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Effects

Version Info

Effects above 117 are only available 0.14+ or Sound Reactive forks.
Retired Effects - Can't find an old favorite? Look here.

Effect Overlay

Some effects can be overlaid on the background of another effect. To use overlay, set up segments with overlapping pixels. The overlay effect must be playing on the segment with the higher id. If the Overlay option is checked, the background will not be painted and the effect from the lower segment will be displayed.

To aid in showing where colors vs palettes are used, all effects are rendered with the Party palette
and the colors:
Primary (Fx)
(or black) Secondary (Bg)
Tertiary (Cs).
For 2D effects the background (secondary) color is set to black.

ID Effect Description Flags Colors Parms
186 Akemi The WLED mascot rocking to your tunes.
▦ ♫ Head palette, Arms & Legs, Eyes & Mouth Color speed, Dance
27 Android Section of varying length running
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Width
38 Aurora Simulation of the Aurora Borealis
🎨 1, 2, 3 Speed, Intensity
183 Black Hole Colorful dots orbiting a white black hole.
🎨 Fx Fade rate, Outer Y freq., Outer X freq., Inner X freq., Inner Y freq., Solid
115 Blends Blends random colors across palette
🎨 Shift speed, Blend speed
1 Blink Blinks between primary and secondary color
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Duty cycle
26 Blink Rainbow Same as blink, cycles through the rainbow
🎨 Fx, Bg Frequency, Blink duration
121 Blobs No really, they are blobs.
🎨 Fx Speed, # blobs, Blur
163 Blurz Flash an fftResult bin per frame and then blur/fade.
⋮ ♫ 🎨 Fx, Color mix Fade rate, Blur
91 Bouncing Balls Bouncing ball effect
🎨 Fx, Bg, Cs Gravity, # of balls, Overlay
68 Bpm Pulses moving back and forth on palette
🎨 Fx Speed
2 Breathe Fades between primary and secondary color
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed
88 Candle Flicker resembling a candle flame
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
102 Candle Multi Like candle effect, but each LED has it's own flicker pattern
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
28 Chase 2 LEDs in primary color running on secondary
🎨 Fx, Bg, Cs Speed, Width
37 Chase 2 Pattern of n LEDs primary and n LEDs secondary moves along the strip
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Width
54 Chase 3 Like Chase, but with 3 colors
🎨 1, 2, 3 Speed, Size
31 Chase Flash 2 LEDs flash in secondary color while the rest is lit in primary. The flashing LEDs wander from start to end
🎨 Bg, Fx Speed
32 Chase Flash Rnd Like Chase Flash, but the 2 LEDs flash in random colors and leaves a random color behind
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed
30 Chase Rainbow Like 28 but leaves trail of rainbow
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Width
29 Chase Random Like Chase but leaves trail of random color
🎨 Fx, Cs Speed, Width
111 Chunchun Birds flying in a circle formation
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Gap size
167 Colored Bursts Rotating rays of color.
🎨 Speed, # of lines, Blur, Gradient, Dots
34 Colorful Shifting Red-Amber-Green-Blue pattern
🎨 1, 2, 3 Speed, Saturation
8 Colorloop Cycle all LEDs through the rainbow colors
🎨 Speed, Saturation
74 Colortwinkles LEDs light up randomly in random colors and fade off again
🎨 Fade speed, Spawn speed
67 Colorwaves Like Pride 2015, but uses palettes
🎨 Fx Speed, Hue
119 Crazy Bees Bees darting from flower to flower.
Speed, Blur
159 DJ Light An effect emanating from the center to the edges.
⋮ ♫ Speed
152 DNA A very cool DNA like pattern.
🎨 Scroll speed, Blur
182 DNA Spiral Spiraling DNA pattern
🎨 Scroll speed, Y frequency
112 Dancing Shadows Moving spotlights
🎨 Fx Speed, # of shadows
18 Dissolve Fills LEDs with primary in random order, then off again
🎨 Fx, Bg Repeat speed, Dissolve speed, Random
19 Dissolve Rnd Fills LEDs with random colors in random order, then off again
🎨 Bg Repeat speed, Dissolve speed
124 Distortion Waves Distorted sine waves with a psychedelic flair.
Speed, Scale
164 Drift A rotating kaleidoscope.
🎨 Rotation speed, Blur amount
123 Drift Rose Spinning arms that adds and removes nodes as it winds and unwinds.
Fade, Blur
96 Drip Water dripping effect
🎨 Fx, Bg Gravity, # of drips, Overlay
7 Dynamic Sets each LED to a random color
🎨 Speed, Intensity, Smooth
117 Dynamic Smooth Like Dynamic, but with smooth palette blends
🎨 Speed, Intensity
12 Fade Fades smoothly between primary and secondary color
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed
