What is a liquid effect?

A liquid effect displaces pixels along a smooth flowing field, relocating the image rather than blurring it, which is how a moving water surface actually distorts what is behind it.

What is the difference between liquid distortion and blur?

A blur averages neighbouring pixels and destroys detail. Liquid displacement moves them, so everything stays sharp and only its position changes, exactly as a reflection does.

The bright bands on the bottom of a pool, produced when a curved water surface focuses light rather than scattering it. They are the same refraction this effect imitates.

liquid effect

SourceEffect

01/ ORIGIN

who, when, what for

Look through moving water and nothing is lost, only moved: the surface acts as a shifting lens, redirecting light rather than scattering it, which is why a pebble under a stream stays sharp while its position wanders. The bright bands on the bottom of a pool, caustics, are the same phenomenon focused rather than spread. Digital fluid displacement borrows the geometry directly, using a smooth noise field where physics would use a surface.

02/ SWEEP

SCALE · min / mid / max

SCALE sweep

SCALE 1SCALE 1: fine flow features, a tight rippled surface

SCALE 2SCALE 2: the default, flow readable as moving water

SCALE 8SCALE 8: broad currents, the whole frame drifting in large sweeps

03/ SPEC

the real controls

This effect displaces each pixel along a smooth continuous noise field, so the image is relocated rather than averaged and stays sharp everywhere. SCALE runs from 1 to 8 pixels with a default of 2 and sets the size of the flow features, deciding whether the result reads as fine ripple or broad current. AMOUNT from 0 to 10 sets displacement distance. Because samples are moved rather than blended, in kott detail survives the distortion completely, which is the difference between this and any blur.

SCALE1 to 8 · default 2

AMOUNT0 to 150 · default 110

it can move to the music

Every control of this effect can follow a track. Pick a signal in the studio’s audio panel (the beat, the downbeat, a build, the bass, or an EQ band you set yourself), point it at scale or any other control here, and set how far it moves. The sound comes from your microphone, a browser tab or a file you load, and it is analysed on your own machine.

how the audio routing works

04/ FAQ

questions people actually type

What is a liquid effect?: A liquid effect displaces pixels along a smooth flowing field, relocating the image rather than blurring it, which is how a moving water surface actually distorts what is behind it.
What is the difference between liquid distortion and blur?: A blur averages neighbouring pixels and destroys detail. Liquid displacement moves them, so everything stays sharp and only its position changes, exactly as a reflection does.
What are caustics?: The bright bands on the bottom of a pool, produced when a curved water surface focuses light rather than scattering it. They are the same refraction this effect imitates.

05/ OUT

open it, then browse

Try liquid effect in the studio

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