Glitch

A glitch is a fault or bug in a system. In the case of video and images it usually is caused by corrupted data, interference in the signal or software bugs. These faults can come up as displacements of pixels, colors or areas stretching/shrinking. In old tube like screens it can come up as a horizontal displacement or a specific distortion in one or more of the RGB channels.

It’s often used in Motion Graphics, and sci-fi scenes.

Note

I’ve exaggerated the effects in this images so you can see more clearly what they do. In real uses you will probably want to be more subtle and use lots of masks.



Toolkit

These nodes are designed to work together to create the overall effect. Think of them as building bricks.



Bulge

_images/bulge.jpg

Simulates a massive horizontal distortion on the screen.

Inputs Description
Image Original image
Influence Intensity
Blur Soften Bulge
Position Position (in Y)
Mask Mask out areas of the effect
Outputs Description
Image The resulting image

Pixel

_images/pixel.jpg

Simulates corrupted image/video data by displacing pixels.

Inputs Description
Image Original image
Influence X Intensity (horizontally)
Influence Y Intensity (vertically)
Scale X Width of pixel distortions
Scale Y Height of pixel distortions
Animation Offset Offset to animate the effect
Mask Mask out areas of the effect
Outputs Description
Image The resulting image

Lines

_images/lines.jpg

Simulates corrupted data by randomly displacing lines.

Inputs Description
Image Original image
Influence Strength of the effect
Line Stretch How much to stretch from the original image
Mask Mask out areas of the effect
Outputs Description
Image The resulting image

Pixel Mask

_images/mask.png

A mask made of blocks cutting into blocks. Can be used to simulate corrupted pixels.

Note

You can use negative values in the scale settings, as well as in other nodes. This will push pixels the opposite way.

Inputs Description
Scale X Width of the distorted pixels
Scale Y Height of the distorted pixels
Fill How much of the area to fill
Animation Offset Offset to animate the effect
Outputs Description
Mask Black and white mask



Presets

These nodes are built on the previous toolkit nodes. They are meant to be an example of how to use the toolkit nodes together. You can use these nodes as they are, but you will often find it more flexible to use the toolkit nodes directly in your compositions.



Simple Glitch

_images/simple.jpg

A simple version of the glitch effect, aimed at getting better performance. It doesn’t include any channel distortions. Includes Pixel and Pixel mask.

Inputs Description
Image Original image
Large Distortion Scale Size for large pixel distortions
Large Distortion Influence Intensity of large distortions
Small Distortion Influence Intensity of small distortions
Small Distortion Width Width of small pixel distortions
Small Distortion Height Height of small pixel distortions
Small Distortion Fill Fill of the pixel mask for small distortions
Animation Offset Offset to animate the effect
Mask Mask out areas of the effect
Outputs Description
Image The resulting image

Complex Glitch

_images/complex.jpg

The full glitch. Includes distortions on individual RGB channels. Includes Pixel mask, Pixel, Bulge and Lines.

Inputs Description
Image Original image
Influence on Red Channel Intensity of distort in the Red Channel
Red Channel Distortion Amount of Red channel to cover with distortion
Influence on Green Channel Intensity of distort in the Green Channel
Green Channel Distortion Amount of Green channel to cover with distortion
Bulge Influence Intensity of Bulge
Bulge Position Position (in Y) of Bulge
Bulge Blur Soften the bulge
Large Distortion Influence Intensity of large distortions
Large Distortion Scale Size of large distortions
Line Stretch Influence Intensity of horizontal stretching
Line Stretch Fill Amount of image to cover with stretching
Animation Offset Offset to animate the effect
Mask Mask out areas of the effect
Outputs Description
Image The resulting image

Glitch (old)

_images/old.jpg

Note

This is the old glitch effect from Enhance v1. It doesn’t use any of the toolkit nodes.

Simulates the glitching effect of a corrupted video file. If you want to further customize, open the node group and tweak the values in the “Mask Creation” Frame.

You can animate the Base offset property to animate the Glitch without affecting the displacement intensity, although it’s recommended to do both.

Inputs Description
Image Original image
Intensity Strength of the effect
Displace 1 X/Y Width and Height of the first displacements
Displace 2 X/Y Width and Height of the second displacements
Displace 3 X/Y Width and Height of the third displacements
Base Offset Offset to animate the effect
Mask Mask out areas of the effect
Outputs Description
Image The resulting image