Pixel & Mosaic

Rebuild the picture from cells, tiles and blocks: mosaics, retro low-resolution looks and cells that drift. Add one in Properties → Effects → + Add Effect → Pixel & Mosaic (Using effects).

• PixelateRebuilds the picture from squares, each in the average colour of what it covers.
• Block MosaicRebuilds the picture as a tiled wall: small tiles mixed with larger ones, separated by grout lines.
• BlockifyRebuilds the picture from square blocks in a few flat colours, like an old computer game.
• Quadtree ZoomSplits the picture into square tiles, small where there is detail and large where it is flat.
• Scatter MosaicBreaks the image into tiles that sample from randomly jittered, drifting positions.
• Pixel PosterPixelates the image into blocks and posterizes each to a few color levels.
• Pixel SortSorts short runs of pixels by brightness, so bright areas break into fine sideways streaks.
• VoronoiBreaks the picture into irregular cells like cracked or stained glass, each filled with one colour and edged with a thin light line.

Look	Use
plain squares, hiding a face	Pixelate
an old computer game	Blockify
a tiled wall with grout	Block Mosaic
small blocks on detail, big ones on flat areas	Quadtree Zoom
blocks with a few poster colours	Pixel Poster
tiles that jitter and drift	Scatter Mosaic
shattered-glass cells	Voronoi
streaks of sorted pixels	Pixel Sort

Pixelate, Blockify and Block Mosaic paint each cell in the average colour of the pixels it covers. They share one small node graph you can open: select the clip, open the Nodes tab and use the › on the effect’s card, then on each folder (The node setup).

• Cell Size turns the size control into whole pixels of the rendered frame, and Centred Cell Grid finds where each pixel’s cell starts and ends.
• Row Average and Column Average average the cell in two short passes.
• Blockify adds a Posterize folder after the average, Block Mosaic a Large Tiles folder before the grid and a Grout folder after it; both end with Mix with Original for Amount.

Block and tile sizes are measured on a 1080p frame, so the preview, the export and 4K show the same blocks. In Pixelate, Blockify and Block Mosaic the grid is centred, so animated sizes grow from the middle, and each block shows the average of its pixels. Quadtree Zoom and Voronoi measure in 1080p pixels too, but start at the top-left corner and paint each cell with one pixel’s colour (the tile centre or the seed). Transparent pixels never darken a block.

Developer notes: Effect system: Pixel & Mosaic notes.