Monochrome Halftone

Create classic halftone patterns with modern creative controls. Transform your footage into striking dot patterns, lines, squares, or crosshatch styles with full control over scale, rotation, color, and advanced features like radial swirl, contour-based modulation, and noise displacement.

Overview

Monochrome Halftone brings professional print and graphic novel aesthetics to your footage:

4 Pattern Types - Dots, Lines, Squares, and Crosshatch
Wave Animation - Animated sine wave modulation for lines
Dual-Color Output - Full control over bright and dark colors
Radial Effects - Swirl and scale patterns from customizable center points
Contour Detection - Modulate pattern scale and displacement based on image content.
Noise Displacement - Add organic, animated distortion to patterns to add interest.
Input Level Controls - Fine-tune gamma, lift, gain, and black/white points to control the dot sizes across your image's tonal range.

Included Presets: 18 presets are included to help you get started quickly, from basic dots to complex guilloche money patterns.

Quick Start

Easiest: Use the Presets!

Select the effect from the ofx list, and drag it onto a corrector node (color page) or onto a clip (editor page).

In the presets group, there are two dropdowns: "Factory Presets" and "My Presets". Try out the various factory presets to get the idea of the range of effects you can get with the Advanced Lens Blur OFX.

Later, when you develop your own looks, you can save your own presets; Give your look a name in the "save as" field, and click "save". Then, your own presets will be available in the "My Presets" drop down.

Here's the manual quickstart:

Apply the effect to your clip
Choose a Pattern Type - Dots (default), Lines, Squares, or Crosshatch
Adjust Scale to control dot/line size (smaller values = larger patterns)
Set Angle to rotate the pattern
Choose Colors with Bright Color and Dark Color pickers
Explore the settings for creative effects. Try the radial swirl, and the noise displacement for some easy effects.

Inputs

Input	Required	Description
Source	Yes	The image to apply the halftone effect to

Parameters

Halftone Settings

Core controls for the halftone pattern.

Parameter	Type	Default	Range	Description
Pattern	choice	Dots	-	Shape of the halftone pattern (Dots, Squares, Lines)
Scale	float	30.0	1.0 - 50.0	Size of the pattern (smaller = larger dots/lines)
Angle	float	0.0	-180.0 to 180.0	Rotation angle of the pattern in degrees
Rotation Speed	float	0.0	-50.0 to 50.0	Continuous rotation animation (degrees per second)
Bright Color	color	white	-	Color for bright areas of the pattern
Dark Color	color	black	-	Color for dark areas
Edge Softness	float	10.0	0.5 - 50.0	Controls anti-aliasing of pattern edges
Tone Strength	float	0.08	0.01 - 1.0	Continuous tone amount - another form of antialiasing, perhaps more effective than edge softness. (lower = harder threshold)

Pattern Types

Dots - Classic circular halftone dots
Squares - Sharp-edged square pattern, pixel-art aesthetic
Lines - Parallel lines with optional wave modulation (see Lines/Crosshatch section)

Scale

The scale parameter works inversely - smaller values create larger pattern elements. think of it as frequency:

0.5-15: Very large dots/lines, bold graphic look
15-30: Medium dots, classic newspaper halftone
30-50: Fine dots, subtle halftone texture
50+: Very fine pattern, approaches continuous tone

Lines/Crosshatch Parameters

Additional controls for the Lines pattern type; Controls the wavyness of the lines.

There are two sections - the "line" section - which controls the primary lines, when "lines" is selected as the pattern. The "cross" section, which mirrors the line section - but is applied to a second set of lines, to generate a cross hatch effect.

Parameter	Type	Default	Range	Description
Wave Amp Line	float	0.0	0.0 - 60.0	Wave amplitude for primary lines (0 = straight)
Wave Freq Line	float	1.0	0.5 - 5.0	Wave frequency for primary lines
Phase Speed Line	float	0.0	-90.0 to 90.0	Phase animation speed (degrees per second)
Enable Crosshatch	bool	false	-	Add second set of lines for crosshatch pattern
Scale Cross	float	1.0	0.5 - 2.0	Scale multiplier for crosshatch lines
Angle Cross	float	90.0	30.0 - 150.0	Angle between line sets (90 = perpendicular)
Rot Speed Cross	float	0.0	-50.0 to 50.0	Rotation speed for crosshatch lines
Wave Amp Cross	float	0.0	0.0 - 60.0	Wave amplitude for crosshatch lines
Wave Freq Cross	float	1.0	0.5 - 5.0	Wave frequency for crosshatch lines
Phase Speed Cross	float	0.0	-90.0 to 90.0	Phase animation speed for crosshatch lines

Guilloche Effects: Use Lines with wave modulation and crosshatch enabled to create intricate guilloche patterns like those seen on currency and certificates. Try the "08 Guilloche (Money)" preset as a starting point.

Input Levels

Fine-tune the input image before halftone processing.

Parameter	Type	Default	Range	Description
Gamma	float	1.0	0.5 - 4.0	Midtone adjustment (higher = brighter midtones)
Lift	float	0.0	-0.2 to 0.2	Value added to output (raises shadows)
Gain	float	1.0	0.5 - 2.0	Multiplier for output brightness
White Point	float	1.0	0.5 - 1.0	Input values at/above this map to white
Black Point	float	0.0	0.0 - 0.5	Input values at/below this map to black

Use these controls to optimize your source image for halftone conversion. There are no real rules here - play with these controls to make your shot look it's best.

Radial Swirl

Twist the halftone pattern around a center point, creating spiral effects.

