Chapter 21: Effects and Adjustment Layers
Effects are a stack of image filters carried by a layer. On an ordinary layer they filter that layer alone; on an adjustment layer they filter the composite of everything beneath it, exactly as in After Effects.
Adding an effect
- Select one or more layers on the canvas or in the timeline.
- Open Layer ▸ Effects and pick an effect.
The effect is appended to the layer’s stack and an Effects section appears in the Layer properties on the right. There is no “add” button inside that section by design — effects always come from the menu.
Layer ▸ Effects ▸ Remove All Effects clears the stack on the selection.
The effect catalogue
| Effect | What it does | Parameters |
|---|---|---|
| Brightness | Lightens or darkens the layer | Amount 0–200% (default 120) |
| Saturation | Boosts or drains colour intensity | Amount 0–200% (default 140) |
| Sepia | Warm monochrome tone | Amount 0–100% (default 100) |
| Blur | Gaussian blur | Radius 0–50 px (default 6) |
| Glow | Soft outer glow around opaque pixels | Intensity 0–100%, Radius 4–32 px, Colour |
| Drop Shadow | Offset shadow cast by the layer | Offset X/Y ±50 px, Blur 0–50 px, Opacity 0–100%, Colour |
| Vignette | Darkens the edges towards a bright centre | Amount 0–100%, Aperture 10–100%, Colour |
The catalogue is deliberately short. An effect only ships when it can render in the browser and has a matching transformation in the server renderer, so what you see in the editor is what the rendered movie shows. Contrast, edge detect, emboss, and bevel are absent for that reason.
Editing the stack
The Effects section in the Layer properties shows one card per effect:
- Sliders and colour pickers for that effect’s parameters.
- An enable toggle — a disabled effect stays in the stack but stops rendering, which is the fast way to A/B a look.
- A trash button to remove that one effect.
Effects apply in stack order, so a Blur followed by a Brightness is not the same as the reverse.
Note: effect parameters are not keyframable. To animate a look, put the effect on an adjustment layer and animate the adjustment layer’s opacity or timing instead.
Adjustment layers
An adjustment layer has no content of its own. Its effects apply to the composite of every layer below it in the scene’s stacking order.
Layer ▸ New ▸ Adjustment Layer creates one covering the full canvas. Its properties panel says so explicitly and points you back at Layer ▸ Effects, because an adjustment layer with no effects does nothing at all.
Why use one
- Grade a whole scene at once. One vignette + saturation pair on an adjustment layer beats copying the same two effects onto eight layers.
- Grade part of a scene. Only layers below the adjustment layer are affected. Move it up or down the stack (Layer ▸ Bring Forward / Send Backward) to change what it touches.
- Grade part of a shot. An adjustment layer obeys the ordinary Timing controls, so a blur that only exists between 2 s and 3 s is an adjustment layer with an in-time and a duration.
- Fade an effect in. Animate the adjustment layer’s opacity: at 0% the grade is gone, at 100% it is fully applied.
Limits
- It carries no media, so there is nothing to select inside it.
- Effects on it are still not keyframable; timing and opacity are the animation handles.
- Stacking several adjustment layers works, and they compose in order from the bottom up.
Effects vs. the Shadow field
The Transform section also has a Shadow dropdown with box-shadow presets. That is a CSS box shadow on the layer’s box: it follows the rectangle, not the artwork. The Drop Shadow effect follows the layer’s opaque pixels — the right choice for text, logos, and cut-out images.
Troubleshooting
The effect does nothing. Check the enable toggle on the effect card, and check the parameter — Brightness at 100%, Saturation at 100%, or Blur at 0 are all no-ops.
An adjustment layer has no visible result. Either it has no effects yet (Layer ▸ Effects), or every layer sits above it. Send it forward until it is over the layers you want to grade.
The rendered video looks different from the canvas. Report it — the catalogue exists precisely so the two agree. Check first that you are comparing the same frame, and that a track matte or blend mode isn’t interacting with the effect.
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