Trails & persistence

What this group is for

These effects give the screen a memory. Instead of each frame arriving clean, the image holds onto what came before — a hand moves and leaves a smear, a bright edge scorches itself in, motion drips down the glass like it’s tired of letting go.

Reach here when stillness feels too sterile and you want the footage to feel haunted by its own motion — a dim room, an old monitor, a body that was here a moment ago and almost still is.

The effects

Written up in full: phosphor — sample frame, parameter table and a downloadable project.

• phosphor — A CRT afterglow where bright cells bleed a decaying tail behind them; depth sets how long the trail runs and decay how fast it dims. Best for tired-monitor scenes and motion that should feel electrically alive.
• echo-trail — A ghost trail that keeps the strongest prior ghost per cell, so the path of a movement stays carved in rather than blurred; length is the trail in frames, decay the falloff. Use it when you want a clean, deliberate streak of where something travelled.
• char-lag — Drags a character trail behind anything moving, the glyphs themselves lagging the motion; offset stretches the trail, mix fades its intensity. Great for ASCII-forward looks where the type should feel sticky and reluctant.
• burn-in — Peak brightness scorches itself permanently into the panel while threshold gates out the dim cells. The look of a screen left on too long — ideal for static logos, HUDs and rooms that have been waiting a while.
• afterimage — A dreamy motion blur that averages colour across prior frames with exponential decay, softer and gentler than phosphor. Reach for it when a moment should feel narcotic and half-remembered rather than electric.
• ghost-buffer — A decaying peak imprint stained with a tint, the residue colouring as it fades while tint R/G/B picks the hue. Use it to leave coloured spectres hanging in the air long after a subject has passed.
• motion-trail — An even linear-fade trail that blends every history frame with equal weight, running longer and steadier than echo-trail. Best when you want a smooth, uniform smear with no falloff drama.
• oled-smear — A directional response-time trail where bright cells leak toward a chosen direction using prior frames. The modern-panel cousin of the retro options — subtle lag for phone-screen and dark-room footage.

How to reach for it

Find these under the Trails & persistence group in the effect stack of the Inspector; drop one onto a layer and it works on whatever feeds it. Every effect here is fully maskable, so you can keep the persistence to a single moving subject and leave the rest of the frame clean.