VHS Effect

Plays any picture back like a worn tape, with ghosted edges, smeared color, tracking errors and a rolling noise bar.

Try this effectGet the plugin

Made with VHS

Works in
The same photo as a worn tape on a TV: fine screen stripes, soft smeared color, pink tints and a band of static across the forehead.
Photo of a woman with a black bob, white cat-eye sunglasses and a blue dress with a big white collar, holding a yellow lollipop.

The VHS effect runs your picture through a simulated tape and a TV screen. Color bleeds past its edges, edges ghost, and noise bars and dropouts cut across the frame, all behind a phosphor mask. You can change the tape wear, tracking, ghosting, compression and the type of screen. The VHS effect comes with Nexus, a plugin for Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Affinity and Figma.

Same effect, different settings

12 photos, each with its own settings. Try it on yours

  • VHS Effect on a photo of a person with a red bob in a white coat
  • VHS Effect on a photo of a basketball player seen from below
  • VHS Effect on a photo of a person leaping in a red coat and white trousers
  • VHS Effect on a photo of a man in a dark sweater with green light on his face
  • VHS Effect on a photo of a person in a yellow coat against a mustard wall
  • VHS Effect on a photo of two runners on a track
  • VHS Effect on a photo of a woman with slicked hair, seen from behind
  • VHS Effect on a photo of an arm reaching for a yellow ball under a blue sky
  • VHS Effect on a photo of a person playing a red electric guitar
  • VHS Effect on a photo of a woman with blue hair clips and silver rings
  • VHS Effect on a photo of a man with bleached hair and gold chains
  • VHS Effect on a photo of three red spheres on colored arches

Use VHS Effect in your apps

It runs natively in Photoshop, After Effects, Illustrator, Affinity and Figma, with the same settings everywhere.

The plugins are free with an account. Paid plans add bigger renders and your own effects. See pricing

Settings worth touching

Ghosting
Sets how strongly a faint copy of the picture trails behind its edges.
Noise Bar
Sets the strength of the band of static that cuts across the frame. Lower it for a cleaner tape.
Screen Type
Switches the screen pattern between Shadow Mask, Aperture Grille, Slot Mask and LCD Pixels, or turns it off.

Questions, answered

Install Nexus for Photoshop, convert your layer to a Smart Object and apply the look as a Smart Filter. Double-click the filter any time to change its settings.

Yes. Drop it on any layer as a native effect and keyframe any control, such as Time, Tracking or Noise Bar, on the timeline, so the tape noise rolls through your shot.

It moves the tape forward, so the noise bar, flicker and dropouts land in a different place. Change it to find the frame you want, or keyframe it to play the tape.

Yes. In After Effects it runs on any footage layer. The web editor takes video too, and a free account exports video up to 720px with the Nexus mark.

Set Screen Type to Off for a tape look with no screen pattern, or lower Mask Strength to keep a fainter one. The ghosting, noise and color bleed stay the same.

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