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Geometry effect

Clone Spiral

Clone Spiral is a kaleidoscope and geometry effect in FRCTL, the browser VJ studio. Copies of the object curl into a shell, each one smaller and turned further than the last, peeling out from behind the front copy and winding inward.

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 Clone Spiral freeAll effects
The untouched demo art: an eye inside a triangle over wavy teal, blue and peach lines
Source
Shrinking, turning copies of an eye print coiling into a dark nautilus shell beside the front copy
Clone Spiral, default settings

What Clone Spiral does

Curls copies of the object into a shell. Each copy is smaller and turned further than the one in front, so they wind around a centre on a logarithmic spiral like a nautilus. The front copy holds still while the rest of the shell flows inward, a new copy peeling out from behind it once per loop.

Using Clone Spiral

Where it works
A skull, face or logo that should coil into a hypnotic shell for a breakdown or a cover. On a dark ground with Matte on Key black it lifts the object off the black and coils only that.
With the music
The inward flow keeps to the loop length on its own. Send B3 (bass body) to Turn so the shell tightens under the bassline, and a slow LFO on Orbit makes it open and close.
Starting point
Copies centre, Size low, Turn three-quarters, Shrink just under centre, Orbit centre, Matte on Alpha, Backdrop full.

Controls

Copies
How many copies make the shell (4 to 32).
Size
Size of the front copy against the frame.
Turn
Rotation from one copy to the next (centre = none, either side winds the other way).
Shrink
How much smaller each copy is than the one in front of it.
Orbit
How far the copies swing out from the middle of the frame, where the spiral is centred.
Matte
What counts as the object: its alpha (and the subject selection), or a key off black or white.
Backdrop
How much of the original picture stays behind the copies (0 = copies alone).
Speed
Rate of the effect motion. Centre is the authored speed, hard left a tenth of it.

Pairs well with Clone Spiral