Impact & Collision Effects
The Collision Effects panel: 43 impact effects, the separate outer-wall Bounce Effect, twelve colour modes and the Ring Break Explosion colours.
Three Kinds of Impact Visual
The Collision Effects panel in the Arts tab holds three separate systems, and each has its own controls:
1. The impact effect (Select Effect Style): plays on every contact. 2. The Bounce Effect (Outer Wall): a second, independent effect that plays every time a ball bounces off the outer wall, in any mode. 3. The Ring Break Explosion: the burst of shards when a ring or wall is destroyed, as in Escape. A ring break is not a bounce.
The panel needs Creator, Pro, Elite and Agency. Trails have their own article: see "Ball Trails".
The Impact Effect Library
Select Effect Style opens a picker of 43 effects plus None (the default). Each tile is a short strobe of the real effect drawn with your current colour settings, so you can see which way it travels before you pick it. Change the colour mode and every tile updates at once.
| Group | Effects |
|---|---|
| Physics | Dust Burst, Ember Spray, Ricochet, Water Crown, Sand Spill, Orbit Decay, Smoke Ring, Magnet Snap, Feather Drift, Prism Shards |
| Minimal | Shock Ring, Spring Ring, Halo Pulse, Soft Impact, Dash Burst, Pin Prick |
| Classic | Sparks, Ripple, Smoke Puff, Bubble Pop, Fireworks, Confetti Cannon |
| Elemental | Liquid Splash, Plasma Blob, Lightning Bolt, Crystal Shards, Ink Splat |
| Cyber & Tech | Cyber Hex, Matrix Rain, Neon Pulse, DNA Helix, Glitch Fragments, Quantum Tunnel |
| Cosmic | Supernova, Vortex Suck, Gravity Particles, Orbital Spin, Sonic Wave, Spiral Galaxy, Elastic Ring |
| Destruction | Shatter Glass, Pixel Crumble, Ghost Souls |
Tip
- The Physics group is modelled with real drag, gravity and bounce, so these effects look the same in the preview and in the finished export, frame for frame.
Impact Effect Controls
These shape the impact effect you picked.
| Control | What it does | Range / default | Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration (ms) | How long each burst lasts. | 100 to 2000. Default 800 | Short, bright bursts read as "satisfying"; long ones clutter a fast run. |
| Particles | How many particles each burst throws. | 1 to 100. Default 20 | A cost dot shows how heavy this is with your ball count. |
| Scale | Size multiplier. | 0.1 to 5. Default 1 | |
| Gravity | How strongly particles fall. | 0 to 2. Default 0.5 | 0 lets them float. |
Effect Coloring: the Twelve Color Modes
Color Mode decides what colours an effect uses. Every effect obeys it. Each button shows a live swatch of the colours that mode would produce with your current ball colour. The Primary, Secondary and Tertiary Color pickers appear only for the modes that use them.
| Mode | What it does | Uses your colours |
|---|---|---|
| Ball Color | Matches the ball that landed the hit. Default. | No |
| Rainbow | Follows the global rainbow hue as it cycles. | No |
| Spectrum | A full hue sweep across one burst, every colour at once. | No |
| Per Hit | One colour per impact, held for that burst's whole life. | No |
| Complement | The ball colour's opposite, so it reads as a highlight. | No |
| White Hot | A white flash cooling into the ball colour. | No |
| Heat | White to yellow to red over the burst's life. | No |
| Ice | White to cyan to deep blue over the burst's life. | No |
| Mono Fade | One hue, darkening across the particles. The quiet option. | No |
| Solid | Your Primary Color everywhere. | Primary (default #ff0000) |
| Gradient | Primary to Secondary across the particles. | Primary, Secondary (default #ffff00) |
| Tri-Tone | Primary to Secondary to Tertiary across the particles. | Primary, Secondary, Tertiary (default #00d4ff) |
Bounce Effect (Outer Wall)
A second effect channel that fires every time the ball bounces off the wall, in any mode. It is separate from the impact effect above, so you can pair a subtle wall ripple with a bigger impact burst, or use only one of them.
| Control | What it does | Range / default |
|---|---|---|
| Select Bounce Effect | The effect, from the same library. | Default None (off) |
| Duration (ms) | How long it lasts. | 100 to 2000. Default 700 |
| Scale | Size multiplier. | 0.1 to 5. Default 1 |
| Bounce Color Mode | Same twelve modes as above, set separately. | Default Ball Color |
| Primary / Secondary / Tertiary Color | Shown for Solid, Gradient and Tri-Tone. | Defaults white, #00d4ff, #ff00ff |
Ring Break Explosion
The burst when a ring or wall is destroyed, for example when a ball escapes a ring in Escape mode.
| Control | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Explosion Shard Color | Colour of the flying shards. | #ef4444 (red) |
| Match Broken Ring Color | Shards take the colour of the ring that broke instead. | Off |
Syncing Colour to Sound
Every bounce plays its sound (set in the Audio tab) on the same frame the impact effect fires, so an effect is already locked to the beat. To make the colour feel musical too:
- 1Pick a short effect (Duration around 300 to 600 ms) so each burst ends before the next note.
- 2Use Per Hit for a new colour on every note, or Spectrum for a full rainbow burst on every hit.
- 3Turn on Rainbow Ball Colors and Rainbow Impact Effects (RGB Rainbow Lights panel) so the ball and the burst drift through hues together.
- 4Add Pulse On Bounce or Glow On Bounce in Ball Studio so the ball itself reacts on each note.
Tip
- There is no single "colour follows the pitch" switch for 2D effects. The combination above gives the same feeling: one colour change per note, landing on the beat.
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