The Artfkt collection library
Motion
Compose with earlier moments
Motion composes with earlier moments as well as the current image. Retain fading impressions, rotate or scale accumulated frames, hold a capture, or distribute different ages across the picture.
These effects need time to develop. Start playback and allow history to accumulate before judging them; Reaction Diffusion is the exception that can keep growing from a still source.
Included in Artfkt for Mac. All collections, one desktop studio.
Give temporal effects something to remember
Afterimage retains fading impressions of changing content. Multiple Exposure combines a finite set of weighted captures. Frame Hold samples at intervals and keeps a capture until the next one. Their differences become clear when a source or upstream transformation actually changes during playback.
A static source with no upstream change may provide little variation for historical frames. Use moving content or an animated upstream treatment when you want a visible trail. History contains only frames already captured, so the first instant after initialization is not a representative test.
Decide how earlier moments occupy the frame
Feedback Rotate turns accumulated images around a point, and Feedback Zoom sends them inward or outward. Slit Scan selects earlier moments along an axis, while Temporal Mosaic assigns captured ages to coherent regions. Time Difference instead reveals change against an earlier capture.
Choose the temporal arrangement before extending persistence or history span. A recognizable moving contour makes the result easier to interpret. If every region changes rapidly at once, the temporal structure can disappear inside an undifferentiated texture.
Distinguish image memory from evolving material
Reaction Diffusion grows spots, worms, mazes, or pulses from brighter image structure. Its pattern can continue developing after the source stops changing. That makes it useful for a living surface study even when there is no moving subject to leave a trail.
Treat a developing effect as a process when composing. Watch its early, middle, and later states, then decide whether the work needs a still taken from that process or a moving presentation. Do not assume that a history-based treatment automatically produces a seamless loop.
Effects in Motion
9 effects to explore and combine.
Afterimage
Retain fading impressions of changing images.
Feedback Zoom
Send accumulated images expanding or contracting through the frame.
Feedback Rotate
Turn accumulated images into rotating echoes.
Frame Hold
Capture the image at intervals and hold it until the next capture.
Slit Scan
Select earlier moments continuously across an adjustable scanning axis.
Temporal Mosaic
Assign different captured moments to coherent image regions.
Multiple Exposure
Combine a finite set of separately weighted historical exposures.
Time Difference
Reveal changes against a selected earlier moment.
Reaction Diffusion
Grow spots, worms, mazes, or pulses from the brighter structure of the image. The pattern keeps developing after the picture itself has stopped changing.
Creative applications
- Trace the movement of a graphic element with fading or separately weighted exposures.
- Build a time-sliced image in which neighboring regions show different captured moments.
- Grow an evolving patterned surface from a still image’s bright structure.
Starting workflow
- For a motion-trail study, start with a simple bright element moving across a darker image, or animate an upstream transformation of that element.
- Place Afterimage after the changing input and begin playback so the effect can capture history.
- Increase persistence until earlier positions form a readable trail without obscuring the current position.
- Compare Multiple Exposure as an alternative if separate captured impressions communicate the movement more clearly.
- Inspect the result after a short run and at several later moments. Decide whether the piece should remain moving or become a still selected from that history.
Make it part of your next composition.
Combine Motion with other collections, images, and editable text in Artfkt for Mac.