Parameter	Type	Default	Range	Description
Swirl Amount	float	0.0	-360.0 to 360.0	Angular twist added as distance from center increases
Swirl Center	vec2	0.0, 0.0	-	Center point for swirl (visible as cyan crosshair)
Swirl Falloff	float	1.0	0.1 - 4.0	Exponent controlling how swirl builds with distance

Using Radial Swirl

Positive values: Clockwise twist
Negative values: Counter-clockwise twist
Falloff < 1.0: Most twist happens near center
Falloff > 1.0: Most twist happens toward edges
Falloff = 1.0: Linear increase with distance

Radial Scale

Scale the halftone pattern based on distance from a center point.

Parameter	Type	Default	Range	Description
Radial Scale	float	0.0	-200.0 to 200.0	Scale added as distance from center increases
Radial Center	vec2	0.0, 0.0	-	Center point for scale (visible as orange crosshair)
Radial Falloff	float	1.0	0.1 - 4.0	Exponent controlling how scale builds with distance

Using Radial Scale

Positive values: Smaller dots/lines toward edges (vignette effect)
Negative values: Larger dots/lines toward edges
Combine with Swirl for complex radial patterns
Different center points for Swirl and Scale create asymmetric effects

Noise Displacement

Add procedural noise to displace the halftone pattern for organic, hand-drawn looks.

Parameter	Type	Default	Range	Description
Enable	bool	false	-	Enable noise displacement
Amount	float	0.25	-2.0 to 2.0	Strength of displacement
Scale	float	25.0	1.0 - 60.0	Size of noise features (larger = bigger patterns)
Animate	bool	true	-	Enable time-based animation
Speed	float	0.5	-2.0 to 2.0	Animation speed (evolution rate)

Organic Feel: Enable noise with a small Amount (0.1-0.3) for subtle irregularity that mimics imperfect printing or hand-drawn halftones.

Advanced Contouring

Modulate the halftone pattern based on image edges and luminance. This creates effects where dots change size or position based on the underlying image structure.

Parameter	Type	Default	Range	Description
Enable	bool	false	-	Enable contour-based effects
Softness	float	20.0	0.0 - 100.0	Blur amount for contour detection
Scale Offset	float	0.0	-10.0 to 60.0	Scale added in dark contour areas
Scale Uses Edges	bool	false	-	When true, scale responds to edges instead of luminance
Displacement	float	0.0	-20.0 to 20.0	Displacement strength along contour direction
Displacement Angle	float	0.0	-1.0 to 1.0	0 = across edges, ±1 = along edges

Contour Scale Mode

Scale Uses Edges = false: Dark areas of the image get larger dots
Scale Uses Edges = true: Edge areas get larger dots

Contour Displacement

Shifts the halftone pattern based on the image:

Displacement Angle = 0: Pattern shifts perpendicular to edges
Displacement Angle = 1 or -1: Pattern shifts along edges
Combine with Scale for complex contour-following effects

Presets

The effect includes 18 presets demonstrating various looks:

Basic Patterns

Preset	Description
01 Basic Dots	Clean, classic halftone dots
02 Dots with Swirl	Spiral dot pattern
03 Dots with Swirl and Animated Noise	Organic animated spiral
04 Basic Lines	Clean parallel lines
05 Swirled Lines	Spiral-ish line pattern

Wavy Lines & Guilloche

Preset	Description
06 Undulating Swirled Lines	Lines with twist, and noise animation
07 Wavy Undulating Swirled Lines	Lines with twist, and noise animation and waves.
08 Guilloche (Money)	Currency-style security pattern
09 Animated Guilloche (Money)	Animated currency pattern
10-12 Money variants	Different guilloche styles

Contoured Effects

Preset	Description
13-17 Contoured Dots	Various contour-based dot modulations
18 Freaky Face	Extreme contour effect

Tips & Tricks

Classic Comic Book Look

Use Dots pattern
Set Scale to 15-25
Use pure black and white colors
Set Tone Strength to control contrast vs aliasing.
Adjust Lift Gain and Gamma to control midtone density

Retro Print Effect

Enable Noise Displacement with Amount at 0.2-0.4
Set Edge Softness low (2-5) for rougher edges
Use slightly off-white and dark brown/blue instead of pure black/white
Apply subtle Radial Scale to vignette the pattern

Currency/Certificate Guilloche

Use Lines pattern
Enable Crosshatch with Angle Cross at 60-90 degrees
Set Wave Amp Line to 15-30
Set Wave Freq Line to 2-4
Enable Swirl Amount at 180-360 degrees
Try preset "08 Guilloche (Money)" as starting point

Edge-Responsive Halftone

Enable Advanced Contouring
Set Scale Offset to 10-30 (larger dots on dark/edges)
Enable Scale Uses Edges for edge-only response
Adjust Softness to control edge detection scale
Optionally add Displacement for pattern flow

Troubleshooting

Pattern not visible

Check that Scale isn't too high (pattern too fine to see)
Verify Bright Color and Dark Color are different
Increase Gain if source image is too dark

Pattern looks muddy or gray

Decrease Tone Strength for harder dots
Adjust Input Levels (Gamma, Black/White Points)
Check Edge Softness isn't too high

Banding or artifacts

Increase Edge Softness for better anti-aliasing

Swirl/Scale center not responding

The overlay controls show center positions
Ensure you're adjusting the correct center (Swirl = cyan, Scale = orange)
Check that Swirl Amount or Radial Scale isn't zero
remember to enable Open FX Overlays in the dropdown on the lower left of the viewer.

Contours not affecting pattern

Ensure Enable is checked in Advanced Contouring group
Increase Scale Offset or Displacement values
Adjust Softness - too high may over-blur features

Animation not working

Check that Rotation Speed, Phase Speed, or Noise Speed aren't zero
Ensure timeline is playing (effect responds to frame time)
Noise Animate must be enabled for noise animation