Materials & Visual Effects

Overview

Beyond position and color, KinoViz lets you apply rich materials and visual effects to your elements — realistic glass surfaces, flowing metal, glowing halos, photographic filters, and more. Nearly every value is a keyframable property, so effects can animate over time just like any other part of your design.

Most material and effect controls live in the Effects and Filters panels on the right sidebar. Select an element to reveal the panels that apply to it.

For current plan availability, see the pricing page and Billing & Plans. Layer blur, background blur, and physics-driven effects are covered separately in Physics & Effects.

Glass Materials

KinoViz ships three distinct glass materials, all found in the Effects panel under the Material dropdown. They are mutually exclusive — an element uses one glass material at a time — but you can still stack modifiers like Glow, Shadow, and Layer Blur on top.

Every glass parameter is a keyframable property. Animate them over the timeline to make light sweep across a surface, ridges tighten, or frost bloom in.

Glass materials are available on the Pro plan and above. On lower plans the dropdown options are labeled [Pro] and prompt an upgrade.

Liquid Glass

An iOS-style refractive glass surface. The element bends and disperses the content behind it, adds a bright rim, and sweeps a directional highlight along its border.

Controls, grouped in the panel:

Keyframe Light angle from 0 to 360 for a highlight that sweeps all the way around the element — a signature "premium glass" reveal.

Use Reset to Default to restore the standard Liquid Glass look.

Reeded Glass

Fluted vertical ridges that bend light like a row of cylindrical lenses — the classic "reeded" or fluted architectural glass look.

Keyframe Ridge density to make the flutes appear to tighten or spread as the animation plays.

Frosted Glass

A uniform backdrop blur with subtle grain — soft, translucent, and diffuse, like sandblasted glass.

Keyframe Frostiness from 0 upward to bloom frost onto an element as it settles into place.

Liquid Metal (3D)

Liquid Metal is a flowing, iridescent metal material for 3D model elements. It lives in the 3D model panel under the Material Effect section — choose Liquid Metal from the dropdown. The surface shimmers with an oil-slick, thin-film sheen and can flow continuously over the model.

Liquid Metal is available on the Pro plan and above. See 3D System for importing and animating 3D models.

Glow & Bloom

Glow wraps any element in a soft halo of light. It lives in the Effects panel under Modifiers — toggle Glow on to reveal its controls.

Because Intensity is keyframable, you can animate a gentle breathing pulse or a bright flash at a beat.

Glow and Bloom are available on the Pro plan and above.

Image & Video Filters

Select an image or video element to reveal the Filters panel. Filters are non-destructive, keyframable, and apply to both images and video.

Basic adjustments — available on all plans:

Bright, Contrast, Saturate, Hue, Blur, Gray, and Noise.

Effect filters — Pro plan and above (shown under the EFFECTS subheading, labeled [Pro] on lower plans):

Pixel, Vibrance, Sharpen, and Invert.

Tone presets — Pro plan and above (choose one from the Preset dropdown):

Sepia, Vintage, Kodachrome, Polaroid, Brownie, Technicolor, and B&W.

Use Reset Filters to clear every slider and preset back to neutral.

ASCII Art

ASCII Art turns an element into a grid of text characters that trace its brightness — a retro terminal / dot-matrix look. It sits alongside the glass materials in the Effects → Material dropdown (and is therefore mutually exclusive with them). Controls include character Size, a Mode (Color, Mono, or Green), Invert, Gamma, background opacity, and font scale.

ASCII Art is available on the Pro plan and above.

Gooey Group

Gooey Group fuses two or more shapes into a single liquid blob, with edges that melt together where the shapes overlap or sit close together.

Select two or more shapes or paths, right-click the selection, and choose Gooey Group from the context menu. The Effects panel then shows a Gooey module for the group.

All three controls are keyframable — animate Strength so the blob squeezes tighter or relaxes as the shapes move, or keyframe Fill Opacity for a fade-in reveal.

Great for liquid logo reveals, blob-morph backgrounds, or turning a handful of dots into an amoeba-like loading animation. Gooey Group can't be turned into a Custom Component yet.

Gooey Group and Cell Group are available on the Pro plan and above.

Cell Group

Cell Group is the inverse effect: shapes don't merge — they press against each other into rounded, evenly-gapped "cells," like a bubble raft or cobblestone paving, while each shape keeps its own color.

Select 2–16 shapes or paths, right-click the selection, and choose Cell Group from the context menu. The Effects panel then shows a Cell Group module. Wireframe or outline shapes are mapped into filled cell outlines.

All three controls are keyframable, so a cell pack can relax, tighten, or ripple over time like a physics-driven simulation.

Great for bubble or membrane textures, mosaic and pebble-paving layouts, or breaking one shape into organic puzzle pieces. Cell Group can't be turned into a Custom Component yet.

Gooey Group and Cell Group are available on the Pro plan and above.

Blend Modes

Every element has a Blend dropdown in the Opacity panel. Blend modes control how an element's colors mix with the layers beneath it — Multiply, Screen, Overlay, and more — the same modes you'd find in a design tool. Blend modes are available on all plans and are a quick way to build glows, tints, and compositing tricks without any extra material.

Layer Blur & Background Blur

Two more effects — Layer Blur (blur the element itself) and Background Blur (blur everything behind a translucent element) — are documented alongside physics and TextFX in Physics & Effects.

Next Steps

• Physics & Effects — Layer blur, background blur, TextFX, and physics
• 3D System — Import 3D models and apply Liquid Metal
• Animation & Timeline — Keyframe any material or effect parameter over time
• Billing & Plans — See which effects each plan unlocks