Effect Generator

This page covers the Effect Generator node in detail. For the full node catalog, data types, and keyboard shortcuts, see Canvas.

Effect Generator turns a sentence into a real-time GPU effect. Describe the look — God Rays, Glitch, Old Film, Halftone — press Generate, and the node becomes that effect, with its own name, controls, on-preview overlays, and extra inputs when it needs them. It previews live on the node and exports at full resolution. Key features:

Prompt to effect — a sentence plus up to 4 reference images; the shader is written and checked for you
Generated UI — up to 16 controls of 6 kinds, 8 kinds of on-preview overlay, up to 3 extra inputs
Conversational editing — revise in a chat; every version can be restored or branched
Self-filling library — accepted effects are saved and reusable from the Add menu; selected accounts can submit one for review to make it public

Quick start

Add the node and connect a source

Open the Add menu (/ or Tab), pick Effect Generator under AI Tools, then Create New Effect. Connect an image or video to Source. Mask is optional: white (or opaque) applies the effect, black keeps the source.

Describe the effect

Describe the look, the controls you want, and anything you want to drag on the preview. Add up to 4 reference images (PNG, JPEG, WebP); point at one with @[Ref 2].

Effect GeneratorDescribe the effect you want… e.g. “halftone dotswith adjustable size and ink color”@Ref 1@Ref 2+Type @ in the prompt to refer to a reference image.Generate ✦ 20

Generate

One click is one generation (20 credits, shown on the button). Repairs inside the same click are free. Expect one to two minutes. On failure the node returns to your prompt, text intact.

Adjust

Drag an overlay on the preview or type a value in the panel. Mix blends source and effect. How to use in the footer explains every control.

Revise and reuse

Edit opens the chat history; describe the change and press Update effect. Every round is a version you can restore or branch from. Accepted effects are saved to your library and reusable from Saved effects or the Add menu.

The node at a glance

Depth FogEditOuter 35%ControlsReset allFog color#8FB4D9Fog start0.35Invert depthMix1.00iHow to use ›Update effect ✦ 20Source *image or video · requiredMaskoptional · white = effect, black = sourcePromptoptional · connect a Text node to drive itDepth Map *extra input · added by the effect · requiredup to 3 extra inputsimage, video, or eitherOutputimage, or video if anyinput is video1234567

1Preview — live render; overlays appear while the node is selected
2Controls — generated per effect; Mix is always last
3How to use — the generator’s notes on this version
4Generate / Update effect — one click, one charge
5Saved effects and Edit — library and chat history
6Inputs — Source, Mask, Prompt, plus up to 3 the effect adds
7Output — image, or video if any input is video

On-preview overlays

A place, region, direction, or light in the effect becomes an overlay instead of a slider. Overlays show while the node is selected; dragging updates the preview and everything downstream live, one undo step per drag, with a tooltip for the value (Radius 25%, Angle 30°). Positions are percent of the frame, radii percent of its shorter side. Several of one kind can coexist, and an overlay can sit outside the frame.

Center

Point

Where. A center or an origin — drag the dot.

Say: “a spot I can drag on the preview”, “centered where I click”.

Radius 25%

Circle

A spot with a size. The dot moves it, the ring resizes it.

Say: “a circle I can drag and resize”, “a spot with a falloff radius”.

Angle 30°

Circle + direction

A knob on the ring aims the effect and sets its reach. Beams, rays, streaks, sweeps.

Say: “a beam aimed with an angle handle”, “a streak in a direction I set on the preview”.

Split

Line

Two ends you can drag; the body moves both. Wipes, splits, tilt-shift bands, gradients.

Say: “along a draggable line”, “one side of a line”, “a band I can tilt”.

Radius 30% × 20%

Oval

Move, stretch each axis, scale from the rim, rotate from the outer knob. Iris blur, bulge, “except the face”.

Say: “an oval I can move, resize and rotate”, “an iris”.

Size 48% × 60%

Box

Corners and edges resize; drag inside or on the border to move. Windows, letterboxes, regions.

Say: “a box I can drag and resize”, “a rectangular window”.

