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Your First Video Generator

Beginner Composer

Build an animated visual from scratch using Metaball and LfoFr.

What you'll build

An animated visual: a glowing blob that moves in a figure-eight pattern, driven by two LFOs. You'll learn how GPU operators and Control operators connect to make things move.

Operators used

Operator Domain Role
Metaball GPU Renders SDF blobs as a texture
LfoFr Control Oscillates a value at a set frequency
video_out — Displays the GPU texture output

Step 1: Create a new graph

Choose File → New Graph. The canvas opens with a video_out node already placed.

Step 2: Add a Metaball

Double-click the canvas to open the operator browser. Type Metaball and add it.

Connect metaball/texture → video_out/input. You should see a static white blob in the preview.

Step 3: Make it move

The blob is static because nothing is driving its position. Add an LfoFr operator.

Connect lfo1/value → metaball/pos_x.

Now the blob sweeps left and right. The LfoFr generates a -1 to +1 sine wave at 1 Hz by default.

Step 4: Add vertical motion

Add a second LfoFr. Set its frequency to 0.7 (a different rate so the paths don't repeat immediately).

Connect lfo2/value → metaball/pos_y.

The blob now traces a Lissajous figure across the output.

Step 5: Tune the motion

  • lfo1 → frequency: how fast the horizontal sweep is (Hz)
  • lfo1 → amplitude: how far left/right it moves
  • metaball → count: add more blobs (up to 8) — they share the same position input, spreading automatically with the spread parameter
  • metaball → threshold: controls blob merge distance and size

What's happening

LfoFr (Control) → Metaball/pos_x (GPU)
LfoFr (Control) → Metaball/pos_y (GPU)
Metaball/texture (GPU) → video_out/input

The Control domain generates scalar values that change over time at frame rate (~60 Hz). These values can wire directly into any numeric parameter on any operator, including GPU operators. This is how Vivid animations work: Control drives everything.

The GPU operator (Metaball) reads those values on each frame and renders accordingly. The output is a gpu_texture — a GPU-side image — that flows into video_out.

Next steps