Effects Library

Effects Library is the Effects window that contains all of Light Stream's ready-made animations. Effects are added to a composition from here: you find a suitable one by its thumbnail or name and drop it onto the timeline.

The library is shared across the whole program and does not depend on the project: the same set of effects is available in any project on this computer. An effect in the library is a template. When you add it to a composition, an independent copy is created: its parameters are configured separately and do not affect the library or other copies of the same effect.

Opening the Effects Window

The window can be opened in two ways:

the Effects button on the Timeline window's toolbar — it is on the left, an icon shaped like scattered squares;
the Window → Effects checkbox in the main menu.

The window appears above the Timeline panel and does not get in the way: while it is open you can select layouts, move the playback cursor, and watch the result. Pressing the same button again hides the window.

The Effects window is a regular program panel: you can drag it by its title bar and dock it to any edge of the workspace, and resize it by dragging its edge. The window's position and whether it was open are saved with the workspace — see Workspace.

What the Window Shows

The window is divided into three parts, top to bottom:

A search field with a magnifying-glass icon on the left and a cross on the right.
A category row — the names of the sections effects are sorted into.
Effect tiles — a square preview image with its name below. If there are more effects than fit, the list scrolls with the mouse wheel.

Searching for an Effect

Start typing a name in the search field — the list immediately narrows down to matching effects. You can search by part of a name; letter case does not matter.

The search only looks within the selected category. To search the whole library, first select the All category. The cross to the right of the field clears the search and restores the full list.

Effect Previews

The tiles in the window are still images: each shows a single frame of the effect with default settings. Hover the cursor over a tile — the effect comes to life and starts playing from the beginning right inside the tile. Move the cursor away — the image freezes again. This is intentional: rendering dozens of animations at once would needlessly load the graphics card.

The preview is always square, while a layout in the project can be elongated. So an added effect may look different from its tile: a circle becomes an oval, and a grid stretches. This is not a bug — the effect simply stretches to fill the area it landed on.

Adding an Effect to a Composition

Open the composition you are building the animation in.
In the Timeline window, select the row — a layout or a projection — the effect should go on. A new effect always lands wherever the selection is.
Find the effect in the library and add it using any of three methods: double-click the tile, click the plus icon that appears in its center on hover, or right-click the tile → Add.

The effect appears on the timeline, is selected immediately, and its parameters open in the Properties window. For details, see Добавление эффекта в композицию; for configuring parameters, see Настройки эффектов and Keyframes and Effect Parameters.

The same effect can be added as many times as you like, into one composition or several: each copy lives its own life.

What the Library Consists Of

The library contains two kinds of effects, and they look no different in the window.

Light Stream's own effects — a set of effects with detailed settings: they have many parameters, some of them sound-reactive, and Set Channel Values doesn't draw an image at all — it directly sets fixture channel values. All of them are listed in the table below.

Graphic effects — the main and largest part of the library: ready-made animations for every taste — fire, water, smoke, patterns, kaleidoscopes, flashes, flying particles. Each has its own set of parameters defined by the effect itself: usually speed, scale, colors, and a few pattern parameters.

There is no functional difference between them: both kinds are added the same way and support keyframes, blend modes, and opacity.

