Compact Disc
A spinning CD with your cover printed on it and two arcs of hot-pink bars hugging its rim, over a near-black frame with a faint photo, film dust and a soft vignette — the classic After Effects CD visualizer, with its response calibrated against the original’s own render.
Preview free in your browser · No subscription · Pay only when you export · No watermark
Demo videos
Every demo is a real render of this template. Start from one to get exactly this look.
No demo videos yet — try the template with your own track.
About this template
Shape and layout
A CD about 710 px across the short side sits at the frame centre: a silver disc with a brushed highlight, the cover printed as a ring from the black hub ring out to the thin silver rim, the hub a dark veil with a small open hole. Two 90° arcs of 40 round-capped bars stand left and right of it at a radius of 400 px, growing outward; in a portrait frame the whole group is 5 % smaller.
Motion
Each bar reads one narrow band between 10 and 500 Hz, linearly in level like the original After Effects effect: the lowest band sits at the top end of each arc and 500 Hz at the bottom, so the kick lights the upper bars longest; a resting bar is an 8 px dot. The disc turns clockwise at 50° a second (switchable), the bars stay put, and the background photo wiggles slowly.
Look and colour
Hot-pink bars with a tight glow on a near-black #080808 frame — the original After Effects colours — with film dust specks drifting over the picture, a vignette in the corners and a soft shadow under the disc; a backdrop photo or video shows at 30 % with a slow wiggle. Presets Classic, Ice, Emerald, Gold, Violet, White or your own background and bar colours.
What you can customize
Every setting below is yours to change in the editor, with the live preview updating as the track plays.
Visualizer
- Color preset
- A ready-made colour scheme; pick Custom to choose your own colours.
- ClassicIceEmeraldGoldVioletWhiteCustom
- Background color
- Spectrum color
- The colour of the bars around the disc and of their glow.
- Spin
- Turns the disc — cover and silver alike — clockwise like a playing CD; the bars stay put.
- OnOff
- Rotation speed
- How fast the disc turns; the middle is one turn every seven seconds, as the original.
- Glow
- The soft light around the bars and the wide haze off anything bright; 0 switches both off.
- Vignette
- High contrast
- Deepens the darks a little, as the original’s finishing pass does; off leaves the picture as drawn.
- OnOff
- Peak height
- How long the bars around the disc can grow at full level.
- Audio reactivity
- How strongly the visualizer moves with the music — lower for calmer motion, higher for a punchier response.
- Attack
- How quickly the visualizer responds when the sound gets louder.
- Release
- How quickly the visualizer settles after the sound drops.
- Horizontal position
- Moves the whole visualizer left or right across the frame.
- Vertical position
- Moves the whole visualizer up or down the frame.
Artwork
- Artwork image
Background
- Background photo
- Background video
- Background dimming
- How much the background photo or video fades into the dark frame; the middle is the original’s 30 % picture, 100 hides it.
- Background blur
- Softens the background photo or video so it reads as a backdrop, not the subject.
Backdrop effects
Effects for your photo or video backdrop, shared by every template.
- Zoom pump
- How much the background photo or video zooms in on the bass. Zero keeps it at a fixed size.
- Travel
- How far the background photo or video wanders around the frame as the track plays. Zero holds it still.
- Camera shake
- A short camera shake on every kick — a vibration with a slight roll — plus a low rumble with the level. Zero holds the camera still.
- Camera sway
- A slow, smooth roll of the whole scene — visualizer, background, particles and folds — each layer moving its own amount. Zoomed in a little so the corners never show. Zero holds it still.
- Layer parallax
- How differently the layers move while the camera sways: the background least, the particles and the liquid folds most. Zero moves the whole scene as one.
- Shockwave
- Ripple rings spread out from the centre on the kicks and warp the picture as they pass. Zero never fires.
- Lens
- A lens bulge that pumps on the kicks, with a colour fringe in the outer frame that grows with the level.
- Zoom blur
- Radial streaks shoot out from the centre on the kicks, as if the camera rushed in. Zero never streaks.
- Glow pulse
- A soft bloom around the bright parts of the picture that swells on the kicks.
- Light leaks
- Warm patches of light drift slowly over the picture, brighter the louder the music — a film look.
- Light rays
- Shafts of light from the top-left corner, blocked by the darker parts of the picture, brighter with the music and flaring on the kicks. Zero keeps them off.
- Light sweep
- A soft, slanted band of light crosses the picture once a bar — or, without the track’s analysis, on a strong kick every few seconds at most. Zero never sweeps.
- Lens flare
- Long horizontal streaks of bluish light stretch out of the brightest parts of the picture on the kicks, and rest faintly in between. Zero keeps them off.
- Fog
- Slow drifting mist over the picture, thicker toward the bottom and breathing gently with the music. Zero keeps the air clear.
- Particle overlay
- A layer of drifting particles over the picture that brightens with the music.
- OffDustBokehSnowSparksRainFirefliesConfettiBubblesStarsDriftGlow orbs
- Particle amount
- How many particles fill the frame.
- Liquid folds
- Soft, blurred sheets of colored liquid that drift and fold across the frame in front of the visualizer. Zero turns them off.
