Effects

Effects draw on a layer live, on the GPU: an outline, a shadow, a glow, a color change. The layer's pixels stay as they were, so you can change or remove an effect at any time.

Adding effects#

• Open the Effects panel (View ▸ Effects, or double-click a layer's FX badge) and click +. Effects are grouped by kind.
• Or use the fx button at the bottom of the Layers panel.
• Effects apply top to bottom. Drag one by its name to change the order.
• The check box turns one off; × removes it. Shift+click a layer's FX badge to turn all of its effects off and on.

Every number and on/off setting can be animated on the timeline: click the diamond beside it.

The effects that come with SpriteGrid#

Outline, Dilate Outline and Edge Anti-Alias; Drop Shadow; Glow and Bloom; Bevel, Emboss, Rim Light and Sobel Edge; Gaussian Blur; and for color, Invert Colors, HSV, Levels, Step, Posterize, Gradient Map, Palette Snap and Color Simplify.

Palette Snap keeps a layer to a palette: every color moves to its nearest in the palette you give it.

Options#

The ≡ menu in the Effects panel:

• Tileable (Wrap Edges): effects wrap around the layer's edges, for tiles and textures.
• Effects Include Mask: effects see the layer's mask, when it has one.
• Turn All Off, and Flatten All Effects to bake them into the pixels.

Right-click an effect to flatten just it, with the ones above it.

Adjustment layers#

An adjustment layer (Layer ▸ New Adjustment Layer) has no pixels of its own: its effects apply to everything below it in its group. Use one to grade a whole scene, or snap it all to a palette.

Your own effects#

Every effect is a plugin, and you can write your own: see Make an effect.