Outer 35%

Soft circle

Full inside the inner ring, faded out at the dashed outer ring; the inner never passes the outer. Vignettes, spotlights, light leaks.

Say: “with a soft edge”, “feathered”, “a vignette”, “a spotlight”.

Az 37° · El 21°

Light ball

A globe in the preview corner. Drag the light across it: the flat ring turns it around the image, the upright ring raises or lowers it; behind the image it draws hollow. Relight, rim light, specular.

Say: “where the light comes from”, “relight it”, “an on-preview light direction”.

In the expanded view (Expand), Overlays toggles them and Fit gizmos pulls an off-frame overlay back into reach. A color the prompt says to pick from the image gets an eyedropper; while picking, the preview shows the untouched source.

Controls

Controls sit in the panel under the preview: usually 2 to 6, up to 16 counting overlays. Each has a label and an optional (i) tooltip. A dropdown can show or hide other controls (“VHS” reveals Tracking noise, “CCTV” hides it). Mix is added to every effect; Reset all restores every default, Mix included.

Softness0.56

Slider

Strength, size, speed — anything continuous. The number is editable.

Segments8

Number

Counts and steps: segments, levels, taps.

Invert

Toggle

A checkbox. Invert, glow only, swap sides.

PresetNight vision

Dropdown

Modes and presets. Choosing an option can show or hide other controls.

Key color#27C46A

Color

A swatch with a hex value. Colors meant to come from the image get an eyedropper (5×5 average from the preview).

Shiftxy

Direction

A signed x / y offset with no place on screen: displacement, parallax, channel split. Anything with a place on screen is an overlay instead.

Overlays are controls too: the panel lists each as number fields (percent for positions and radii, degrees for angles), and typing a value moves the overlay.

Inputs

Input	Accepts	Notes
Source *	image / video	Always present, required.
Mask	image / video	Optional. White (or opaque) applies the effect, black keeps the source.
Prompt	text	Optional. The prompt is written on the node; connect a Text node to drive it from the graph.
Extra inputs	image, video, or either	Up to 3, labelled by the effect (Depth Map, Normal Map, Background plate…). All required.
Output	image / video	One output. Video whenever any connected input is a video.

Wire the Depth Generator node, or the Depth / Normal / BaseColor / Roughness outputs of the VFX Pass Generator node, into extra inputs for focus blur, fog, relighting, or surface-aware point lights. Until every extra input is wired, the footer says what is missing: Connect Depth Map to run this effect.

Edit effect and chat history

Edit opens the chat history beside the node: every prompt and every version, oldest first. The version on the node carries a green Applied badge. Each response starts with a summary of what changed (long ones collapse), then How to use for every control and input, and any request that could not be delivered, with the reason.

Depth FogChat history×YouAtmospheric fog from a depth map input: far pixelsfade into a fog color. Controls: fog color, fog start,fog end, and density.v19/11/2026Depth Fog fades far pixels toward the fog color readfrom the Depth Map input; Density sets how fast.How to useConnect Depth Map. Fog start and Fog end are depthsfrom 0 (near) to 1 (far); raise Density for thicker fog.↺ Restore this version✎ Edit from hereYouAdd an Invert depth toggle for maps where 1 = near.v2from v1✓ AppliedAdded Invert depth. When on, the depth map is readas 1 = near before the fog is applied.Editing from v2Describe the effect you want…@Ref 1Update effect ✦ 20

Revise — type the change and press Update effect. The new version builds on the editing base (Editing from v2 above the composer); the whole chat history goes along as context.
Restore this version — puts that version’s shader and defaults back on the node. One undo step, no generation.
Edit from here — changes only what the next generation builds on; the node keeps the applied version until you generate. Use current returns to it.
Copy prompt — every prompt in the history has a copy button.
How to use in the footer jumps to the applied version’s report; if something was left out, the row turns amber: Some requests couldn't be implemented.

Saved effects and public effects

Every accepted generation is saved to your library under its generated name. The node renders from the shader frozen onto it, so the library never affects a working effect.

