9 — Psychedelic VFX (advanced)

The flagship tutorial. Starting from the sample clip, you will build a full-frame, animated, colour-cycling psychedelic treatment: mirrored symmetry, layered warps, duotone + neon light, analog damage, a depth-driven parallax layer, and four procedural drivers so nothing repeats mechanically.

Source clip: aphelion-editor/samples/source.mp4 Time: about 20–30 minutes. Difficulty: advanced — it uses Property Drive, depth generators, and a fan-out branch.

What you are building

flowchart LR
    VI[Video Input<br/>source.mp4] --> KA[Kaleidoscope]
    KA --> MI[Mirror]
    MI --> TW[Twirl]
    TW --> WW[Wave Warp]
    WW --> RGB[RGB Split]
    RGB --> CA[Chromatic Aberration]
    CA --> CG[Color Grading]
    CG --> DU[Duotone]
    DU --> BL[Bloom]
    BL --> NG[Neon Glow]
    NG --> PS[Pixel Sort]
    PS --> VH[VHS]
    VH --> SL[Scanlines]
    SL --> FG[Film Grain]
    FG --> VI2[Vignette]
    VI2 --> MG[Merge]
    VI2 --> V[Viewer]
    MG --> V

    VI --> DP[Depth Parallax]
    DN[Depth Noise] --> DP
    DP --> MG

    OSC1[Oscillator A] --> PD1[Property Drive] --> TW
    OSC2[Oscillator B] --> PD2[Property Drive] --> KA
    OSC3[Oscillator C] --> PD3[Property Drive] --> DP
    RND[Random] --> PD4[Property Drive] --> GL[Glitch]
    VH -. insert .-> GL

Two things make this "advanced":

1. A fan-out branch — the source feeds both the main colour chain and a separate depth-parallax branch; the two are merged at the end.
2. Four procedural drivers — Oscillator and Random nodes override node properties with no keyframes, so the animation never loops on a fixed beat.

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Step 1 — Project and source (2 min)

1. Start a new project. Set the project fps and dimensions to match the clip (the Video Input's Project → Sync Timeline will adopt the media's duration and frame rate when it loads).
2. Add a Video Input and a Viewer. Rename them PLATE and VIEW (select the node, press F2).
3. Select the Video Input and set Source → File to samples/source.mp4. Leave Quality → Use Proxy on and Quality → Decode Width Cap at 0.
4. Connect PLATE.frame → VIEW.frame and confirm the clip plays.

Performance note: this chain is heavy. In VIEW → Performance → Proxy Width, keep the proxy at 960 while you work; raise it only for the final check. The performance overlay (Preferences → Performance → Show performance overlay) shows whether you are inside the frame budget.

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Step 2 — Symmetry core (3 min)

Insert nodes by pressing Tab, searching the name, and pressing Enter — the new node is inserted into the selected connection.

1. Add Kaleidoscope between PLATE and VIEW.
   • Pattern → Segments = 8
   • Pattern → Rotation = 12
   • Center → Center X/Y = 50 / 50
2. Add Mirror after it.
   • Mirror → Axis = Vertical
   • Mirror → Split = 50
3. Add Twirl after that.
   • Twist → Angle = 45
   • Region → Radius = 55
   • Twist → Strength = 100
4. Add Wave Warp last in this group.
   • Wave → Amplitude = 30, Wave → Frequency = 8
   • Wave → Direction = 0

You now have a mirrored, twisted, rippling field. If it is too disorienting, lower Wave → Amplitude — colour and light come next.

Tip: every one of these nodes has Processing → Mix (100). Lowering it blends the effect with its input, which is the fastest way to taste-test a parameter without committing.

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Step 3 — Colour and light (4 min)

1. Add RGB Split.
   • Channels → Red X = 8, Channels → Blue X = -8
2. Add Chromatic Aberration.
   • Aberration → Amount = 40, Aberration → Radial = 20
3. Add Color Grading.
   • Primary → Exposure = 10
   • Primary → Contrast = 120
   • Primary → Saturation = 170
4. Add Duotone.
   • Colors → Shadows = #120A30 (deep indigo)
   • Colors → Highlights = #FFD478 (warm gold)
   • Processing → Mix = 60 — keep some original colour
5. Add Bloom.
   • Glow → Threshold = 70, Glow → Intensity = 40
   • Blur → Radius = 12, Glow → Tint = white
6. Add Neon Glow.
   • Neon → Color = #40FFDC (cyan)
   • Neon → Edge Threshold = 60
   • Neon → Glow Radius = 6, Neon → Intensity = 200
   • Neon → Background = 30

The image should now glow with cyan edges over a gold/indigo duotone base. Tune Duotone → Mix and Neon Glow → Background to taste.