49 Fairy Inspired by twinkle style Christmas lights.
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, # of flashers
51 Fairytwinkle Like Colortwinkle, but starting from all lit
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
69 Fill Noise Noise pattern
🎨 Fx Speed
66 Fire 2012 Simulates flickering fire in red and yellow
🎨 Cooling, Spark rate, Boost
45 Fire Flicker LEDs randomly flickering
🎨 Fx Speed, Intensity
149 Firenoise Using Perlin Noise for fire.
🎨 X scale, Y scale
42 Fireworks Random color blobs light up, then fade again
⋮ ▦ 🎨 Fx, Bg Frequency
90 Fireworks 1D one dimension fireworks with flare
⋮ ▦ 🎨 Fx, Bg Gravity, Firing side
89 Fireworks Starburst Exploding multicolor fireworks
🎨 Bg Chance, Fragments, Overlay
110 Flow Blend of palette and spot effects
🎨 Speed, Zones
179 Flow Stripe Strip with rotating colours.
Hue speed, Effect speed
155 Freqmap Map the loudest frequency throughout the length of the LED's.
⋮ ♫ 🎨 Fx, Bg Fade rate, Starting color
138 Freqmatrix The temporal tail for this animation starts at the beginning of the Segment rather than in the center of the segment.
⋮ ♫ Speed, Sound effect, Low bin, High bin, Sensivity
141 Freqpixels Random pixels coloured by frequency.
⋮ ♫ Fade rate, Starting color and # of pixels
137 Freqwave Maps the major frequencies from the incoming signal to colors in the HSV color space.
⋮ ♫ Speed, Sound effect, Low bin, High bin, Pre-amp
177 Frizzles Moving patterns.
🎨 X frequency, Y frequency, Blur
160 Funky Plank A 2D wall of reactivity running from bottom to top
▦ ♫ Scroll speed, # of bands
139 GEQ A 16x16 graphic equalizer.
▦ ♫ 🎨 Fx, Peaks Fade speed, Ripple decay, # of bands, Color bars
172 Game Of Life Scrolling game of life.
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed
120 Ghost Rider Color changing ghost riding a kite... in a tornado.
🎨 Fade rate, Blur
87 Glitter Rainbow with white sparkles
🎨 1, 2, Glitter color Speed, Intensity, Overlay
46 Gradient Moves a saturation gradient of the primary color along the strip
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Spread
156 Gravcenter Volume reactive vu-meter from center with gravity and perlin noise.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Rate of fall, Sensitivity
157 Gravcentric Volume reactive vu-meter from center with gravity. Volume provides index to (time rotating) palette colour.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Rate of fall, Sensitivity
158 Gravfreq VU Meter from center. Log of frequency is index to center colour.
⋮ ♫ 🎨 Fx, Bg Rate of fall, Sensivity
132 Gravimeter Volume reactive vu-meter with gravity and perlin noise.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Rate of fall, Sensitivity
82 Halloween Eyes One Pair of blinking eyes at random intervals along strip
⋮ ▦ 🎨 Fx, Bg Duration, Eye fade time, Overlay
100 Heartbeat led strip pulsing rhythm similar to a heart beat
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
180 Hiphotic A moving plasma.
🎨 Fx X scale, Y scale, Speed
58 ICU Two "eyes" running on opposite sides of the strip
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity, Overlay
64 Juggle Eight colored dots running, leaving trails
🎨 Speed, Trail
130 Juggles Juggling balls.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, # of balls
168 Julia Animated Julia set fractal named after mathematician Gaston Julia.
🎨 Fx Max iterations per pixel, X center, Y center, Area size
75 Lake Calm palette waving
🎨 Fx Speed
41 Lighthouse Dot moves from start to end, leaving behind a fading trail
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Fade rate
57 Lightning Short random white strobe similar to a lightning bolt
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity, Overlay
176 Lissajous A frequency based Lissajous pattern.
🎨 Fx X frequency, Fade rate, Speed
47 Loading Moves a sawtooth pattern along the strip
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Fade
131 Matripix Similar to Matrix.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Brightness
153 Matrix The Matrix, on a 2D matrix.
Spawn, Trail Speed, Spawning rate, Trail, Custom color
154 Metaballs A cool plasma type effect.
🎨 Speed
76 Meteor The primary color creates a trail of randomly decaying color
🎨 Fx Speed, Trail length
77 Meteor Smooth Smoothly animated meteor
🎨 Fx Speed, Trail length
135 Midnoise Perlin noise emanating from center.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Fade rate, Max. length
59 Multi Comet Like Scanner, but creates multiple trails