Saved effects on the node opens the library and applies one to this node at default controls. Rows show name and control count; rename or delete from there.
Add menu → Effect Generator lists Create New Effect, then your saved effects (most recently changed first), then Public effects. A saved effect drops onto the canvas as a ready node.
Submit for review (selected accounts for now) sends the current version to the Beeble team. The node shows Pending review, Published, or Resubmit for review; a pending submission can be cancelled. Approved effects appear under Public effects for everyone.
A public effect opens read-only with its prompt, How to use, and chat history — no Restore or Edit from here; your first edit forks it into your own saved copy. The history is a snapshot from submission time; reference images are never shared.

Writing prompts that land

Describe the look, name the controls, and say what you want to drag. The overlay cards above list the phrasing for each; these phrasings also map to specific UI:

You say	The effect gets
”a spot”, “a region”, “a direction”, “where the light comes from”	One of the eight on-preview overlays
”a 2D offset with no position on screen”, “a parallax shift”	Direction control (x, y)
“picked from the image”, “the key color”	Color control with an eyedropper
”a preset selector that shows only that mode’s controls”	Dropdown that reveals and hides controls
”using a depth map input”, “a second image input”	An extra input
”this effect is about transparency”	Permission to change alpha (otherwise it is preserved)
”@[Ref 1] sets the palette”, “match the grain of @[Ref 2]“	The reference image guides the look

Name the 2 to 6 controls you would actually touch and which one is an overlay. “Blur amount and edge softness, with a circle I can drag and resize” gets exactly that; “make it configurable” gets a guess.

What an effect can’t do

An effect is one shader pass over one frame, which keeps it live and identical between preview and export. When a request hits one of these, How to use says so:

Other frames — no true motion blur, echo, or frame blending; single-frame smears only.
Changing the frame size — no crop, resize, or padding. Use the Crop and Resize nodes instead.
A different result per run — noise and flicker are deterministic; export matches preview, every playback repeats.
Very heavy blurs or multi-pass looks — each pixel has a fixed cost budget; a wide blur is approximated with fewer samples.
Anything not connected to an input — no audio, no text overlay, no reading other nodes’ settings.
Fitting a second image — extra inputs are stretched to the source frame; Resize or Merge upstream if it needs fitting.

Credits

Action	Cost
Generate / Update effect	20 credits per click. The automatic repair attempts inside that click are free. A server-side failure is refunded.
Dragging, editing controls, Restore, Saved effects, public effects	Free

See the Credit Policy for the full table.

Example prompts

Paste-ready prompts, grouped by what they need.

One per overlay — no extra inputs

Point — Radial Zoom Blur

Zoom blur radiating from a point I can drag on the preview. Controls: blur amount, and a toggle to keep the center region sharp. Sample outward along the ray from the center with a fixed number of taps.

Circle — Privacy Blur

Blur everything inside a circle I can drag and resize on the preview — for hiding a face or a license plate. Controls: blur amount, edge softness, and a toggle to pixelate instead of blur.

Circle + direction — Light Rays

Volumetric-looking light rays: a beam that starts from a point I can drag, aimed with an angle handle, reaching out to an adjustable radius. Bright pixels along the beam smear outward. Controls: ray color, intensity, beam spread angle, and falloff.

Line — Tilt-Shift Band

Tilt-shift: a sharp band along a draggable line across the frame; blur increases with distance from the line. Controls: band width, maximum blur, and a feather for the band edges.

Oval — Iris Blur

Iris blur: keep an oval region sharp and blur everything outside it, with a feathered edge. Let me move, resize and rotate the oval on the preview. Controls: blur amount, edge feather.

Box — Frame Mask

A rectangular window I can drag and resize on the preview. Inside it the image is untouched; outside it is covered by a solid color with an adjustable opacity and a feathered border. Controls: mask color, opacity, feather.

Soft circle — Vignette

A vignette I can position and shape on the preview: no darkening inside the inner ring, full darkening at the outer ring. Controls: darkness, and a toggle for a slight desaturation in the vignetted area.

