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RENDERWAVERENDERWAVE

Overlays

Overlays are a separate layer from everything in Effects. Effects process the pixels a shader already produces. An overlay composites something else on top: text, a logo image, or a video with alpha, each with its own position, scale, opacity, and blend mode. Overlays sit above the visual and the effects stack, so an overlay stays on screen where you place it whatever the shader underneath does.

RENDERWAVE has two independent overlay layers: a text/logo overlay and an alpha video overlay. You can run either one, both at once, or neither.

Where overlay controls live

Section titled “Where overlay controls live”

Both overlays open from Performance view’s bottom panel, the same bar that holds the shader library scroller and output scaling. The sliders icon opens the Overlay Layer panel (text/logo); the film-stack icon opens the Alpha Video panel.

Text and logo overlay

Section titled “Text and logo overlay”

Set the Mode to Text or Logo (or None to turn the layer off).

Text mode gives you a text field and a Font picker with eight choices: Helvetica Neue Bold, Avenir Next Bold, Avenir Next Condensed, Futura Condensed, Gill Sans Bold, Menlo Bold (monospace), Impact, and Courier New Bold (monospace).

Logo mode lets you pick an image. Import & Save keeps a copy of the logo in the app so it’s available again later from the saved-logos menu; Choose Once uses it for this session only without saving it. You can switch between saved logos or remove one from the same menu.

Both modes share the same transform controls: Position X/Y, Size X/Y, Universal Scale, and Opacity. The first time a new piece of text or a freshly loaded logo appears, the app sizes it to roughly 75% of your canvas width, so it lands legible before you touch a control. That auto-sizing resets every time you relaunch the app. Position, opacity, RGB Cycle, and your text or font choice persist across relaunches once you adjust them.

Turn on RGB Cycle to cycle the overlay’s color through the spectrum, with a speed slider to set the pace.

Alpha video overlay

Section titled “Alpha video overlay”

Click Choose Video… to load a video file with an alpha channel as an overlay. Once loaded, use Play, Pause, and Stop, and toggle Loop to have it repeat.

The Sync menu decides how the video’s playback relates to the music:

  • Free Run: plays at its normal rate, independent of tempo.
  • Beat Restart: restarts the clip every N beats, set with a stepper from 1 to 16.
  • Bar Restart: restarts the clip at the start of every bar.
  • Tempo Scale: scales the video’s playback rate against a Reference BPM you set (40 to 240), so the clip speeds up or slows down with the tempo of the music.

Transform controls mirror the text/logo overlay: Position X/Y, Size X/Y, Universal Scale, and Opacity, plus a Blend mode picker with nine options for how the video composites against everything underneath it: Normal, Add, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light, Hard Light, Difference, and Exclusion.

Next steps

Section titled “Next steps”