort ·
halation · soft-glow · neon · hologram · dither · ascii ·
led-screen · pencil-sketch · oil-paint · prism · old-film ·
anamorphic-streaks · starglow · color-halftone · crystallize ·
chrome · night-vision
| Effect | Key parameters |
|---|---|
| glow | Radius, colour, intensity |
| inner-glow | Radius, colour, intensity — inside the alpha edge |
| drop-shadow | Distance, angle, softness, colour, opacity |
| inner-shadow | Same, cast inward |
| bevel | Depth, angle, softness |
| satin | Distance, size, colour |
The inner variants plus bevel and satin are the Photoshop-style
layer-effect family — reach for them on type and logos, where an outer shadow
would separate the mark from its background. The same nine are also available as
layer styles, which is usually the
better route when you want one of each.
ink-bleed spreads a layer’s edge into the page like wet ink — diffusion, pooling and granulation — and pairs with paper and ink-splatter in Generate for ink-wash work. roughen-edges works on the edge band only, scaled to the layer, so it no longer eats a small layer whole.
strobe-light differs per frame by design, and so do several of the 1.0 additions — vhs, old-film, digital-glitch and crt among them — which animate on their own over time from a seed, so the same frame still renders the same every time.
Generate (40)
lens-flare · numbers · timecode · audio-spectrum · checkerboard ·
grid · cell-pattern · vegas · fill · stroke · beam ·
four-color-gradient · gradient-ramp · fractal-noise · circle ·
ellipse · radio-waves · lightning · light-rays · light-sweep ·
audio-waveform · star-burst · snowfall · rainfall · write-on ·
light-burst · beam-path · cc-bubbles · fractal · particle-systems ·
path-stroke · plexus · scribble · paper · ink-splatter ·
eyedropper-fill · color-gradients · light-leaks · sparkle · fog
| Effect | Key parameters |
|---|---|
| gradient-ramp | Start and end points and colours, ramp shape |
| four-color-gradient | Four positioned colour points |
| fractal-noise | Scale, complexity, evolution |
| fill | A flat colour |
| stroke | Draws along a path |
| beam | Direction, length, width, colour |
fractal-noise with an animated evolution is the standard base for organic backgrounds, smoke and energy. Pair it with displacement-map to push other layers around with it. vegas runs lights along the layer’s own alpha contour, so it traces artwork you already have rather than a path you draw.
Distort (40)
transform · bulge · twirl · spherize · corner-pin · bezier-warp ·
wave-warp · turbulent-displace · curl-noise · displacement-map ·
motion-tile · bend · polar-coordinates · optics-compensation ·
mesh-warp · liquify · mirror · offset · ripple · magnify ·
warp · page-turn · split · slant · smear · rolling-shutter ·
flo-motion · lens · griddler · ball-action · drizzle · cc-tiler ·
ripple-pulse · reshape · blobbylize · cc-split-2 · vr-rotate-sphere ·
camera-shake · lens-distortion · heat-haze
| Effect | Key parameters |
|---|---|
| displacement-map | A layer parameter, plus horizontal and vertical scale |
| wave-warp | Wave type, height, width, speed |
| turbulent-displace | Amount, size, complexity, evolution |
| motion-tile | Tile width/height, output width/height, phase, mirror edges |
| bezier-warp | Four cubic edges, with a Coons-patch interior |
| transform | A second, keyframeable transform applied inside the effect stack — so it composites after the effects above it |
transform is more useful than it sounds: it lets you scale or rotate a layer
after an effect has been applied, rather than before, which is the difference
between scaling a blur and blurring a scale.
mesh-warp and liquify give you a grid and a brush over the same idea — push pixels without moving the layer. optics-compensation inverts real lens distortion rather than approximating it, so adding and removing it round-trips.
