Material alchemy guide

Help

Short answers to what goes wrong most often.

The frame says the effect needs WebGL

Material alchemy draws with WebGL, and this browser has it turned off. Turn on the browser's graphics acceleration, update it, or try another current browser.

Tapping the picture does nothing

A tap during a run is ignored, so a run is never cut in half. Wait for it to finish, or press Replay, which always starts again at once. A run also only starts from a tap with the main mouse button or a finger. Where you tap does not matter.

Picture B never shows

B only appears while A → B crossfade is on. It starts on, and every preset and Reset keep it on; with it off, the material stays on picture A.

The crossfade starts from the wrong picture

After each crossfade run the pictures swap turns: A into B, then B into A. Press Replay once more to go the other way, or press Reset to start again from picture A.

The slider I used is gone

Film thickness, Sheen sharpness, Plating and Scatter radius each show only with their own material. Choose that material again and the slider comes back with its value.

My picture looks stretched

The frame takes the shape of picture A, and picture B is stretched to that shape. Crop both pictures to the same shape first. Replacing A changes the frame's shape; replacing B does not.

My picture did not change

A file the browser cannot open as an image is skipped without a message. Try a JPEG, PNG or WebP copy of it. See JPEG, PNG and WebP.

It is slow, or the page struggles with a big photo

The pictures go to the graphics card at their full size, with no resizing, so a very large photo takes more memory. Use a smaller copy on a phone or an older computer. The size of the frame costs the most; Jade does a little extra work for its glow.

Record video did nothing

The line under the buttons says why: some browsers cannot record a canvas, or offer no video format the page can use. Try a current Chrome, Edge or Firefox.

Where do my pictures go?

Nowhere. They are opened in your browser and drawn on your graphics card. Nothing is uploaded. The pictures you add stay on this device, in this browser, so the other lab tools can open them too; × on a picture removes it.

Are there keyboard shortcuts?

The tool has none of its own. Anywhere in the lab, Ctrl K, or Cmd K on a Mac, opens the list of all tools.

On a phone

It works with a finger: tap the picture to start a run. The controls sit in a bar at the bottom of the screen; tap the bar to open them.