A tour of the Effects tab, Moving and Filters

An effect in DepCut is a stretch of the timeline that treats the picture beneath it. You place it like any other element, trim it like a clip, and tune it with a slider. The Effects tab on the left holds all of them, split into two groups with a toggle at the top: Moving and Filters.

What is in each group

Moving effects change over time while they play:

• Zoom pushes in on one part of the frame.
• Film grain adds animated grain.
• VHS mutes the color, softens the picture and adds tape-style ghosting.
• Glitch tears the picture sideways in quick jumps.
• Light leak adds a warm bloom and sweeping streaks of light.
• Flash gives a bright pop at the start of its bar.
• Shake jitters the frame.

Filters treat the picture with a steady look. They are Blur, Vignette, Vintage, Analogue horror, Halation, Modern tech, Noir, Pastel, Blockbuster and Dreamy. The last eight of those are color looks.

Preview before you place

Once your project has clips, every tile shows the frame under your playhead, so you see the effect on your own footage. Move the playhead to try a different shot. Moving effects loop on their tile. A filter holds still until you hover over it.

Add an effect

1. Open the Effects tab and pick Moving or Filters.
2. Drag a tile onto the timeline and drop it over a clip.
3. The effect opens covering that whole clip. If you drop it where no clip sits, it runs for three seconds.

A click on a tile only marks it. The drag is what places it.

The effect appears as a teal bar with its name, on its own row above the clips. It is selected straight away, and the right panel shows an Amount slider. Amount runs from 5 to 100 and starts at 50. Drag the edges of the bar to trim it, or drag the bar to move it.

Change or switch off an effect

With an effect selected, click a different tile in the Effects tab and the bar swaps to that effect, keeping its timing. The small eye icon on the bar switches the effect off without deleting it. Its tooltip reads Disable clip. Click it again to bring the effect back. This makes it easy to compare the picture with and without.

Zoom has its own controls

Zoom is the one effect with a different panel. In place of Amount, you get:

• A small preview of your frame with a blue puck. Drag the puck onto the subject, and the zoom holds that point still.
• A Depth choice of Shallow, Moderate or Deep.
• A Speed slider from 0 to 4 seconds. At the far left, the shot cuts straight to the close frame. Higher values move the camera in over that many seconds.

The zoom comes in, holds, and pulls back out over the same time before the bar ends. A bar that is too short for both moves never reaches full depth.

Start a project

Open a project in DepCut, open the Effects tab, and drag Zoom onto a clip. Move the puck onto your subject.