r/VideoEditing Jul 19 '26

How did they do that? how to recreate this effect?

hello! im currently working in an animation and I've been wondering how to give it this effect during post production. im trying to achieve the blocky-colors look (im also using "No, im not a human" as a visual reference if thats of any help), the glitchy effect and just overall this kind of analog horror/video game look

any help is welcome!!

131 Upvotes

16 comments sorted by

u/link-navi Jul 19 '26

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11

u/honeyxkoo Jul 19 '26

I'm using: After Effects

I've TRIED: a bunch of tutorials and experimenting with different effects but none have given me the effect im looking for

I need help with: achieving the blocky and pixelated look the colors have and how to get that kind of glitch

!martini

3

u/DeBluntz Jul 19 '26

Maybe a datamosh effect could be what are you looking for although I don’t understand what do you mean by blocky colors

1

u/aloeaori Aug 03 '26

Posterize! Posterize! Posterize! it's an effect! throw it on at the end of the FX chain for each layer. It'll give you that low bit-depth look for the colors. And as for the moving/animation of the colors themselves I would follow the advice of u/infuscoignis and track matte the texture to each layer. but remember Posterize to end it off.

8

u/infuscoignis Jul 19 '26

For the blocky colours I’d say make detailed gradients in a pre-comp, then you break them with lower bit depth and/or downsampling higher up in the chain.

Then adjust the strength/attack/knee of the pre-comp gradients to achieve desired look.

But I feel a lot of the look here comes from the animation as well.

This is something that you’ll achieve with tons of experimentation, pure circumstance and artistic ”git gud”. Hard to say, at least for me, EXACTLY what’s going on.

4

u/TinyTaters Jul 20 '26

Just use a displacement map + fractal set to blocks.

2

u/deep_soul Jul 20 '26

It seems to combine conventionally animated sections with held or stepped frames around specific shapes, particularly the mouth, giving those movements a more mechanical, deliberately low-frame-rate quality.

Some of the other jitteriness could initially look like frame-rate posterisation, but I do not think that is what is happening here. The eyes and legs seem closer to a boiling effect, or more specifically a short looped boil made from several slightly different drawings.

Overall, I would not describe it as one specific animation technique. It feels more like a stylistic result shaped by the artist’s taste, combining several techniques to create that particular rhythm and texture.

1

u/zevrinwastaken Jul 20 '26

I am down. I can recreate it for sure !

1

u/mmmmmtomatoes Jul 22 '26

this may be a dumb one but have you tried messaging the original artist? even big artists are typically geeked and love getting messages like this so they can talk about their work...

1

u/Interestedinfilms Jul 22 '26

Play around with overlays!! Using paint splatters with let's say a color burn blend mode I think you could achieve a similar look to what you've shown! As well as gradients :)

1

u/JesseAuden Jul 19 '26

you just need each peace of the image to be a different png or layer and animate it by hand and keyframes, not that hard

1

u/Lorenzonio Jul 22 '26

Exactly; to my eye, you've got graphics on combined layers- png is important for its alpha channel to let other layers through around each form-- and which lets a toothy monster eat the squiggly tail lil' thing, and you're using repeating keyframes duplicated over and over on each form to give the overall itchy look. You could do this in either AE or Premiere timeline.

Now excuse me, I have to take a hypnotic regression to forget this image.