Layers
A scene is a stack of layers. Each layer is one visual (an Element) with its own knobs. Layers is where you add, order and shape them. Free keeps 2 layers; Pro has no limit.
On an iPhone you see the whole scene while you work. Upright, it sits as a wide strip at the top, above the list. Sideways, it is shrunk to fit beside the Layers panel, which runs the full height of the screen; the play controls and the section buttons sit under the scene until you close Layers. Drag on it to play the scene with your finger as usual; a tap on it closes Layers. On an iPad or a Mac, Layers is a panel at the side and the scene stays full size behind it.
Add a layer
Tap Add a layer at the top and pick a visual. It joins the stack as a new layer on top, with that visual's own starting look. A small dot on a visual's picture means it responds to touch. On the free app the button reads 2 of 2 with a gold PRO mark once you have two layers; tapping it opens the Nebula Pro window. Every visual you can pick is described on the Elements page, with all its knobs.
The layer card
Each layer is a card in the list. Closed, it is one row, left to right:
- › opens or closes the layer. Closed, the card shrinks to one row so a tall stack stays easy to scan. Drag it to reorder.
- The layer's picture (its Element's thumbnail). Tap it to hide the layer or show it again. See Show, hide and solo.
- The layer's number, such as #1. A small error tag shows if the Element could not load.
- Solo shows only this layer.
- The trash removes the layer.
Open, the card adds a second row with the layer's name and four buttons: Undo, Redo, Move up and Move down. Under it come Opacity and Blend, then the layer's knobs in groups, and last Visibility.
Order and drawing
The top of the list draws on top. Drag a layer by its › to move it up or down, or open it and tap Move up or Move down; the picture follows at once. A layer only mixes with what is under it, so changing the order changes the look.
Show, hide and solo
Two separate buttons decide what draws:
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| The layer's picture | Tap it to hide the layer. The picture goes dark and gray under a slashed eye. The layer is skipped but kept, with all its knobs and cables. Tap again to show it. |
| Solo | Only the layers set to solo draw. Use it to see what one layer is really doing. Tap it again to show every layer again. More than one layer can be solo at once. |
The two work together: hiding a solo layer also ends its solo (otherwise nothing would show), and tapping Solo on a hidden layer shows it.
Undo and Redo
Each layer has its own Undo and Redo on the open card's second row. They step back and forward through that layer's changes: knobs, blend, opacity, touch, colors, origin, and show or hide. They are dim when there is nothing to step. They do not touch other layers.
Opacity and blend
Opacity is how much of the layer shows, from 0 to 100%. Blend is how it mixes with the layers beneath it.
| Blend | What it does |
|---|---|
| Screen | Adds light softly. The usual choice for glowing layers on top of others. |
| Normal | Covers what is below. Right for the bottom layer, or at a low opacity as a tint. |
| Lighten | Keeps the brighter of the two. |
| Add | Stacks light. Can blow out to white. |
| Difference | Inverts where both are bright. |
| Multiply | Darkens and tints: black makes black, white leaves the layers below alone. Good for vignettes and color washes. |
| Overlay | More contrast, keeping the shadows and highlights below. |
| Soft light | A gentle overlay. |
| Color dodge | Brightens and saturates what is below. Blows out fast. |
| Darken | Keeps the darker of the two. |
| Exclusion | A softer, grayer difference. |
| Hue | This layer's hue on the brightness and saturation below. |
| Color | This layer's hue and saturation on the brightness below. Tints without changing the light. |
Free has three blends: Screen, Normal and Add. The other ten carry a gold PRO mark in the menu and open the Nebula Pro window if you tap them. A layer that already uses one keeps it. The bottom layer is drawn over black. Every Element comes with a sensible blend of its own, so you only change it when you want a different mix.
Touch
Some layers respond to your finger (or the mouse): drag, hold or tap the picture and they react. A small dot on the layer's picture in the Add a layer list marks the ones that do. Open the layer to find Touch sensitivity:
- 100% is touch as designed.
- Less makes a drag and a tap weaker, and a hold slower. A hold still reaches its full pull, just later: 2 seconds at 100%, 4 at 50%, 8 at 25%.
- At 0% the layer ignores touch.
Touch needs the controls out of the way. See showing and hiding the controls.
Knobs
Under Opacity and Blend sit the layer's knobs, grouped (look, motion, color and so on). Every Element has its own set; the Elements page lists them all with their range, starting value and what each does.
- Sliders move smoothly. For a finer touch, drag and then slide your finger away from the slider track: the further away, the slower the value follows (half, a quarter, then a tenth), and a small label shows which. On a Mac hold Shift for half or Option for a tenth.
- Menus pick one choice from a list, such as where the effect comes from or which colors it uses.
- Switches turn something on or off.
- Color knobs pick a color.
- Origin (where an effect starts) offers fixed places and moving ones, or places you pick yourself on a small control in the layer.
- Press and hold (or hover over) a knob's name to see what it does.
- In the free app, each Element has 3 to 5 knobs you can change, plus Opacity, Blend, Origin and Scene colors. A group with more knobs carries a gold PRO mark and its Pro knobs are dimmed; tap one to see what Pro adds. Their saved values still play.
Tip. Elements already react to the music by themselves. Each knob's help says how (for example, "the bass makes it swell"). Patches then adds to that: Patches turns any knob with the music.
Colors
At the bottom of the list, Scene colors is a shared palette for the whole scene. Elements whose color setting is palette (or shared palette) take their colors from it, so changing it recolors them all at once. A scene can hold up to 12 colors.
Two more scene-wide knobs appear in Patches as targets: Color shift (moves every palette color along the list; 1 is once round) and Color speed (how fast palette colors drift on their own: 1 is once round every 32 bars, 0 holds them still).
A layer can also have its own Palette. Patch a color knob and the cable moves the color along the layer's palette, or round the color wheel when the layer has none.
Visibility Pro
Visibility shows a layer only at set times in a song, fading it in and out. Play a song from your own files or from Nebula, open the layer's Visibility group (the last one on the card) and tap Add a show. Each show has a Start (the fade in begins), a Fade in, an End (the fade out has finished) and a Fade out. Type a time, drag it sideways, or tap the crosshair to set it to where the song is now. Add more shows to bring the layer in several times. Outside its shows the layer is hidden, and on other songs it plays as normal. Shows belong to the song they were made on; while another song plays, a show offers Use (that song) for these times. Delete a show with its red trash (tap twice).
Deleting a layer
Tap the trash on a layer's card. It turns red and asks Delete?. Tap again to remove the layer. Tapping anywhere else cancels. Cables that used the layer go with it.
Keeping your work
Changes are saved on their own a moment after the last one. Edit a Nebula scene and your version is kept in My Scenes under the name My followed by the scene's name; the original stays untouched. See Scenes › My Scenes.