Effects

Effects are visual processing layers applied to a block on top of its fill. They are non-destructive: the underlying content stays unchanged, and the effect is applied at render time. Multiple effects can stack on a single block, and each one can be enabled, disabled, or reordered without removing it.

The non-destructive model makes effects safe to apply freely during editing. A user can stack a blur and a color filter, evaluate the result, and reorder or remove either one without losing any pixel data.

Both filters and effects use the same API in CE.SDK, but they do different things.

Filters remap colors across the entire block. The most common variety is a LUT filter, which transforms colors through a predefined lookup table to produce a consistent look: cinematic grading, brand color treatment, vintage tone. Duotone filters map shadows and highlights to two custom colors. Adjustment filters modify properties like brightness, contrast, and saturation with numeric controls.

Effects alter specific visual properties without remapping the color space. Blur softens an element, pixelize reduces it to blocky regions, vignette darkens its edges, chroma key removes a specific color range (commonly used for green screen).

The decision broadly comes down to this: use filters when you are changing the overall look or tone; use effects when you are modifying a specific visual property. Both live in the same stack and can be combined freely.

Two of the most common visual treatments do not live in the main effects stack.

Blur has its own dedicated API. A block supports at most one blur at a time. CE.SDK provides four types: Uniform (consistent softening everywhere), Linear (gradient along an axis), Mirrored (symmetric gradient from a central axis), and Radial (softening outward from a focal point). The same blur instance can be shared across multiple blocks if you want them to update together.

Drop shadow is a dedicated block property rather than a stack effect. It supports configurable X/Y offset, blur radius (independent per axis for asymmetric softness), color, and a clip option for whether the shadow shows behind transparent areas. Drop shadow can be applied to shape, text, and image blocks.

Combining the two unlocks a few common treatments. A bright drop shadow with zero offset and a large blur radius produces a glow effect. A blurred background block layered behind a sharp foreground block produces a focus-pull look.

Most effect work in customer products fits a handful of patterns.

Brand color consistency at scale. A LUT filter applies the same cinematic or branded look to every image users import. Same color treatment, no matter the source photo. The LUT page covers how to create custom LUT files from a color grading tool.

Depth of field. Linear or radial blur on a background block while the subject in front stays sharp.

Green screen. Chroma key removes the green or blue range from a video clip, leaving the subject ready to composite onto another scene.

Depth and dimension. Drop shadows on text, shape, or image blocks lift them off the canvas surface.

Glow. Drop shadow with zero offset, a large blur radius, and a vivid color, applied to a text or logo block.

Effects render on the GPU and run in real time during editing. Blur and LUT filters are the most expensive in the lineup, so on mobile two to three effects per element is the practical limit before responsiveness drops. Video blocks should use effects sparingly to preserve smooth playback.