7 Style presets
Apply Liquid Glass, Clear, Frosted, Thick Lens, Crystal (Faceted), Shattered, or Bullet Hole with one click.
ProGPU
TMCGlass
A plugin for glass distortion, Shatter, and more
Turns a layer's shape into glass. Applied as an adjustment layer, it refracts what's behind it and adds glass-like reflections. Use Shatter for cracked glass, and Impact for glass that breaks, leaving a hole and sending shards flying.
Key features
Shards calculated from a real crack structure
Cracks are not a noise pattern; they come out as polygon shards calculated from an actual crack structure. The edges of the cracks left behind and the shards flying off line up exactly.
Shatter Animation
Shatter Animation projects the shards in 3D and scatters them with Gravity, Spin, Tumble, and Toward Viewer. Turn on Use Comp Camera in Shatter to project them through the comp camera.
Output Mode (transition elements)
Render shattering transition elements directly with Matte (Transition) and Cracks Only in Output Mode.
Quick start
Follow these steps in order the first time.
- Apply Effect › TMC › TMC Glass to the layer that will form the glass shape (a shape layer is recommended).
- Choose a preset in Style.
- Set the thickness and refraction of the glass with Thickness, IOR, and Refraction in Glass.
- To break it, turn on Enable Impact in the Shatter group and keyframe Crack Progress. To send the shards flying, set Animate in Shatter Animation to Manual (Progress) or Auto (Time).
Parameter guide
Listed in the same order as the Effect Controls panel.
Effect Controls · TMC GlassClick a group to expand it
Basic parameters11
Style
Look preset pop-up menu that changes several values at once
CustomLiquid GlassClearFrostedThick LensCrystal (Faceted)ShatteredBullet Hole
Mode
Shape Layer (Auto)Matte Layer
Shape Layer
Layer to read the shape from
Refract Layer
Background layer that the glass refracts
Layer Position X
X offset that moves the Refract Layer like footage
Layer Position Y
Layer Scale
Scales the Refract Layer up or down around its center
Layer Rotation
Shard Coverage
Percentage of shards that show the Refract Layer (the rest refract the background behind them)
Coverage Seed
Seed that decides which shards Shard Coverage picks
View
Diagnostic pop-up menu for checking that the shape source is coming in correctly
ResultShape AlphaSDFNormals
Glass12
Bevel Width
Width of the zone where the glass thickens inward from the edge
Profile
Pop-up menu for choosing the cross-section shape of the edge bevel (the Bevel Width zone)
Lens (Convex)ChamferSquircleFlat (Edge Only)
Profile Curve
Thickness
Thickness of the glass body (multiplies the refraction distance)
IOR
Refraction
How strongly the background appears bent
Refract Offset X
Shifts the background seen through the glass sideways to aim it
Refract Offset Y
Refract Scale
Magnification of the background seen through the glass
Smoothness
Dome
How much the whole glass surface bulges into a rounded dome
Blur
Radius for clouding the background behind the glass
Surface7
Texture
Pop-up menu for choosing the source of the bump pattern on the glass surface
OffProceduralLayer
Pattern
Pop-up menu for choosing the type of procedural bump pattern
NoiseRidgedReededHammeredCrackle
Texture Layer
Relief
Depth of the bumps (how far the normals are bent)
Texture Scale
Detail
Number of layers stacked into the bump pattern
Texture Seed
Dispersion2
Dispersion
How much the rainbow separates as each wavelength refracts differently
Edge Concentration
How much the dispersion is concentrated toward the edges
Lighting9
Light Angle
The direction the light comes from
Light Elevation
Light Intensity
Light Color
Highlight Size
Caustic Intensity
Light 2
Light 2 Angle
Light 2 Intensity
Reflection6
Fresnel Strength
Strength of the Fresnel effect, where reflections get stronger at shallower viewing angles
Reflection Amount
Edge Highlight
Thin white line running along the outline (the key element that makes it read as glass)
Edge Width
Thickness of that line (px)
Sky Color
Environment color reflected from above
Ground Color
Environment color reflected from below
Tint2
Glass Tint
Color of the glass body, deeper where the glass is thicker
Tint Amount
Shatter30
Enable Shatter
Facet Source
Pop-up menu for choosing what the facet cells are built from
Procedural VoronoiSelf LuminanceLayer Luminance
Facet Layer
Facet Scale
Size of each facet
Facet Seed