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Step 4 — Analog damage (4 min)

Add these in order. Use Processing → Mix to dial each one back — they stack fast.

1. Pixel Sort
   • Sort → Sort Key = choose Interactive/Brightness so the streaks read
   • Sort → Threshold = 55
   • Sort → Max Length = 64
   • Sort → Reverse = off
2. VHS
   • VHS → Bleed = 20, VHS → Noise = 10
3. Scanlines
   • Lines → Intensity = 35, Lines → Spacing = 3
   • Lines → Line Width = 1
   • Motion → Flicker = 5 (raise for a buzzing CRT)
4. Film Grain
   • Grain → Amount = 25, Grain → Grain Size = 100
   • Grain → Monochrome = off (coloured grain suits the palette)
5. Vignette
   • Filter → Strength = 55, Filter → Softness = 60

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Step 5 — Depth-driven parallax layer (5 min)

This is the fan-out branch. It gives the frame a second, independently moving world that dissolves through the main one.

1. Add a Depth Noise. Noise → Scale = 32, Noise → Seed = 0.
2. Add a Depth Parallax.
3. Connect Depth Noise.depth → Depth Parallax.depth.
4. Connect PLATE.frame → Depth Parallax.frame (the source now feeds two branches — that is intentional).
5. Add a Merge before the Viewer:
   • background = Vignette.frame (the end of the main chain)
   • foreground = Depth Parallax.frame
   • Merge → Blend Mode = Screen or Overlay (experiment)
   • Merge → Opacity = 40
6. Connect Merge.frame → VIEW.frame.

Scrub the timeline and watch the parallax layer shear against the base.

Why this works: Depth Parallax offsets each pixel by its depth value, so a noise field becomes an organic, non-uniform smear. It is the closest thing to a feedback loop that an acyclic graph can do — and it is cheap.

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Step 6 — Glitch bursts (3 min)

1. Add a Glitch node between VHS and Scanlines (connect VHS.frame → Glitch.frame, Glitch.frame → Scanlines.frame).
   • Glitch → Block Size = 24
   • Glitch → Seed = 0
   • Glitch → Amount = 0 for now — it will be driven below.
2. Add a Random node:
   • Random → Per Frame = on
   • Random → Interval = 2
   • Random → Min = 0, Random → Max = 70
   • Random → Seed = pick any value
3. Add a Property Drive.
   • Drag Glitch.frame into Property Drive.target.
   • Drive → Property = Glitch · Amount.
   • Connect Random.value → Property Drive.value.

The glitch now fires in irregular bursts the eye cannot predict. To make the bursts stutter rather than ramp smoothly, keep Interval low (1–3).

Add a Range Check between Random and Property Drive (Range → Min = 0.7, Range → Max = 1) to gate the glitch into occasional "hits" instead of continuous variation.

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Step 7 — Procedural motion (4 min)

Now make the warps breathe. Repeat this pattern for each driver:

Pattern: add a driver → add a Property Drive → drag the target node's output socket into the Drive's target input → pick the property in Drive → Property → connect the driver's value output to the Drive's value input.

Because the frequencies are not integer multiples of each other, the composite motion takes a long time to repeat — this is what separates a procedural look from a looping one.

Variations to try:

• Point Oscillator D at Chromatic Aberration → Aberration · Amount instead and watch the split pulse with the beat.
• Add a second Property Drive on Neon Glow → Neon · Intensity driven by an Oscillator at 2 Hz for a strobing edge light.
• Drive Pixel Sort → Sort · Threshold with Timeline Normalized to sweep the streaks across the shot in one direction.

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Step 8 — Final grade and export (2 min)

1. Add one more Color Grading at the very end of the main chain (after Vignette, before the Merge) for a final look pass:
   • Balance → Temperature = 10 (warmer)
   • Primary → Contrast = 110, Primary → Saturation = 120
2. Check the whole shot at full quality: set VIEW → Performance → Proxy Width back to 1920 and scrub. If playback drops frames, see the tips below.
3. Export: File → Export…, choose a format and destination. Export reads the active Viewer, so select VIEW (click it and use the graph or the Active viewer status message) before exporting. Enable audio in the export options if you want the clip's sound.

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Complete parameter reference

Keeping it real-time

Troubleshooting

Next steps

• Feed the finished chain into Image Input → Corner Pin and match-move a logo over it with the Planar Tracker.
• Rebuild the "analog damage" group as a custom node so you can re-use it.
• Replace Depth Noise with a Depth Gradient + tracked matte for scene-specific parallax — see Depth maps and effects.