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Cool effect

Cosmic Mirage

Cosmic Mirage is a colour grade in FRCTL, the browser VJ studio. Solarized teal and berry with warm retro highlights.

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 Cosmic Mirage freeAll effects
The untouched demo art: an eye inside a triangle over wavy teal, blue and peach lines
Source
The eye-in-triangle illustration in bright turquoise with dark slate-purple lines and cream specks
Cosmic Mirage, default settings

What Cosmic Mirage does

Solarises before it grades: teal lands wherever the source's green and blue channels sit mid-range, while shadows drop to slate and lower mids pick up berry. Retro drives the warm apricot highs and a pale quartz-pink sparkle on top. On bright teal art the Teal band swallows almost everything, so Berry only really shows on darker footage.

Using Cosmic Mirage

Where it works
Retro sci-fi covers, synthwave intros and space-themed loops. Where Cyanotype Pop reads as flat blueprint, the solarised keying here throws teal patches that jump between neighbouring tones, closer to an old poster print.
With the music
The shader doesn't listen to audio on its own. Hook B4 low mids to Teal so the solarised teal floods in on synth stabs, and put Random on Retro for occasional warm flashes.
Starting point
Berry three-quarters, Teal a quarter, Retro at centre, then lower Teal until slate and berry reappear in the darks.

Controls

Berry
Berry shadow floor.
Teal
Solarized teal mid sweep.
Retro
Warm highlights and quartz sparkle.

Pairs well with Cosmic Mirage