Pixel Smear
Detect changed regions and drag previous-frame pixels through motion as directional smears.
Add Pixel Smear
Use a moving video or animated layers upstream, then choose Video or Live in the title bar. This effect needs previously rendered frames; a paused first frame has no useful history. Choose Temporal → Frame-to-frame → Pixel Smear in the effects picker, or search for Pixel Smear with Cmd/Ctrl + F. Select the new layer in Layers to open its Effect Panel.
Set the history response
Set Threshold to choose changed regions, then Angle and Distance for the smear direction.
Inspect the motion
Raise Strength and adjust Decay to keep old pixels visible. Inspect moving areas rather than a paused first frame.
Compare and finish
Play forward for several frames before comparing the layer on and off. Seeking or restarting can rebuild history. Check the same motion in animation export when judging a history-based result.
Control reference
Show individual controls
| Control | What it does | Values and animation |
|---|---|---|
| Angle | Sets the direction of the temporal smear. | 0° to 360° Default: 0° Continuous keyframes |
| Decay | Attenuates retained image history so older contributions fade. | 0 to 1.25 Default: 0.96 Continuous keyframes |
| Distance | Sets the displacement of the sampled previous frame. | 0 to 20 %; 1 to 500 px (typed input: 1 to 2000) Default: 4 Continuous keyframes |
| Strength | Controls how much displaced image history replaces the current picture. | 0% to 100% Default: 75% Continuous keyframes |
| Threshold | Selects inter-frame changes that produce a pixel smear. | 0% to 100% Default: 8% Continuous keyframes |