How to Add Effects in Wallpaper Engine

If you’re looking to jazz up your desktop, Wallpaper Engine may be the software for you. The program allows you to create gorgeous live wallpapers using your own images. You can import pictures and videos, add effects to them, and then make them available for other people via the Steam Workshop.

In this article, we’ll show you how to add effects to the images you upload so that you can bring your wallpapers to life.

How to Add Effects

There are three steps to adding effects via Wallpaper Engine:

Step No. 1 – Create a Wallpaper

If you don’t already have potential wallpapers stored on your desktop, you can always create a standard one.

1. Launch Wallpaper Engine and select the monitor you wish to customize.
   
2. Find the “Wallpaper Editor” button at the bottom-left of the screen and click it.
   
3. Click on the “Create Wallpaper – Drop wallpaper file here…” button to be taken to the uploading screen.
   
4. Search through the images on your desktop until you find the one you’d like to upload. Insert it.
   
5. Name the wallpaper project.
   
6. Select a scheme color. Aim for something that you think matches the natural colors in the image.
   
7. You’ll have the option to resize your image next. Generally, this is not required. Only resize if the wallpaper doesn’t match your monitor’s resolution.
   

The wallpaper will look fairly plain at this point, so next comes the fun part.

Step No. 2 – Edit Your Wallpaper Image to Add Effects

Your wallpaper image is now uploaded and ready for editing. The good news is that it’s easy to add effects to the image as Wallpaper Engine provides all of the tools you need. Just follow these steps:

1. Check the right-hand side of the screen. Scroll through the options until you find “Effects.”
   
2. Select “Add” to reveal a list of effects.
   
3. Cycle through the list to find the one that you’d like to apply. Then, click on it.
   

This will apply an effect to the entire wallpaper image. However, if you want to target a specific part of the image, you can create an Opacity Mask.

1. Find the Opacity Mask section on the right-hand side and click the “Paint” button.
   
2. Use the Paint tool to draw a rough outline around the area to which you’d like to add an effect. Upon completing this outline, you should see the effect applied only to that part of the image.
   

If you need to edit any further, you can use the “Show Mask” option to view all of the areas you’ve worked on.

Finally, if you wish to add another effect to your image, click the “Layers” option to return to the selection screen. Here, you can change your effect or add a new one. You can also get rid of an unwanted effect using the “Layers” option. Just find the one you want to get rid of and click the red “X” next to it.

Step No. 3 – Apply Your Edits

Saving your new wallpaper is as simple as navigating to the “File” option at the top-left of the screen, clicking it, and then click “Save.”

The final step is to apply your wallpaper.

To do so, navigate back to the “File” option and click it. Next, choose the “Apply Wallpaper” option, and your live wallpaper will be active on your desktop.

What Effects Come With Wallpaper Engine?

Wallpaper Engine comes with a default collection of 32 effects spread across five categories. These are as follows:

Animation Effects

• ‘Foliage Sway’ adds a wind motion to the corner of an image. This is useful for creating sway for bushes and grass.
• ‘Scroll’ causes your image to scroll continuously.
• ‘Iris Movement’ adds realistic motion to a character’s eyes.
• ‘Pulse’ creates a color pulse that you can use to animate pulsating or flickering lights, such as those seen on a police car’s siren.
• ‘Spin’ continuously rotates the selected part of an image.
• ‘Shake’ switches part of the image back and forth, which helps create the illusion of someone breathing.
• ‘Water Waves’ applies a wave effect for images containing water or loose clothing.
• ‘Water Ripple’ adds a ripple effect that you can apply in any direction.
• ‘Water Flow’ creates a continuous flow in a single direction.

Colorization Effects

• ‘Blend’ allows you to blend image layers and images.
• ‘Film Grain’ adds a grainy film filter over the image.
• ‘Color Screen’ puts a translucent effect to a specified color.
• ‘Clouds’ include a layer of clouds on top of the existing image layer.
• ‘Reflection’ inserts a dynamic reflection into the image.
• ‘Opacity’ allows you to make a selected part of your image translucent.
• ‘Fire’ adds a fire effect to a selected area of your image.
• ‘Nitro’ puts an electric fizzle effect to a selected area of your image.
• ‘X-Ray’ allows you to use your cursor to blend between two images.
• ‘VHS’ creates distortion that simulates the picture quality of a videotape.
• ‘Tint’ lets you change the color of a layer.

Blur Effects

• ‘Blur Precise’ adds a precise gaussian blur to a selected portion of the image.
• ‘Blur’ adds a coarser gaussian blur to the selected portion of an image.
• ‘Motion Blur’ create a blur applied to an image’s animation.

Enhancement Effects

• ‘God Rays’ applies directional or radial light beams that emanate from bright areas of the image.
• ‘Edge Detection’ applies a Sobel edge detection filter to your image.
• ‘Shine’ adds a shimmer to any bright areas in your image.
• ‘Local Contrast’ boosts image contrast.

Distortion Effects

• ‘Skew’ applies a shifting effect to each border of the image.
• ‘Transform’ lets you scale, offset, or rotate your image.
• ‘Perspective’ creates a warping effect on the image.
• ‘Fish-eye’ distorts the image as though you’re viewing it through a fish-eye lens.
• ‘Refraction’ adds image distortion that’s useful for simulating ice.

Play Around With Effects

Wallpaper Engine offers a wide range of effects for you to try out. Experimenting with effects is most of the fun. With these steps, you can do that and so much more.

So, what do you think about Wallpaper Engine? Have you used the tool? Do you currently have a live wallpaper on your desktop? Let us know in the comments section below.