Adding an Effect to a Composition
An effect is an animation that plays on fixtures. It has no place or time of its own: an effect always lives inside a composition, in one of its layouts, and occupies a bar on the Timeline with its own start and end. This article covers the first step: taking a ready-made effect from the library and placing it into a composition. For what to do next, see Настройки эффектов and Расстановка эффектов по времени.
Before you add an effect
- Open a composition. Double-click its card in the Compositions window — the composition opens in the Timeline window. While no composition is open, there is nowhere to add an effect: the Timeline window is empty, and the buttons in the effects library do nothing.
- Select a layout. The effect goes into whichever layout is selected in the Timeline: click the row with its name — the selected layout is highlighted with a lighter fill. If no layout is selected, the effect is added to the Main layout, which occupies the entire Mapping field. For more on layouts, see Создание и изменение лейаутов.
The "Effects" window
The effects library opens in two ways:
- the Effects button — the leftmost button on the button panel of the Timeline window;
- the Window → Effects menu.
The window unfolds right above the button and stays on top of the program's other windows, so it covers part of the timeline — that's normal: once you've added the effects you need, you close the window. Close it with the same button, or with Esc or Enter. If you prefer, drag the window by its title bar and dock it to the edge of the workspace — then it stays on screen permanently, and its position is saved with the workspace (see Workspace).
The window has three parts, top to bottom:
- a search field — filters effects by name as you type; the cross on the right clears the field;
- a row of categories — All, Favorites, Fixtures, Circles, Waves, Particles, Color and others. By default the All category is selected, showing every effect at once;
- a grid of cards — one card per effect: a preview image with its name underneath.
Hover the cursor over a card — its border highlights orange, the preview starts playing, and a + button appears in the center of the card. Animation is only computed for the card the mouse is hovering over, and only while the window is open, so the library barely affects program performance.
Search works within the selected category: if an effect definitely exists but doesn't turn up in search, switch to the All category. For more about the library itself and what's in it, see Библиотека эффектов.
How to add an effect
- Open a composition and select a layout in the Timeline window.
- Open the Effects window.
- Find the effect you need — pick a category or type part of its name into the search field.
- Hover the cursor over a card and see how the effect looks in motion.
- Add the effect to the composition using any of three ways:
| Method | How |
|---|---|
| Double click | Double-click the effect's image |
| "Plus" button | Hover over the card and press the + button that appears in its center |
| Right-click menu | Right-click the card and choose Add |
- Close the Effects window with Esc — it will no longer cover the timeline.
You can add as many effects as you like in one go: the window stays open, and each added effect is placed into the composition immediately.
What happens right after adding
- A new row with the effect's name appears in the selected layout, and its bar appears on the time scale. The bar spans the whole composition, from zero to the end; after that you shorten and move it manually, see Расстановка эффектов по времени.
- The effect is placed in the layout on top of the effects already there. If it is opaque, the effects below it become invisible — the stacking order is changed by dragging the row, see Режимы смешивания.
- The effect starts playing immediately: the result is visible in the Mapping field and in the 3D View window.
- The new effect is selected automatically, and its parameters open in the Properties window — you can immediately adjust color, speed, size. See Настройки эффектов.
- The effect's name comes from the library. To rename it, press F2 on the effect's row: in a composition with a dozen effects, meaningful names save a lot of time.
- Made a mistake — Ctrl+Z undoes the addition, and the selected effect is removed with Delete.
It's important to understand: what's added to the composition is a copy of the effect from the library. From then on it lives its own life — changing its settings does not change the library, and the library itself is the same across all projects. The same effect can be added to a composition ten times over and each copy configured differently.
If the effect ended up in the wrong place
- Wrong layout. Move an effect by dragging the row with its name into another layout — see Перемещение эффектов между лейаутами. To avoid moving it every time, select the layout you need beforehand.
- You need another copy of the same effect. Right-click the effect's row and choose Clone — a copy with all its settings and keyframes appears next to the original. This is faster than adding the effect from the library again and configuring it from scratch.
- The effect is needed in another composition. Effects belong to a specific composition, so they must be added to each one separately: open the other composition with a double click and add the effect to it the same way, from the Effects window. Layouts, however, are shared across the whole project — they will be the same ones.
Other ways to fill a composition
Besides the effects library, you can add your own files to a composition using buttons on the same panel of the Timeline window:
| Button | What it adds |
|---|---|
| Import Image | A picture. On the timeline it behaves like a regular effect |
| Import Video | A video file or an image sequence — a folder with numbered frames |
| Import Audio | An audio track. It appears as a separate row, drawn as a waveform on the time scale — handy for placing effects to music |
Imported files are not embedded into the project — only the path to them is saved. If you move the project to another computer, collect it first with File → Collect Project.
Effects are added to a projection differently — see Добавление эффектов на проекцию.
If the effect wasn't added, or you can't see it
Check in order:
- Double-clicking does nothing. No composition is open. Go to the Compositions window and double-click the card you need — its contents should appear in the Timeline.
- The effect isn't visible on the timeline. It may have landed in a collapsed layout: expand layouts with the triangle to the left of their names and look for the new row.
- The effect is there, but the fixtures don't light up. It's most likely covered by another effect — one sitting higher in the same layout, or an effect in a layout positioned higher on the timeline. In a new composition, this is often just the Atom 3D effect that sits in Main layout by default: delete it or uncheck its checkbox.
- Fixtures aren't inside the layout. An effect is only visible on fixtures within its layout's boundaries; the boundaries are visible in the Mapping field.
- The time cursor is outside the effect's bar. If the bar has already been moved or shortened, place the cursor inside it.
- The effect is disabled or transparent. Check the checkbox to the left of the effect's name and its opacity, as well as the overall Master Opacity on the playback panel.
- You can't see the timeline itself. The Effects window stays on top of the other windows — close it with Esc.