Background and decorative layers

The Background layer fills the canvas behind everything else, with Image Cropping, Image Opacity, and Background Color.

With a background image, keep the opacity low. A photograph at full strength competes with the chart for attention and usually wins, which is not what you want.

Colour is worth deciding at the workspace level rather than per project. See teams and workspaces.

The Particles layer adds drifting shapes behind the chart. Its panel carries Shape, Color, Count, Speed, Size, Opacity, and Opacity Speed.

This is visual flair only — it carries no data. Kept subtle, with low count and opacity, it stops a flat background looking static. Turned up, it makes the chart harder to read while adding nothing.

Particles do not appear on static infographics, since there is no motion for them to contribute.

The Glow layer fills the canvas with slowly drifting motes of light, in three depth bands so the field has a sense of distance rather than reading as flat confetti. The effect is modelled on bioluminescent plankton.

By default the panel asks two questions: a Preset — Plankton, Dust, Snow, Embers, or Fireflies, which sets the motion, size and density — and a Color.

Color starts on Auto, which follows the preset: Embers comes out warm, Snow neutral, Plankton teal. Pick a colour instead and it is pinned — later preset changes leave it alone, so Snow in Gold stays falling golden sparks.

Turn on Advanced to replace those two dropdowns with every setting individually. The switch is remembered on the layer, so a project opens the way you left it. Nothing is hidden from Advanced: a style is only a named combination of the same settings.

Palette picks the colour range — Abyss, Lagoon, Nebula, Ember, Gold, Mint, Rose, or Mono — or choose Custom to set your own Start Color and End Color. The field always uses a range of hues rather than one flat colour, which is what gives it depth.

Count, Size, Drift Speed, Glow Speed, and Brightness control the field itself. Clustering groups the motes into drifts and leaves darker areas between them — raise it when a chart sits on top, since those darker areas are what keep the chart readable. Haze sets the strength of the soft colour wash drifting behind the motes — atmosphere only, it tints the field without moving anything.

Direction turns the whole field. At 0° the motes rise like plankton in water; at 180° they fall, which with the Ember palette reads as drifting ash and with a pale one as snow. That single setting is what makes the layer more than an underwater effect.

Blending decides how the light combines with what is behind it. The default, Additive, is true light and needs a dark background — over a pale one it blows out to white. Switch to Screen to keep the colours intact over mid-tone backgrounds.

React to Audio ties the field to the project's sound: motes brighten and swell on the beat, with bass moving the large near ones and treble the fine distant ones. It needs an audio track, generated narration, or chart sound effects — audio inside a video layer is not included. Left at 0% the field ignores sound entirely.

Like particles, it does not appear on static infographics.

The Audio Visualizer reacts to all project audio — music, narration, and chart sound effects together.

Style chooses between a linear layout of bottom-up bars and a radial ring; Ring Size, Bar Gap, and Bar Density tune the appearance.

It is unavailable on static infographics, since it has no audio to follow.

It works best when your video genuinely has a music bed. Over narration alone it mostly tracks speech rhythm, which is less visually interesting than it sounds.

Every decorative layer competes with your chart for the viewer's attention.

The videos that hold up are usually the restrained ones: a clean background, readable type, one accent. A busy background with particles, a visualizer, and animation on every layer is harder to watch, not more impressive.

A reasonable rule for a team: add decoration only after the chart itself is finished and readable.