Facet Levels
Number of brightness levels used to split the facets
Facet Distortion
Amount of distortion on facet borders for natural-looking shard shapes
Facet Offset
Crack Width
Thickness of the cracks between facets
Crack Brightness
Enable Impact
Checkbox that turns on a bullet-hole-style impact point with a hole and radial and ring cracks
Impact Offset X
Offset of the impact point from the shape center, in px
Impact Offset Y
Hole Radius
Radius of the hole punched at the impact point
Hole Jaggedness
How jagged and broken the hole's rim looks instead of a smooth circle
Radial Cracks
Number of cracks running outward from the impact point
Crack Length
Ring Cracks
Number of concentric cracks around the impact point
Impact Origin
Whether the impact point is the shape center or a point you place
Auto (Shape Center)Impact Point
Impact Point
Impact point you drag in the Composition panel (layer % coordinates; 50/50 = center)
Use Comp Camera
When on, uses the comp's 3D camera to compute shard perspective
Glass Thickness
Thickness of the broken edge revealed when a shard tilts
Crack Progress
How far the cracks have spread
Forks
How often cracks fork in two
Minor Rays
Amount of short cracks between the main radial cracks
Skip Gaps
How much the cracks are broken up by gaps
Glitter
Amount of sparkle dotted along the cracks
Micro Stubs
Amount of tiny short branches sprouting from the cracks
Crack Refraction
How strongly the cracks bend the background like grooves
Crack Flash
Intensity of the flash along each crack as it spreads
Shatter Animation22
Animate
Pop-up menu for how the shatter animation runs: Off, Manual (Progress) driven by the Progress value, or Auto (Time) running on its own from Start Time
OffManual (Progress)Auto (Time)
Progress
Duration (s)
Start Time (s)
Time the shatter starts in Auto (Time) mode (seconds)
Shatter Radius
Radius the shatter spreads to from the impact point (0 = the whole pane)
Wave Speed
Speed at which the shatter spreads outward
Delay Random
Amount of random variation in when each shard breaks away
Release Time (s)
Time it takes a shard to fully break away from the pane
Speed
Speed at which the shards fly off
Speed Random
Toward Viewer
How much the shards fly toward the front of the screen (toward the viewer)
Gravity
Acceleration pulling the flying shards down
Gravity Angle
Spin
Speed at which shards spin in place in the screen plane
Spin Random
Tumble
Speed at which shards tumble end over end in 3D
Tumble Random
Shard Thickness
Side thickness of the flying shards
Side Brightness
How much those sides brighten when lit
Physics Seed
Seed for each shard's random speed and rotation
Debris
Amount of small debris scattered between the large shards
Shatter Flash
Intensity of the full-frame flash at the moment of breaking
Shard Reflection10
Reflect Min
Reflect Max
Reflect Seed
Decal Layer
Layer overlaid on each shard like a reflection (each shard shows a different part of it at a random scale and angle)
Decal Amount
Decal Scale
Scale Random
Amount of random variation in decal size per shard
Angle Random
Decal Seed
Decal Apply
Whether decals go only on the flying shards or also on the pane still in place
Shards OnlyPane + Shards
Output3
Output Mode
CompositeMatte (Transition)Cracks Only
Composite On Original
Whether to place the result over the original in Matte mode
Effect Opacity
Practical tips
- On a shape layer, set Mode to Shape Layer (Auto) so it reads the vector geometry directly for a crisp silhouette.
- To choose exactly what gets refracted, assign a layer to Refract Layer.
- To make a logo break apart into scattering pieces, assign your logo layer to Decal Layer in Shard Reflection.
- The basic refraction look is calculated on the GPU; Impact and the shard animation are calculated on the CPU.
Where to use it
- Liquid-glass style UI and titles
- A transition where the frame shatters at a turning point in the song
- Action cuts with bullet holes and spreading cracks
Pairs well with
Technical notes
- Refraction, dispersion, and Fresnel are calculated in the same shader.
- The shard animation projects the shards in 3D (through the comp camera when Use Comp Camera is on), and also calculates near-plane clipping and the prism side faces.
- Supports 8 · 16 · 32 bpc, SmartFX, and Multi-Frame Rendering.
This is a Pro-only plugin
A one-time purchase of Pro for $199 gets you all 25 plugins, plus any plugins added later.