Light Stream's Own Effects

Effect	What it does	Main parameters
Color	Fills the entire area with a single color. Useful as a backdrop for other effects or as a placeholder	Color
Gradient	A smooth transition between several colors moving across the area. The gradient points and their colors are set manually	Speed, Angle, Offset, Gradient
Lines	Running stripes at any angle, with adjustable blur and edge softening	speed, angle, blur, edge softening
Rectangle	A rectangle of a given size with rounded and blurred edges. The shape color and background color are set separately; the Switch button swaps them	Position X, Position Y, Width, Height, Size, Radius, Blur, two Colors and their opacity
Ellipse	The same, but the shape is a circle or oval	Position X, Position Y, Width, Height, Size, Blur, two Colors and their opacity
Atom	A scatter of moving points connected by thin lines — a "constellation". The Sound checkbox makes the pattern move to the beat of the music	Sound, Speed, Size, Brightness, min and Brightness, max, Color
Atom 3D	The same constellation, but in several layers, with a sense of depth. This is the effect used in the first composition of a new project	Speed, Size, Color
Circles 2	Rising bubbles of different sizes, colored with a transition between two colors	Count, Speed, Radius, Randomness, two Colors
Hypnosis	Concentric rings spreading out from the center. The center can be moved to any point	Speed, Size, Center X, Center Y, Color
Hypnosis 2	Ray sectors from the center, in which random segments flash	Speed, Count, Center X, Center Y, Color
Disco Tube	Flight through a tunnel of glowing rings	Speed, Count, Glow, Camera, Color
Circle 3D Space	Flight through a volumetric cellular structure; a vector sets the direction of movement	Count, Speed, Blur, Direction, Color
Tile Zoom	An endlessly zooming grid of squares	Speed, Scale, Thickness, Color
Hexagons	A honeycomb: a grid of hexagons shimmering through hues. Can react to sound	Sound, Speed (including separately for X and Y), Size, Hue Count, Hue, Saturation, Brightness, Border Size, Distance
Plasma	Slowly shifting swirling patterns. Five scale parameters shape the swirls	Speed, Scale 1…Scale 5, Color
Clouds	Drifting clouds against a sky background, colored with two colors	Speed, Scale, Lighting, Darkening, Convergence, Alpha, Hue, two Colors
Snow	Falling snow in several layers — distant snowflakes are smaller and slower	Speed, Size, Layers, Depth, Width, Color
Psycho Circles	A pulsating volumetric shape opening toward the viewer; it opens widest on the loudest parts of the soundtrack	Speed, Size, Brightness, Audio Decay, Audio Amplitude, Scale X and Scale Y, Color
Equalizer	Audio spectrum bars, colored with a gradient. The direction the bars grow in is chosen from a list	Direction, Bar Count, Multiplier, Speed, Decay, Gradient
Beat Light	A color flash on every beat of the music. The rise and decay speed is adjustable	Sound, Rise, Decay, Color
Color Change	Cycles through a list of colors, smoothly transitioning from one to the next. Colors in the list are set manually	Speed, transition time, color list
Text	A running line of text in any font installed on the system	Font, Text, Speed, Pause, Direction, Scale X and Y, Position X and Position Y, Angle, Color
Set Channel Values	Doesn't draw an image but directly sets the values of selected channels on selected fixtures. This is how you control service channels: shutter, strobe, pan/tilt, fixture modes	list of fixtures and their channel values
Spout	Receives an image from another program that supports Spout — for example After Effects, TouchDesigner, or Resolume — and applies it to fixtures like a regular effect. Appears in the library if the Spout component is available on the system	source selection

Sound-reactive effects take audio from the input selected in the program settings: the Settings → Properties menu, Audio Input group. If the input is turned off or the wrong source is selected, such effects will remain static — see Properties.

Favorites and Sorting Into Categories

An effect can be moved to another category: drag its tile onto a category name in the row above. This is how you build Favorites — your own short list of the effects you use most often.

Note that the effect moves, it isn't copied — it disappears from its previous category, but stays in place under All. The arrangement lasts only until the program is closed: on the next launch, effects are sorted back into their original categories.

Renaming behaves the same way: double-clicking the name under a tile lets you rewrite it, but the original name returns after the program restarts. Renaming in the library does not affect effects already added to compositions — their names are edited directly on the timeline.

If Something Goes Wrong

The Effects window won't open. Check the Window → Effects checkbox in the main menu. If the window was docked to an edge of the workspace, look for its tab where it was last time — see Workspace.

The tiles aren't moving. That's expected: the animation only plays under the mouse cursor. Hover the cursor over the tile.

Can't find an effect that definitely exists. Most likely one of the categories is selected while the effect is in another. Switch to All and search again.

Double-clicking an effect doesn't add anything. No composition is open in the program. Create or open a composition in the Compositions window — see Compositions.

The effect was added to the wrong place. It lands on whichever timeline row was selected. Drag it to the correct layout — Moving Effects Between Layouts.

The effect was added, but the fixtures don't light up. The playback cursor must be within the effect's clip. Also check the effect's opacity and whether another effect above it is covering it — Blend Modes.

On the mapping the effect looks different from the tile. The preview is square, while the effect stretches across the layout's area. Adjust the layout size or the effect's own scale parameters.

The Favorites I built disappeared after restarting. In the current version, the category arrangement is not saved between program launches.

Category	What's in it
All	The entire library. The window opens on this category the first time
Unsorted	Effects that have not been assigned any category
Favorites	An empty category you fill yourself, so effects you use often don't have to be searched for each time
Fixtures	Effects that don't work with an image but directly with fixture channels — for example Set Channel Values
Circles, Flow, Kaleidoscope, Fireworks, Particles, Waves, Color, Audio, Static, None	Thematic categories: effects sorted by the nature of the image — rings and circles, flowing swirls, mirrored patterns, flashes and fireworks, flying particles, waves, fills and color transitions, sound-reactive effects, still images