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The effect stack

Effects are per-scope and ordered: Clip, Layer, Group and Master. See Effect reference for what each effect does.

Scopes

The Inspector picker chooses Clip, Layer or Master. Open group FX from Groups or a group header. Adding an effect or loading a preset changes only the captured target scope.

Scope What it processes
Clip One clip's pixels
Layer The composited result of that layer after its own transform
Group The composite of its members, before the parent group or Master
Master The canvas after layers and groups

Adding, naming and removing

The Effects tab's Add menu and the legacy Add effect menu offer different lists.

The Effects tab's Add menu offers every available kind — all 27 — labelled by name. Use that one. The Inspector's separate legacy shortcut offers only the original seven, and two of its entries (Glow, Pixelate) no longer match the effects' current names (Bloom / Glow, Pixelate / Bit Crush), so those two rows currently do nothing. See Not verified below.

A newly added instance:

The panel shows n/16 live. Select instances in the list, then use Selected actions to enable, bypass, move, duplicate or remove the selection.

Maximum 16 instances per scope. Add is refused at 16; a preset with more than 16 is rejected entirely.

Selecting several effects

Selection belongs to one effect stack. It is separate from selecting clips in the matrix.

Action Result
Click an effect row Select only that effect and set the range anchor
⌘-click a row Toggle that effect in or out of the selection
⇧-click a row Select the ordered range from the anchor to that effect
⌘⇧-click a row Add that ordered range to the selection
Click a row's checkbox Add or remove just that effect
Clear selection Deselect everything without changing the stack

Selected rows have checked boxes and a selected appearance. The panel reports N selected. The row also exposes named accessibility actions to select only that effect, toggle its selection, or extend the range to it.

The form below the list labels Editing primary effect: followed by its name. Its Enabled, name, Wet amount, Blend, parameter and animation controls edit only the primary effect, even when several effects are selected. Use Selected actions for batch changes.

Selected actions

Every changed batch creates one Undo step. Consecutive batches remain separate steps, including when performed quickly. One Undo or Redo restores the entire batch; it clears transient selection. A rejected operation or an unchanged enable/bypass operation preserves the stack and Undo/Redo history.

Duplication is refused unless the whole selection fits within 16 instances. Enabling or duplicating an unavailable effect is refused for the complete selection; unavailable effects can still be bypassed or removed. An opaque future-version stack must be replaced or cleared before editing.

Selection follows surviving instance identities after stack edits. Changing layers or the editing session clears it; selection is not saved with the set. Clearing selection or deselecting the final member stays empty. A delayed batch action is refused if its captured stack or selection has changed.

Ordering

Array top to bottom: the first instance receives the input image, and each subsequent one receives the previous result. Duplicate selected inserts each copy directly beneath its original. Up/down moves selected blocks one position, preserving their relative order.

The complete processing order is:

text
clip source → clip transform → clip effects (top→bottom) → clip opacity
  → layer clip transition → layer transform → layer effects → composite with blend + opacity
    → optional group stages (inner group → parent: composite, transform, effects, opacity)
      → master transform → master effects → master opacity over black

Bypass and Wet amount

Both are handled the same way in the render loop: an instance that is disabled or whose Wet amount is 0 is skipped entirely. Rows read On or Bypassed.

Wet amount is the instance's own blend-opacity — it is not "dry/wet" in the plug-in sense:

Situation Result
Blend Alpha, Wet 1 The processed image replaces the input
Blend Alpha, Wet < 1 A dissolve between input and processed image, chosen so keyed-out pixels stay gone
Any other blend, Wet < 1 The blend is evaluated, then alpha is re-mixed between original and processed coverage

Blend modes

Each instance chooses one of exactly 22 blend modes:

Alpha, Add, 50 Add, Subtract, 50 Subtract, Multiply, 50 Multiply, Screen, Darken, Lighten, 50 Lighten, Difference, 50 Difference, Difference I, Exclusion, Overlay, 50 Overlay, Hard Light, Burn, 50 Burn, Dodge, 50 Dodge

This is a larger set than the 14 offered for layer blending. The two pickers are deliberately different: Chaser and Mask exist in the model but are rejected for effect instances.

The …50 modes have their own fader profile: they sweep background→midpoint across the whole fader, whereas the other modes reach their midpoint at Wet 0.5 and full strength at Wet 1.

Resetting

Reset parameters restores the effect's documented defaults and Wet amount 1, blend Alpha, and deletes every animation driver on that instance. It is the fast way back to a known state.

Effect presets

Save preset… / Load preset… in the Effects tab.

Preserving work you cannot read

This is a deliberate design rule worth knowing: foreign or future effect data is never silently substituted.

These guards preserve unrecognized effect payloads; they do not guarantee visually identical results across arbitrary application versions.

Not verified