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Liquid effect

Chrome Relief

Chrome Relief is a liquid video effect in FRCTL, the browser VJ studio. The image becomes a lit metal surface, its own brightness shaping the topology.

Runs live on video, images, a camera or generated art. Stack it with any other effect, and route LFOs, envelopes or any of ten audio bands to its controls so it moves with the music.

Try Chrome Relief free All effects

The untouched demo art: an eye inside a triangle over wavy teal, blue and peach lines — Source

The eye-in-triangle illustration turned to embossed silver-blue metal with bright white highlights on the lines — Chrome Relief, default settings

What Chrome Relief does

Reads the picture's brightness as height and lights it like polished metal, reflecting a studio rig of bright strips over a floor-to-sky gradient. Linework becomes raised ridges with hard white highlights. Relief sets how steep the surface gets, Gloss polished versus brushed, Rim the glancing edge light, Studio slides the strips across the forms, Flow adds a slow liquid drift, and Direction turns the rig.

Using Chrome Relief

Where it works: Logos and type that need to look cast in metal, chrome cover art, and title plates. The shape still comes from the image, so a clean high-contrast logo gives the cleanest chrome.
With the music: Studio is the one to move: a beat-synced LFO on it slides the reflection strips across the chrome like a turning object. B7 (snare) on Rim flashes the edges on each snare.
Starting point: Relief centre, Flow hard left for a still surface, Gloss three-quarters, Rim a quarter, then sweep Studio until a strip crosses the subject.

Controls

Relief: How steeply brightness turns into surface.
Flow: Slow liquid drift across the surface.
Gloss: Tight polished highlights through to soft brushed metal.
Rim: Glancing-angle rim light around the forms.
Studio: Rotates the reflected light rig.
Tint: Color of the reflected light.
Direction: Which way the reflected light rig is hung.
Speed: Rate of the effect motion. Centre is the authored speed, hard left a tenth of it.

Pairs well with Chrome Relief