Keying (25)
set-matte · simple-choker · linear-color-key · shift-channels ·
keylight · luma-key · minimax · color-key · color-range ·
extract · spill-suppressor · matte-choker · alpha-levels ·
solid-composite · channel-combiner · remove-color-matting · unmult ·
cc-composite · color-difference-key · wire-removal ·
advanced-spill-suppressor · key-cleaner · refine-soft-matte ·
refine-hard-matte · difference-matte
| Effect | Key parameters |
|---|---|
| keylight | Screen colour, screen balance and gain, clip black/white, despill, choke, matte softness |
| set-matte | A layer parameter, plus use-luminance and invert |
| simple-choker | Grows or shrinks the matte edge |
Keying is best done on an adjustment layer or a pre-comp when you also want to grade the result — otherwise the grade fights the key’s edge handling.
Simulation (3)
caustics · shatter · wave-world
After Effects’ Simulation effects. The folder also holds the Cloner and Physics modifiers, which are newer and less proven than the rest of the app — see Known gaps.
Time (4)
echo · posterize-time · wide-time · force-motion-blur
| Effect | Key parameters |
|---|---|
| echo | Number of echoes, time between, decay — temporal trails |
| posterize-time | Target frame rate — stepped, animated-on-twos motion |
| wide-time | Forward steps and backward steps — echoes in both directions |
| force-motion-blur | Overrides the composition and layer motion-blur switches for this layer, with its own shutter |
These four are not part of the per-layer effect chain: they route through the
renderer’s time plumbing, because each one needs frames other than the one
being drawn. Echo samples earlier frames, so it needs motion to show anything.
posterize-time is how you get a hand-animated cadence out of smooth
interpolation.
Transition (19)
venetian-blinds · gradient-wipe · card-wipe · linear-wipe ·
radial-wipe · block-dissolve · iris-wipe · light-wipe · line-sweep ·
grid-wipe · jaws · pixel-polly · twister · card-dance ·
scale-wipe · radial-scale-wipe · glass-wipe · image-wipe · warpomatic
| Effect | Key parameters |
|---|---|
| linear-wipe | Angle, completion, feather |
| gradient-wipe | Completion, softness, invert gradient |
| card-wipe | Completion, rows, columns, flip order |
Every one of these is driven by a completion parameter, so a transition is one keyframed property rather than a pair of clips — which is what lets it sit anywhere in the stack, including on an adjustment layer.
gradient-wipe has no “Gradient Layer” picker. After Effects lets you nominate another layer as the map. Here the wipe is driven by the layer’s own luminance — which is also what After Effects does when no map is chosen — so put a Ramp or Fractal Noise below it in the stack to get the full effect.
Perspective (8)
bevel-alpha · bevel-edges · spotlight · sphere · cylinder ·
3d-glasses · basic-3d · long-shadow
The pseudo-3D family: they shade, tilt or shadow a flat layer as though it had depth, and they do not need the layer’s 3D switch. For real depth — a layer standing in space, lit by real lights — see 3D layers.
Channel (4)
arithmetic · calculations · set-channels · blend
Channel maths and routing: arithmetic against a constant, and After Effects’ calculations, set-channels and blend, which take channels or pixels from another layer. They live apart from Color Correction deliberately: that folder is about grading, this one is about arithmetic.
Utility (3)
overbrights · hdr-compander · hdr-highlight-compression
After Effects’ Utility effects, for values above 1.0 in a high-bit-depth project: showing where they are, and compressing or restoring them around a pass that would clip.
Plugin effects
Effects from installed native plugins are not part of this count. They are listed in the Plugins folder, the browser’s last, with the plugin named as their provider — so two plugins may both ship a “Glow” — and any presets a plugin ships are listed under their effect. An effect from a plugin that is not installed, not loaded or switched off stays in the project file, passes through, and comes back when the plugin does.
Looks
Twenty-five preset stacks are built on top of these effects and applied like any other preset — Teal & Orange, Bleach Bypass, Faded Film, Night Grade, Cross Process, Anamorphic Bokeh, Comic Book, Newsprint, Chromatic Lens and a set of transitions among them. They are ordinary effect stacks once applied, so open one up and retune it. See Animation presets.
Library and template card thumbnails are small previews of geometry and timing, not necessarily of every filter — the viewport and the export are the truth. See How a frame is rendered.