Effects System

ASCII Motion includes a procedural, non-destructive effects system. Effects are timeline-based blocks that process content at render time without modifying source data.

Overview

Info

Effects are non-destructive — they process content at render time and can be toggled, keyframed, and removed at any point. Original canvas data is always preserved.

Info

Looking for GPU effects? Effects operate on ASCII cells (characters and colors). For pixel-level post-processing like blur, glow, and distortion, see Shaders.

The effects system provides eight effects in four categories:

Adjustment

Effect	Purpose
Levels	Brightness, contrast, and gamma via input/output range controls
Hue & Saturation	HSL color manipulation

Mapping

Effect	Purpose
Remap Colors	Color replacement with auto-detection and palette mapping
Remap Characters	Character replacement with canvas analysis

Filter

Effect	Purpose
Scatter	Cell displacement with dithering patterns and noise
Motion Trails	Screen-space trailing with configurable colors

Distortion

Effect	Purpose
Wave Warp	Sine wave distortion along horizontal or vertical axis
Wiggle	Global displacement via wave or Perlin noise

Effect Blocks on the Timeline

Effects are added as blocks on the timeline with in/out points:

Each effect block has a start frame and duration that define when it's active
Drag block edges to adjust timing
Multiple effects can stack on a single layer — array order determines processing order
Toggle effects on/off with the eye icon without removing them

Application Scope

Effects can be applied at three levels:

Scope	Description
Per-Layer	Applied to a single layer's content before transforms
Per-Group	Applied to a layer group's intermediate composite
Global	Applied after all layers and groups are composited

Adding Effects

Select a layer, group, or the global effects header in the timeline

Click the + button to add an effect

Choose the effect type from the dropdown

The effect block appears on the timeline — adjust timing by dragging edges

Configure parameters in the effect properties panel

Keyframeable Properties

Every effect parameter can be animated over time:

Expand an effect block in the timeline to reveal its property tracks

Click on a property track at the desired frame to add a keyframe

Set the value and easing curve

Add additional keyframes to animate the property between values

Properties use either numeric interpolation (smooth transitions between values) or hold interpolation (snaps to the most recent keyframe value, used for enums and mappings).

Processing Pipeline

Effects are applied in this order during rendering:

text

Layer Content
  → Apply layer effect tracks (array order)
  → Apply layer transforms (position, scale, rotation)
  → Composite into group
    → Apply group effect tracks
    → Apply group transforms
  → Composite all groups/layers
    → Apply global effect tracks
  → Final output

Warning

Effect processing order matters. Effects higher in the stack are applied first. Drag effect tracks to reorder them.

Baking Effects

To permanently apply an effect's results to the canvas data:

Right-click an effect block → Bake Effect
Time-dependent effects (Wave Warp, Wiggle) generate per-frame output
Content frames are split at effect boundaries as needed
This operation is undoable