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Geometry effect

Clone Stack

Clone Stack is a kaleidoscope and geometry effect in FRCTL, the browser VJ studio. Stacks copies of the object into a trail that recedes toward a vanishing point while the front copy wanders, so the rest follow where it has been.

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 Stack freeAll effects
The untouched demo art: an eye inside a triangle over wavy teal, blue and peach lines
Source
Framed copies of a swirling eye-and-triangle print stacked into slabs that recede toward the lower left
Clone Stack, default settings

What Clone Stack does

Copies the object over and over into a trail that recedes toward a vanishing point. The front copy rides a figure-eight once per loop and each copy behind it sits a moment further back on that path, so the trail snakes after the head. Opaque footage stacks as framed slabs with a dark line at every edge. A cutout or a subject selection stacks only the object.

Using Clone Stack

Where it works
A cutout face, logo or character that should crawl across the frame like a worm of itself. On full-frame footage it reads as a pile of old windows sliding into the distance.
With the music
The figure-eight runs off the loop length, not the music. Send B1 (kick) to Wander so the head lunges on the beat, and put an LFO on Depth to stretch and gather the trail.
Starting point
Copies just under centre, Size low, Depth past centre, Wander centre, Matte on Alpha, Backdrop full. Turn Backdrop down on a cutout.

Controls

Copies
How many copies the trail holds (3 to 24).
Size
Size of the front copy against the frame.
Depth
How far back the trail recedes (0 = a flat trail at one size).
Angle
Which way the vanishing point sits from the front copy.
Wander
How far the front copy roams over a loop, dragging the trail behind it.
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 Stack