Motion Trails Effect
The Motion Trails effect creates screen-space trailing echoes of a layer's animated content. Previous frames are composited behind the current frame with configurable colors, producing ghosting and motion blur effects.
Motion Trails is a screen-space effect — it reads the composited layer output at previous frames to generate trails. It must be applied to layers that have animated position or content changes to produce visible results.
Parameters
Trail Count
| Range | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1–10 | 3 | Number of trailing echoes behind the current frame |
Frame Delay
| Range | Default | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 1–30 | 2 | Number of frames between each trail echo |
Higher delay spreads trails farther apart in time — useful for fast-moving content.
Trail Colors (1–10)
Each trail has its own color, applied as the text color for that echo:
| Slot | Default |
|---|---|
| Trail 1 | #AAAAAA |
| Trail 2 | #888888 |
| Trail 3 | #666666 |
| Trail 4 | #555555 |
| Trail 5 | #444444 |
| Trail 6 | #383838 |
| Trail 7 | #303030 |
| Trail 8 | #282828 |
| Trail 9 | #242424 |
| Trail 10 | #222222 |
The default gradient fades from light to dark grey. Customize per-trail colors for creative effects like rainbow trails or color-coded echoes.
Keyframing
Trail count and frame delay support numeric interpolation. Trail colors use hold interpolation.
How It Works
For each trail echo at index i:
- Reads the layer composite at frame
currentFrame - (i + 1) × frameDelay - Applies the trail color (slot
i) to all cells - Composites the echo behind the current frame content
Trails render back-to-front — the oldest echo is drawn first, with newer echoes and the current frame on top.
Use Cases
- Motion blur — Low frame delay (1–2), 3–5 trails, grey gradient colors
- Speed lines — High trail count (8–10), frame delay 1, similar colors
- Rainbow trail — Set each trail color to a different hue
- Ghost/afterimage — Low trail count (2–3), high frame delay (5–10)
Tips
- The effect is most visible on layers with animated position or changing content
- Reduce trail count for performance on complex scenes
- Combine with layer opacity to control overall trail intensity