70 Noise 1 Fast Noise shift pattern
🎨 Fx Speed
71 Noise 2 Fast Noise shift pattern
🎨 Fx Speed
72 Noise 3 Noise shift pattern
🎨 Fx Speed
73 Noise 4 Noise sparkle pattern
🎨 Fx Speed
107 Noise Pal Peaceful noise that's slow and with gradually changing palettes
🎨 Speed, Scale
146 Noise2D
🎨 Speed, Scale
143 Noisefire A perlin noise based volume reactive fire routine.
⋮ ♪ Speed, Intensity
136 Noisemeter Volume reactive vu-meter.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Fade rate, Width
145 Noisemove Using perlin noise as movement for different frequency bins.
⋮ ♫ 🎨 Fx, Bg Speed of perlin movement, Fade rate
126 Octopus A cephalopod stuck in a whirlpool.
🎨 Speed, Offset X, Offset Y, Legs
62 Oscillate Areas of primary and secondary colors move between opposite ends, combining colors where they touch
101 Pacifica Gentle ocean waves
🎨 Speed, Angle
65 Palette Running color palette
🎨 Cycle speed
98 Percent Lights up a percentage of segment
🎨 Fx, Bg % of fill, One color
147 Perlin Move Using Perlin Noise for movement.
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, # of pixels, Fade rate
105 Phased Sine waves (in sourcecode)
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
109 Phased Noise Noisy sine waves
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
128 Pixels Random pixels
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Fade rate, # of pixels
129 Pixelwave Pixels emanating from center
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Sensitivity
97 Plasma Plasma lamp
🎨 Fx Phase, Intensity
178 Plasma Ball A ball of plasma.
🎨 Speed, Fade, Blur
133 Plasmoid Sine wave based plasma.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Phase, # of pixels
174 Polar Lights The northern lights.
Speed, Scale
95 Popcorn popping kernels
🎨 Fx, Bg, Cs Speed, Intensity, Overlay
63 Pride 2015 Rainbow cycling with brightness variation
Speed
144 Puddlepeak Blast coloured puddles randomly up and down the strand with the 'beat'.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Fade rate, Puddle size, Select bin, Volume (min)
134 Puddles Blast coloured puddles based on volume.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Fade rate, Puddle size
162 Pulser Travelling waves.
🎨 Speed, Blur
78 Railway Shows primary and secondary color on alternating LEDs. All LEDs fade to their opposite color and back again
🎨 1, 2 Speed, Smoothness
43 Rain Like Fireworks, but the blobs move
⋮ ▦ 🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Spawning rate
9 Rainbow Displays rainbow colors along the whole strip
🎨 Speed, Size
33 Rainbow Runner Like Chase, but the 2 LEDs light up in rainbow colors and leave a primary color trail
🎨 Bg Speed, Size
5 Random Colors Applies a new random color to all LEDs
🎨 Speed, Fade time
79 Ripple Effect resembling random water ripples
⋮ ▦ 🎨 Bg Speed, Wave #, Overlay
148 Ripple Peak Peak detection triggers ripples.
⋮ ♪ 🎨 Fx, Bg Fade rate, Max # of ripples, Select bin, Volume (min)
99 Ripple Rainbow Like ripple, but with a dimly lit changing background
⋮ ▦ 🎨 Speed, Wave #
185 Rocktaves Colours the same for each note between octaves, with sine wave going back and forth.
⋮ ♫ 🎨 Fx, Bg
15 Running Sine Waves scrolling
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Wave width
52 Running Dual Sine waves in both directions
🎨 L, Bg, R Speed, Wave width
16 Saw Sawtooth Waves scrolling
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Width
10 Scan A single primary colored light wanders between start and end
🎨 Fx, Bg, Cs Speed, # of dots, Overlay
11 Scan Dual Same as Scan but uses two lights starting at both ends
🎨 Fx, Bg, Cs Speed, # of dots, Overlay
40 Scanner Dot moves between ends, leaving behind a fading trail
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Fade rate
60 Scanner Dual Like Scanner, but with two dots running on opposite sides
🎨 Fx, Bg, Cs Speed, Fade rate
122 Scrolling Text Edit segment name to set text (variables #DATE, #TIME, #DDMM, #MMDD, #HHMM, #HH, #MM; suffix with 0 to have leading 0s, i.e. #DATE0). Use segment grouping to increase text size on a large matrix.
🎨 Fx, Bg, Gradient Speed, Y Offset, Trail, Font size, Gradient, Overlay, 0
181 Sindots Dots revolving in a circle while the 'camera'
🎨 Speed, Dot distance, Fade rate, Blur
108 Sine Controllable sine waves
92 Sinelon Fastled sinusoidal moving eye
🎨 Fx, Bg, Cs Speed, Trail
93 Sinelon Dual Sinelon from both directions
🎨 Fx, Bg, Cs Speed, Trail
94 Sinelon Rainbow Sinelon in rainbow colours
🎨 Cs Speed, Trail
125 Soap Like soap bubbles, but lasts longer.
🎨 Speed, Smoothness
