Reactive modes
Reactive Modern and Reactive Retro turn footage into an active graphic field. Start in Dither Mode, choose Reactive Modern or Reactive Retro, then use Reactive To to decide what the pattern follows. Reaction Amount sets how strongly that signal changes the result. Target is a separate placement decision: it limits the finished effect to Global, Bright Areas, Edges, or a connected Matte. A reaction can follow edges while targeting remains Global, or a broad reaction can be held inside Bright Areas.
Build a Reactive Modern structure
Set Reactive Engine to choose the response character, then select a Structure. Liquid, Cells, Grid, Lattice, Glyphs, Mix, Polygonal, and GUI each expose their own controls.
| Structure | Controls that make the difference |
|---|---|
| Liquid | Start with Interaction Depth, Band Width, Carrier Direction, and Motion Rate for a flowing image-led field. |
| Cells | Cell Shape chooses the local unit. Raise Cell Scale for larger islands, Cell Detail for more subdivision, Density Mask to clear cells from dark areas, and Cell Turbulence for irregular boundaries. |
| Grid | Raise Micro Density for more subdivisions. Prune removes inactive blocks, Phi Bias changes the layout balance, Macro Balance trades broad framing against interior detail, and Signal Fill adds detail inside active blocks. |
| Lattice | Use the shared carrier controls to make a structured field that can hold a frame together. |
| Glyphs | Glyph Set offers Binary, ASCII, Symbols, Outline, Letters, Digits, Mixed, Blocks, Custom, Emoji, and Rain. Glyph Scale, Glyph Detail, Threshold, Source Color, and Variance control size, subdivision, empty dark regions, source color, and character variation. |
| Mix | Choose Glyph Set and Glyph Set B, then use Mix Method: Random, Luminance, or Edge. Mix Balance sets the share between the two sets. |
For Glyph Set: Custom, type a word or phrase in Custom Text. The characters repeat across the image and respond to its content. Rate controls glyph cycling; 0 freezes it. Rain adds Rain Speed, Rain Trail, Rain Density, and Rain Angle. Raise density for more active columns and trail for longer character streaks. Rotate the angle to redirect travel.
The shared carrier controls shape movement across Liquid, Cells, Grid, and Lattice. Wave Shape chooses the field contour. Wave Rate sets the carrier rate; values near 0 make broad bands and negative values reverse progression. Interaction Depth raises source influence, Band Width thickens the scan pattern, and Carrier Direction chooses its travel direction. Motion Rate animates the carrier, while Phase Offset moves it by hand. Wake Length extends energy along the chosen direction. Signal Feedback adds detail-led frequency variation, Breakup Grain adds sparkle and dropoff, and Response Curve makes edge contrast steeper. Raise Highlight Hold to keep bright source detail readable. Source Separation pulls carrier energy away from the source; values above 1 add overdrive.
Use Polygonal and GUI
Polygonal turns the source into a faceted surface. Shape selects the facet character. Raise Detail for denser cells, Edge Width for stronger seams, Variation for more seed jitter and source-led drift, and Fill for fuller facet interiors.
GUI opens Blob Look. HUD Overlay is the denser interface field. Blob Track is the sparse tracking view. Blob Track alone exposes Background: Original keeps the source image, Black replaces its RGB with black while retaining source alpha, and Transparent outputs tracked-effect coverage. Blob Detail finds smaller regions, Box Scale enlarges tracking boxes and crops, Thumbnail Zoom magnifies source around each centroid, and Detection Boxes, Crop Highlight, Box Fill, and Blob Color shape the overlay. HUD Overlay exposes controls such as Scan Mesh, Constellation Lines, ID Chips, Telemetry, Target Reticle, Voronoi Fill, Metaball Body, and HUD Ground. HUD Scale changes the HUD field without changing Blob Track boxes.
Shape Reactive Retro
Reactive Retro has Retro Style choices Standard, Grit, Consumer, Rexic, and Classic. Use Carrier Shape, Emitter Origin, Custom Origin, Shape Warp, Carrier Distortion, Carrier Color, and Carrier Channels to decide the carrier's form, starting point, deformation, color, and channel treatment. Begin with shape and origin, then add warp or distortion after the carrier reads clearly.
Try this: animated lyric field
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Choose Reactive Modern > Structure: Glyphs > Glyph Set: Custom.
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Enter one short phrase in Custom Text, raise Glyph Detail, and increase Threshold until dark areas can breathe.
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Add a small Motion Rate and set Source Color to let the footage tint the characters.
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Use Target: Bright Areas when the phrase should gather in highlights rather than cover the frame.
When the frame becomes too busy
Lower Interaction Depth or Reaction Amount before removing the structure. For Grid and Cells, raise Prune or Density Mask. For Glyphs, raise Threshold and lower Variance. When an effect appears in the wrong place, adjust Target rather than changing the reaction driver.