# Effects, looks and VFX

> Applying and adjusting effects, grading with looks, wheels, curves and LUTs, placing VFX, and making effects of your own.

https://driftedit.app/manual/effects/

The **Effects** panel holds every effect in DriftEdit, from one-tap looks to colour tools, blurs, glitches, distortions and VFX drawn in 3D. Each tile previews the effect on your selected clip, so you see what it does before applying it.

![The Effects panel with its groups](https://driftedit.app/manual/shots/effects-light.webp)

*The Effects panel*

## Applying an effect
- Select one or more clips and click an effect, or
- drag an effect onto a clip on the timeline, or
- drag it onto an empty stretch of a track: it becomes an effect clip that applies to everything under it, for exactly as long as the clip lasts.

The effect appears in the clip's **Adjust** tab in the inspector, with its settings. Each setting can be keyed (see [Keyframes](https://driftedit.app/manual/keyframes/)). Effects are applied in order from top to bottom; switch one off to compare the picture with and without it, or remove it.

**Remove all effects** in a clip's menu clears them in one step.

## Finding one
The groups along the top of the panel show one group at a time: **Looks**, **Colour**, **Light**, **Blur and sharpen**, **Stylise**, **Retro**, **Distort**, **Motion**, **Frame** and **Keying**. **VFX** has a tab of its own. The search box looks through every group.

The chapter [Reference](https://driftedit.app/manual/reference/) lists every effect with what it does.

## Colour and grading
- **Looks** are a complete grade in one tap: film, teal and orange, black and white, vintage and many more.
- **Colour** has exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, saturation, temperature and tint. **Colour by range** changes eight hues on their own, such as a yellow cast or the blue of a sky.
- **Colour wheels**: lift, gamma and gain, each a hue and an amount, with a brightness under each. Drag the dot towards a colour to tint the shadows, the midtones or the highlights.
- **Curves**: master, red, green and blue on one graph. Click to add a point, drag it to bend the curve. Lifting the middle brightens the picture; an S shape adds contrast.
- **LUT**: import a `.cube` file (the kind colourists and cameras use). It goes into the project itself, so it saves, undoes and travels with project files. **Strength** mixes it with the original.

> [!TIP] Grade the whole edit at once
> Put the grade on an adjustment layer (**Sequence**, **Add adjustment layer**) over all your clips, instead of on each clip.

## Film bars
**Letterbox** (in **Frame**) adds bars as a film is framed: at the top and bottom, the sides, or all around (**Where**), in any **Colour**, with a **Bar size**, an **Opacity** and a **Softness**. Its presets: **Cinema bars**, **Letterbox**, **Pillarbox** (4:3 in a 16:9 frame), **Film frame**, **White bars** and **Soft bars**. Drag it onto an empty stretch of a track above your clips, so the bars frame the whole picture; key **Bar size** to slide them in.

## VFX
The **VFX** tab has effects drawn in 3D by DriftEngine over your clip: **Fire**, **Smoke**, **Embers**, **Sparks**, **Electric arcs**, **Lightning strike**, **Coloured powder**, **Confetti burst**, **Snow**, **Rain**, **Magic dust** and **Shockwave ring**, plus versions in other colours.

1. Apply a VFX to a clip, or drag it onto an empty stretch of a track.
2. Drag its centre in the viewer to place it: where the fire burns, where the lightning strikes.
3. In the Adjust tab, set its size, amount, speed, colours, wind or direction, and rhythm. Every setting can be keyed.

The same frame is drawn in the preview and the export, every time.

## Effects of your own
**New effect** in the Effects panel opens the creator:

- **Recipe**: a stack of effects from the catalogue, each with its settings, saved as one effect.
- **Code**: write the effect in GLSL. It is checked on WebGL 2 and WebGPU as you type; an error names its line, and the effect's settings become a form.

A preview on the selected clip shows it as you work. **Save** keeps it under **Yours**, **Save as new** makes a copy, **Export** saves a `.drifteffect` file to share, and **Open** brings one in. Code from someone else's file runs only after you allow it on your device. Signed in, your effects follow you to your other devices.

## Presets of your own
Set up a clip's look the way you like, then save it as a preset: it appears under **Yours**, ready for any clip. When you change a preset, **Update the clips using it** takes the change to every clip that has it.

> [!NOTE] WebGPU and WebGL 2
> DriftEdit draws with WebGPU where it finds a real graphics card, and with WebGL 2 otherwise. Every effect gives the same picture on both.