- Fold color
- The liquid folds' color. Auto takes the template's own accent color.
- AutoIndigoVioletCrimsonTealAmberIceCustom
- Custom fold color
- The color the folds take with Custom picked.
- Rain on glass
- Raindrops on a pane in front of the picture: small beads, and bigger drops that slide down and bend the picture. Zero keeps the glass dry.
- Echo
- The previous frame lingers, slightly enlarged, so motion leaves trails and the kicks pull you into a tunnel.
- Neon edges
- The picture's own outlines traced in cycling neon colours, brightest on the kicks.
- Glitch
- Digital bursts on the kicks: sliced rows jump sideways, blocks freeze and the colour channels split. Zero never fires.
- Pixelate
- The picture breaks into square blocks on the kicks and sharpens again within a quarter of a second. Zero keeps it sharp.
- Beat pulse
- The picture breathes in time with the music, swelling and glowing just before each beat so it lands on it. Needs the track’s analysis.
- Perspective tilt
- Tilts the picture like a card in 3D, swaying slowly with the music and nodding on the kicks, with a light that follows the turn. Zero keeps it face-on.
- Liquid
- The picture ripples like a liquid surface, more strongly the louder the music. Zero keeps it flat.
- Flash
- A short flash toward white on the strongest kicks, at most two per second. Zero never flashes.
- Retro VHS
- Tape look: a gentle wobble, colour bleed, scan lines, noise and a tracking band that rolls through on the beat.
- Old film
- Projector look: flicker, hair scratches, dust, a gentle weave and a sepia lean.
- Backdrop grain
- Adds fine film-like noise over the frame for a textured, less digital look.
- Color grade
- A colour treatment over the whole picture — and the colours of the built-in backdrop when you set no photo or video.
- NaturalWarmCoolMonoFaded
- Duotone
- Maps the picture’s light and shade onto two colours, dark to light. Custom uses the two colours you pick below.
- OffMidnightSunsetForestGoldRoseCustom
- Duotone shadows
- The colour the darkest parts of the picture turn into.
- Duotone highlights
- The colour the brightest parts of the picture turn into.
- Motion follows
- What the camera moves follow — zoom pump, shake, tilt, shockwave, lens, zoom blur, liquid, depth, subject pop and focus. A stem needs the track’s stems.
- Whole mixDrumsBassVocals
- Light follows
- What the light follows — glow, flashes, light leaks, rays, sweep, lens flare, fog, vignette, spotlight, rim light and hue steps. A stem needs the track’s stems.
- Whole mixDrumsBassVocals
- Texture follows
- What the texture effects follow — glitch, pixelate, VHS, echo trails, neon edges, particles, rain on glass and subject ghost trails. A stem needs the track’s stems.
- Whole mixDrumsBassVocals
- Drop
- The picture tightens, dims and drains of colour over the bars before a drop, then bursts open on it. Needs the track’s analysis.
- Follow the song
- Calmer reactions in the quiet parts of the song and bigger ones in the loud parts, easing at each change. Needs the track’s analysis.
- Hue drift
- The colours slowly cycle around the hue wheel and take a step on every kick. Zero keeps them as they are.
- Depth parallax
- Sways the near parts of the photo more than the far ones, and swells them on the kicks, so a flat picture gains depth. Needs the photo's depth map: off until it is ready, and on a video.
- Focus rack
- Blurs by depth like a lens: at rest the near part is sharp and the far part soft, and the focus pulls to the background and back on the kicks. Needs the photo's depth map; off until it is ready.
- Depth fog
- A pale haze over the far parts of the picture that breathes with the music, so the near parts stand out. Needs the photo's depth map; off until it is ready.
- Keep subject crisp
- Keeps the photo's subject untouched while blur, glow, echo, tape, grade and grain go to the background only. Needs the photo's subject map; off until it is ready.
- Subject rim light
- A neon rim of light hugging the photo's subject, with a soft halo behind it, flaring on the kicks. Needs the photo's subject map; off until it is ready, and on a video.
- Subject ghost trails
- Pale copies of the subject linger and drift outward with the music while the background stays put. Needs the photo's subject map; off until it is ready, and on a video.
- Subject pop
- The photo's subject swells toward the viewer on the kicks while the background holds still. Needs the photo's subject map; off until it is ready, and on a video.
- Subject spotlight
- Darkens the picture around the subject, like a spotlight that follows it and breathes with the music. Needs the photo's subject map; off until it is ready, and on a video.
- Beat sync
- Lands the stepping effects — the kaleidoscope, the hue drift and the shockwave rings — on the beat or the bar instead of on every bass hit. Needs the track’s analysis.
- OffEvery beatEvery bar
- Focus pulse
- The picture softens and dims as the music settles and snaps sharp and bright on the hits. Zero keeps it steady.
- Vignette pulse
- Mirror
- Folds the picture into mirrored copies. The kaleidoscope turns slowly and steps on the kicks.
- OffLeft-rightFour-wayKaleidoscope
- Particles behind subject
- Spreads the particles through the scene's depth, so some pass behind the photo's subject. Needs the photo's depth map; off until it is ready, and on a video.
- NoYes