Light ball — Luminance Bump Light

Photoshop-style lighting effect without any extra input: derive a surface bump from the image's own luminance (one-pixel neighbors) and light it from an on-preview light-direction control. Controls: bump strength, light intensity, ambient level, and a light color.

Built on VFX passes — depth and normal inputs

Wire the passes described under Inputs into the inputs the effect adds.Depth Map + point — Depth-Driven Focus Blur

Depth-of-field blur driven by a depth map input (grayscale, 0 = near, 1 = far). Pixels near the focus depth stay sharp; blur grows with distance from it. Let me set the focus point by clicking on the preview — the depth under that point becomes the focus. Controls: focus range, maximum blur amount, and a toggle to invert the depth map.

Depth Map — Depth Fog

Atmospheric fog from a depth map input: far pixels fade into a fog color. Controls: fog color, fog start depth, fog end depth, fog density, and a toggle for inverted depth (1 = near).

Normal Map + light ball — Normal Map Relight

Relight the source using a normal map input. Let me aim the light with an on-preview light-direction control. Controls: light color, light intensity, ambient level, and a specular highlight strength. Keep the original alpha.

Normal Map + two circles — Police Lights

Two colored point lights — red and blue — shaded with a normal map input and flashing over time like a police car. Each light is a spot I can drag and resize on the preview (the radius is its falloff). Controls: color A, color B, flash speed, a pattern selector (alternate / double strobe / both together), light height above the image, and intensity.

Depth Map + Normal Map + light ball — Relight + Haze

Two inputs: a depth map and a normal map. First relight the source from an on-preview light direction (diffuse only, with intensity and ambient sliders), then blend far pixels toward a haze color by depth (haze start and haze end sliders).

Everyday VFX — grades, glow, grain, keys

Primary Grade

A primary color grade: exposure in stops, contrast around an adjustable pivot, saturation, color temperature (warm/cool) and tint (green/magenta). Neutral defaults change nothing. Keep alpha.

Look Presets — a dropdown that shows only the chosen look’s controls

A look selector — Bleach Bypass, Cross Process, Day for Night, Sepia — with a strength slider. Show only the controls relevant to the chosen look: Bleach Bypass gets a contrast slider, Cross Process a hue shift slider, Day for Night a blue tint color and exposure slider, Sepia a tint color.

Glow

Bloom: pixels above a luminance threshold glow outward with a tinted halo. Controls: threshold, radius as a fraction of the frame, intensity, glow tint, and a glow-only toggle.

Film Grain + Gate Weave

Film grain that changes every frame but is deterministic (hash noise seeded by the frame index), plus a subtle gate weave — a tiny slow drift of the whole frame over time. Controls: grain amount, grain size as a fraction of the frame, colored vs monochrome grain toggle, weave amount, weave speed. Mirror the edges.

Chroma Key — a color picked with the eyedropper

Chroma key: make pixels close to a key color transparent. The key color should be picked from the image with an eyedropper. Controls: tolerance, edge softness, and a spill suppression amount that desaturates leftover key color on the edges. This effect is about transparency, so write the matte into alpha.

Light Wrap — a second image input

Light wrap for a keyed foreground: take the background plate as a second image input, blur it, and add its color onto the foreground's soft edges (where the source alpha is partial or where blurred alpha exceeds alpha). Controls: wrap width as a fraction of the frame, intensity, saturation of the wrapped light, and a toggle to show the wrap only. Keep the source alpha.

Get Started

Beeble

Beeble Studio

Integration

Quick start

The node at a glance

On-preview overlays

Controls

Inputs

Edit effect and chat history

Saved effects and public effects

Writing prompts that land

What an effect can’t do

Credits

Example prompts

​Quick start

​The node at a glance

​On-preview overlays

​Controls

​Inputs

​Edit effect and chat history

​Saved effects and public effects

​Writing prompts that land

​What an effect can’t do

​Credits

​Example prompts

Quick start

The node at a glance

On-preview overlays

Controls

Inputs

Edit effect and chat history

Saved effects and public effects

Writing prompts that land

What an effect can’t do

Credits

Example prompts