Skip to content

Light & lasers effect

Velvet Noise

Velvet Noise is a neon and laser effect in FRCTL, the browser VJ studio. fBm sparkle thresholds multiply the image into cosmic dust.

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.

The untouched demo art: an eye inside a triangle over wavy teal, blue and peach lines
Source
The eye-in-triangle art with slightly deeper contrast and faint flecks of green sparkle across it
Velvet Noise, default settings

What Velvet Noise does

Two layers of noise drift across the picture in opposite directions. The coarse one mottles it into soft light and dark patches like crushed velvet, and where the fine one peaks it sprinkles tiny coloured glints. At the defaults it's subtle, a little extra contrast and flecks of green. Coarse sets the size of the patches, Fine the size of the glints, and Sparkle how bright they get.

Using Velvet Noise

Where it works
A texture pass that makes a flat still or a render feel less digital, and a slow cosmic-dust shimmer for ambient loops and outros. It sits well under type because nothing is displaced.
With the music
The noise drifts slowly on the clock. Map B10 sparkle to Sparkle so the glints flicker with the top end of the mix, and B2 sub bass to Coarse so the velvet patches tighten and loosen with the low end.
Starting point
Fine at three-quarters, Coarse at a quarter, Sparkle hard right, for broad velvet patches peppered with tiny bright glints.

Controls

Fine
High-frequency fBm scale.
Coarse
Low-frequency fBm scale.
Sparkle
Spectrum sparkle strength in the mix.
Tint
Where the sparkle palette starts on the wheel.
Speed
Rate of the effect motion. Centre is the authored speed, hard left a tenth of it.

Pairs well with Velvet Noise