Creative UI Collage

Turns the image into boxed UI-like cells with characters, borders and cursor dots that shuffle over time; Cell Size sets the box size.

Group: Text & Glyph · How to add an effect

Creative UI Collage on an enlarged detail of the dancer on a dark stage: the original on the left, Creative UI Collage at its default settings on the right — Left: the original. Right: Creative UI Collage at its default settings, one frame of its movement. An enlarged detail, so the characters can be read.

A short page made from the editor’s effect catalog: what the effect does and its controls. Tips and its node setup will follow.

Controls

Control	Range	Default
Grid
Cell Size	4 to 72 px	18 px
Style
Amount	0 to 1	1
Background	0 to 1	0.2
Black Level	0 to 0.9	0
Invert Ramp	on or off	off
Glyphs
Ramp (Used while Custom Ramp is empty)	Standard, Detailed, Blocks, Bars, Binary and 2 more	Binary
Custom Ramp	text	empty
Font	Monospace, Serif, Sans Serif	Monospace
Weight	200 to 900	600
Color
Color Source	Source, Duotone	Source
Dark (Used with Color Source Duotone)	a colour	`#081018`
Light (Used with Color Source Duotone)	a colour	`#e8fff5`
Motion
Speed	0 to 5	1
Roll	0 to 1	1

Styles: the Style menu in the effect card switches to another look of the same engine. Controls you changed keep their values and keyframes when the new look has the same control, also under another name; the others start at the new look’s defaults. Looks of Text & Glyph: ASCII, Brand Generator, Contour Type, Data Hatching, Dither Glow, Dither Text, Glyph Matrix, Grid Glyph, Inscribe, Matrix Rain, Number Field, Pixel Code, Retro Matrix, Symbol Matrix, Tag Pills, Word Mosaic. Also: Stitch Poster (Textile & Craft).

Technical details

Creative UI Collage is one look of the glyph engine; its looks share one node setup. It changes over time: its picture depends on the playback time or on earlier frames. How effects are stored, rendered and exported: Effect system. Its building blocks: Node Catalog.