Three steps to a video.
Liquid chrome finishes
Steel gives cool blue-white chrome, teal is black chrome over a cyan glow, mercury is near-monochrome silver. The metal actually reflects its surroundings, so highlights slide across it as the shape moves.
Five organic shapes
Spikes for rounded metal points, tendrils for flowing strands, splinters for jagged shards, starburst, and iris bloom. Each reshapes continuously with the bass in your track.
Atmosphere on top
Optional backdrop layers: drifting outlined ovals, scrolling text, thin angular rays, and a HUD layer. Plus a pixelated effect that looks like a computer monitor filmed on a camera.
What makes chrome read as chrome
A grey gradient on a sphere is not chrome. Chrome is a reflection of somewhere, which is why it is so hard to fake.
Why the look is hard to fake
The chrome-and-glass aesthetic looks simple: a shiny blob, some soft light. People try it in an editor with a gradient and a bevel, and it comes out looking like plastic every time.
The reason is that metal has almost no colour of its own. What you see when you look at chrome is a warped reflection of whatever is around it. With nothing to reflect, there is nothing to make it read as metal.
The three ingredients
The look tends to come down to:
- Real reflections, so highlights move and wrap as the shape changes instead of sitting still.
- Restraint with colour. Tint it too heavily and chrome stops looking like metal and starts looking like coloured plastic.
- Soft light rather than hard shadows, which is what gives the look its depth.
- Shapes that flow. Rigid geometric ones read as a product render rather than this aesthetic.
Why it is worth not building this yourself
The orb is built to flow rather than to hold a fixed shape, which is what this aesthetic needs. It can spike, melt, and reshape with the music without ever looking like it is made of flat panels.
The practical upshot is that you get the material and the lighting by picking a finish, rather than spending an evening building them. You lose the ability to design your own shape, which is the trade: five shapes and three finishes against doing it all yourself in 3D software.
BeatVisualiser vs 3D software
Same output. A fraction of the time.
| Feature | BeatVisualiser | 3D software |
|---|---|---|
| Time to the look | Under a minute | An evening |
| Getting the chrome look | Pick a finish | Build it yourself |
| Audio reactivity | Automatic | Wire it manually |
| Render | Real-time | Render queue |
| Creative ceiling | Five forms | Unlimited |
Is this affiliated with Porter Robinson?+
What actually makes the look?+
Is the metal really reflective?+
Can I change the colours?+
How does my audio affect it?+
What does it export?+
Your track deserves a better visual than a waveform screenshot.
Drop your audio. Have a video ready to post in under a minute.
Try the chrome orb