How Do I Make a Thermal Video Effect Without TouchDesigner?

To make a thermal video effect in your browser, load a video in BeamTracer Performer and add THERMAL. Choose a PALETTE, adjust BODY HEAT and SKIN HEAT, then turn on GHOST for fading afterimages. Render the uploaded clip as MP4 or WebM. This is a visual effect, not a temperature measurement.

IRONBOW with GHOST enabled. The moving hands leave colored traces while the current face stays readable. All examples on this page use the same source interval and are silent.

How do I make a face and hands stand out in thermal colors?

Start with a well-lit portrait or camera view. Tracking needs a clear person, and the effect also reads the brightness and color of the source. A dim face beside a bright lamp can need different heat settings from a person against a plain wall.

BODY HEAT raises the tracked person against the room. SKIN HEAT adds warmth to skin-like colors, which helps distinguish a face and hands from clothing. COLD SKY cools blue sky; it has little to do in a plain indoor scene. These controls build an impression of heat from an ordinary picture. Bright clothing and reflections can still look hot.

Which palette should I choose?

Use WHITE HOT when you want a restrained monochrome scan. FUSION and IRONBOW give the familiar purple, orange and yellow range. ARCTIC starts in blue and cyan and moves toward warm highlights. The palette changes how the same simulated heat values appear.

WHITE HOT uses the same camera and heat settings as FUSION. Compare the fingers and hair, not just the brightest patch of the shirt.

BLACK HOT reverses the light-dark convention. RED HOT colors only the hottest range red; OUTDOOR ALERT adds orange and yellow over a dark-hot image. Their ALERT control sets where color begins. Other options include RAINBOW HC and SEPIA.

If the face becomes one white patch, lower GAIN or LEVEL before adding more effects. If the boundaries are too fuzzy, raise DETAIL or reduce SOFTNESS a little. Keep some shading around the eyes and fingers so movement remains legible.

How do I leave fading heat behind a moving hand?

STYLE → TRAIL leaves heat behind motion. GHOST adds warm afterimages with an optional outline and more control over their visibility.

ARCTIC with TRAIL: 0.65. The other heat and camera settings stay the same.

For the opening ghost treatment, leave TRAIL: 0, choose IRONBOW, open GHOST, and use:

Try one hand sweep, then stop moving and watch the afterimages fade. OPACITY changes their strength; FADE changes their persistence. MOTION THRESHOLD and STAMP CUTOFF help determine what leaves a mark. If small source noise keeps creating unwanted ghosts, raise those thresholds and keep NOISE low.

A moving camera can leave marks across much of the picture. For a clean gesture demonstration, keep the camera still and let the performer supply the motion.

Can I use this instead of building a TouchDesigner thermal patch?

For a ready-to-use video treatment, yes. Xtal’s thermal-vision tutorial demonstrates a heat-mapping filter in TouchDesigner. BeamTracer puts its thermal palette, person weighting and afterimage controls together in the FX Rack, so you can work directly on the clip. Both are creative interpretations of an ordinary image; a normal webcam does not become a thermal sensor.

To restrict the treatment to a person or a hand-controlled window, add MASK above THERMAL and follow the tracking and masking guide. The face-tracking HUD tutorial teaches a related sci-fi composition. Keep the face readable before combining the two ideas.

How do I export the thermal treatment?

With a video file loaded, use RENDER for a fixed clip. Check the exported MP4 or WebM, including its first frame and any soundtrack you want to keep. Let a ghost trail build before choosing a thumbnail; an empty history at the start will look different from a gesture in progress.

For live camera input, use RECORD. The rendering guide explains the output controls, image effects lists the thermal settings, and pricing covers export access and allowances.