Perspective Grid

A glowing floor grid that runs to a vanishing point and scrolls towards the viewer: the classic retro stage floor. Its lines stay crisp at any size and melt into a soft haze near the horizon.

Group: Generate · How to add an effect

The empty stage floor to the left of the dancer, dark wood under a dim back wall, with cyan grid lines on the floor that run towards a horizon in the haze and get thinner, closer together and dimmer with distance — The floor beside the dancer with Horizon 60 %, 16 Columns, Row Density 6, Line Width 10 px, Opacity 1.

Use it for: a retro synthwave floor · a virtual stage floor under a performer · a moving background for titles.

Horizon – where the floor ends, measured from the top of the picture.
Columns and Row Density – how many lines; more rows make the floor look deeper.
Line Width – thickness of the nearest lines, in pixels of a 1080p frame. Lines Thin with depth makes them thinner further away, like lines painted on a floor; Even width keeps every line equally thick.
Speed – rows per second towards the viewer; negative values run away. Keyframe it to speed up or stop the floor smoothly. Scroll Offset shifts the floor by whole or part rows.
Horizon Fade – how much the lines dim towards the horizon: higher values dim more of the floor, 0 keeps them bright up to the horizon.
Blend – Add makes glowing lines of light; Normal paints solid lines, which can also be dark.

Tip: put Horizon on the real floor line of the shot, then lower Opacity until the grid sits on the stage. The grid is drawn over everything in its layer; to keep a performer in front, put the grid on a Blank clip above the shot and, on the track above the grid, a copy of the shot masked to the performer.

Controls

Control	Range	Default
Grid
Horizon	0 to 98%	66%
Columns	1 to 200	14
Row Density	0.5 to 60	6
Line Width	0 to 16 px	3 px
Lines	Thin with depth, Even width	Thin with depth
Motion
Speed	−20 to 20 rows/s	1.5 rows/s
Scroll Offset	−1000 to 1000 rows	0 rows
Look
Line Color	a colour	`#2ee6ff`
Opacity	0 to 1	0.8
Horizon Fade	0.05 to 6	1.4
Blend	Add (glow), Normal (solid)	Add (glow)

Node setup

Perspective Grid draws its picture in one built-in step: there is no graph to open. Everything you can change is in its card, with units, a ◇ to set keyframes and ↺ to reset.

The Perspective Grid card in Properties → Effects, open in its Grid, Motion and Look sections: Horizon 60 %, Columns 16, Row Density 6, Line Width 10 px, Lines Thin with depth, Speed 1.5 rows/s, Line Color, Opacity 1, Horizon Fade 1.4, Blend Add (glow); every number row has a keyframe diamond and a reset arrow — The Perspective Grid card. 1 — Horizon: where the floor ends. 2 — Line Width of the nearest lines. 3 — Lines: thin with depth, or an even width. 4 — Blend: glowing (Add) or solid (Normal) lines.

Technical details

Units. Horizon is a share of the height (0–0.98). Line Width is stored as the half width in pixels of a 1080-px-tall frame and scales with the output height, so preview and export match. Lines Thin with depth keeps that width on the floor; Even width keeps 2 × Line Width plus a one-pixel soft rim everywhere.
Filtering. Lines are filtered analytically: thin lines keep their share of brightness, and dense lines become a haze that fades towards the horizon over a 1.5-pixel soft edge.
Limits. Columns render up to 2000, Row Density up to 1000, Line Width up to 1000 and Horizon Fade up to 100; values beyond are named in the inspector.
Speed is a rate: a keyframed Speed speeds up and slows down smoothly (keyframed rates).
Saved projects. Grids saved before the Lines choice render with Even width. New defaults (Opacity 0.8, Line Width 3 px, Thin with depth) apply only to new instances. Line widths are exact at 1080p and scale with the output, so in a 540p preview they look about half as thick as in older versions and match the export; below Horizon Fade 1 the dense lines near the horizon fade out instead of forming a solid band.

More: Effect system.