Vein growth guide

Help

Short answers to what goes wrong most often.

The frame says the effect needs WebGL

Vein growth 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 the veins 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. With Sprout from on Tap point, the run starts a moment after the tap, once the new network has grown.

Tapping somewhere else changes nothing

Only Tap point (radiate) under Sprout from grows the veins from where you tap. Border and Bottom always start from the edges.

Picture B never shows through

Check that A → B transition under Sliders is on. It starts on, and presets and Reset keep it on; with it off, the veins grow over picture A only.

The veins go the wrong way

With A → B transition on, the direction flips after each finished run, so the pictures swap turns: A into B, then B into A. Tap or press Replay once more to go the other way, or press Reset to start again from picture A.

I moved a slider and nothing changed

Between runs the frame shows only the first few veins. Press Replay to see the change. Sliders from Density down to Taper, Sprout from and A → B transition grow a new network a moment after you stop changing them.

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 veins are grown from a small copy of the picture, but the pictures go to the graphics card at their full size, so a very large photo takes more memory. Use a smaller copy on a phone or an older computer. A high Density with a small Kill radius takes the longest to grow.

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.