Using Mosh Transplant

Mosh Transplant takes the motion of one clip and applies it to the picture of another. It is the closest Datamosh gets to what datamoshing originally was: one shot's movement spliced onto another shot's pixels.

Set it up

1. Put the picture you want moved on a lower layer: a still, a logo, a slow clip, anything colourful.
2. Put the motion clip on the layer above it: something with big, clear movement.
3. Open the upper layer's blend-mode dropdown and choose Mosh Transplant. It is in the blend-mode list, not the Effects list.
4. Leave Motion Source on This Layer.
5. Raise Mosh Amount.

The lower layer's picture is now pushed around by the upper layer's movement. The upper layer's own picture is not shown: it only supplies motion.

At Mosh Amount 0 you see the lower layer exactly as it is. That is the starting point, not a fault.

What makes a good motion clip

Strong, coherent movement across the whole frame works best: water, smoke, spinning or zooming shapes, a whip pan, a tunnel, a generator. A locked-off shot has nothing to give; neither does a clip where only a small corner moves.

The picture layer does not need to move at all. A still works, and is often the most striking, because every bit of movement you see came from the other clip.

Swap which layer moves which

Set Motion Source to Layer Below and the roles swap: the layers underneath supply the motion, and this layer's clip becomes the picture that gets moved. Handy when your motion clip is already on a lower layer.

The motion layer as a stencil

On Mosh Transplant the mask is painted by the motion layer's brightness, not the picture's. So a motion layer that is bright, patterned and moving at once, such as scrolling text or a generator, both drives the movement and decides where it lands.

1. Put a bright, moving motion source on the Mosh Transplant layer: scrolling white text on black, for example.
2. Set Mask Amount to about 0.8 and Motion Threshold to 0.
3. The picture below now moshes only where the text is, pushed by the text's own movement.

A logo on a transparent background masks by its shape, too. The motion layer has to move as well as be bright: a still logo transplants nothing, mask or no mask.

Everything else still works

Styles, Trigger, Hold, Auto Mode, audio and all the Motion and Damage controls work on Mosh Transplant exactly as on the effect (see Datamosh parameters). Two differences worth knowing:

• On Cut watches the motion layer for cuts, so a clip change on the motion layer fires a burst.
• Mix crossfades the result against the picture layer.

Ignore the slider called mixVal at the top of the panel. Every FFGL blend mode has one; Mosh Transplant does not use it.

If the layer seems to vanish

A locked Mosh Transplant (no licence or trial on this computer) shows the layer below untouched, so the layer looks as if it has disappeared. Check the Licence field's name: if it starts Licence: locked, see Licence field.