0 Solid Solid primary color on all LEDs
103 Solid Glitter Like Glitter, but with solid color background
Bg, Glitter color Intensity
83 Solid Pattern Speed sets number of LEDs on, intensity sets off
🎨 Fg, Bg Fg size, Bg size
84 Solid Pattern Tri Solid Pattern with three colors
1, 2, 3 Size
118 Spaceships Circling ships with fading trails. Homage to 80s spaceship shooter games.
🎨 Speed, Blur
20 Sparkle Single random LEDs light up in the primary color for a short time, secondary is background
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Overlay
21 Sparkle Dark All LEDs are lit in the primary color, single random LEDs turn off for a short time
🎨 Bg, Fx Speed, Intensity, Overlay
22 Sparkle+ All LEDs are lit in the primary color, multiple random LEDs turn off for a short time
🎨 Bg, Fx Speed, Intensity, Overlay
85 Spots Solid lights with even distance
🎨 Fx, Bg Spread, Width, Overlay
86 Spots Fade Spots, getting bigger and smaller
🎨 Fx, Bg Spread, Width, Overlay
150 Squared Swirl Boxes moving around
🎨 Blur
39 Stream Flush bands random hues along the string
🎨 Speed, Zone size
61 Stream 2 Flush random hues along the string
Speed
23 Strobe All LEDs are lit in the secondary color, all LEDs flash in a single short burst in primary color
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed
25 Strobe Mega All LEDs are lit in the secondary color, all LEDs flash in several short bursts in primary color
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
24 Strobe Rainbow Same as strobe, cycles through the rainbow
🎨 Bg Speed
166 Sun Radiation The sun! Doesn't support segments.
Variance, Brightness
104 Sunrise Simulates a gradual sunrise or sunset. Speed sets: 0 - static sun, 1 - 60: sunrise time in minutes,60 - 120: sunset time in minutes - 60, above: "breathing" rise and set
🎨 Time [min], Width
6 Sweep Switches between primary and secondary, switching LEDs one by one, start to end to start
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
36 Sweep Random Like Sweep, but uses random colors
🎨 Speed
175 Swirl Several blurred circles. Looks good with pink plasma palette. Supports AGC.
▦ ♪ 🎨 Bg Swirl Speed, Sensitivity, Blur
116 TV Simulator TV light spill simulation
Speed, Intensity
173 Tartan Plaid pattern of horizontal and vertical bands. Makes a great kilt.
🎨 X scale, Y scale, Sharpness
44 Tetrix Falling blocks stack
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Width, One color
13 Theater Pattern of one lit and two unlit LEDs running
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Gap size
14 Theater Rainbow Same as Theater but uses colors of the rainbow
🎨 Bg Speed, Gap size
35 Traffic Light Emulates a traffic light
🎨 Bg Speed, US style
56 Tri Fade Fades the whole strip from primary color to secondary color to off
🎨 1, 2, 3 Speed
55 Tri Wipe Like Wipe but turns LEDs off as "third color"
🎨 1, 2, 3 Speed
17 Twinkle Random LEDs light up in the primary color with secondary as background
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
81 Twinklecat Twinkling with fast in / slow out
🎨 Speed, Twinkle rate
80 Twinklefox FastLED gentle twinkling with slow fade in/out
🎨 Speed, Twinkle rate
106 Twinkleup Twinkle effect with fade-in
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
50 Two Dots Two areas sweeping
🎨 1, 2, Bg Speed, Dot size, Overlay
113 Washing Machine Spins, slows, reverses directions
🎨 Speed, Intensity
140 Waterfall A volume AND FFT version of a Waterfall that has 'beat' support.
⋮ ♫ 🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Adjust color, Select bin, Volume (min)
165 Waverly Noise waves with some sound.
▦ ♪ 🎨 Amplification, Sensitivity
184 Wavesins Beat waves and phase shifting. Looks OK in 2D'ish as well.
🎨 Fx Speed, Brightness variation, Starting color, Range of colors, Color variation
127 Waving Cell If a bunch of eucaryotes went to a sports stadium and did the wave, it would look exactly like this.
🎨 Speed, Amplitude 1, Amplitude 2, Amplitude 3
3 Wipe Switches between primary and secondary, switching LEDs one by one, start to end
🎨 Fx, Bg Speed, Intensity
4 Wipe Random Same as Wipe, but uses random colors
🎨 Speed

Retired Effects

Some effects get retired when they can be recreated with newer, more general effects.

Removed Effect Replacement Retired After
Candy Cane Chase 2 - red/white 0.14.0
Dissolve Rnd Dissolve 0.14.0
Dynamic Smooth Dynamic 0.14.0
Halloween Chase 2 0.14.0
Merry Christmas Chase 2 - red/green 0.12.0
Police Two Dot 0.14.0
Police All Two Dots - red/blue w/ full intensity 0.13.0
Two Areas Two Dots - full intensity 0.13.0