Living Shadows

Environmental reference

FXMaster+Filter effectAPI type: livingshadows

Preview

Preview shows Living Shadows with glowing eyes and mouths

Map maker

Map:Cze & Peku

Animated tendrils and humanoid shadows with glowing eyes and mouths, automatic appearances, manual placement, and token-directed reaching.

Living Shadows draws animated shadow shapes over the map rather than creating tokens or using the silhouettes of existing tokens. It can fill a Scene, stay inside a Region, or use manually placed shadows.

Reference	Value
Package	FXMaster+
Effect kind	Filter effect
Category	Environmental
Runtime type	livingshadows
Exposed parameters	49

Automatic appearances

With Manual Placement off, the effect generates shadows across the Scene or Region. Tendrils and Humanoid Silhouettes select the available types. With both enabled and Appearance Frequency above 0, each appearance has an equal chance of using either type rather than always placing both together.

Control	What to adjust
Scale	Size and spacing of automatic shadow clusters.
Density	How many cluster positions contain shadows. At 0, no automatic shadows render.
Visible Time (Seconds)	Time at full visibility, not including the fades.
Fade Time (Seconds)	Duration of each fade-in and fade-out.
Appearance Frequency	Pause between appearances; higher values shorten the pause. At 0, automatic humanoids are hidden, but tendrils can still appear.
Speed	Pace of motion. It does not shorten the configured Visible Time or Fade Time; 0 freezes motion and the appearance timers.

Movement adjusts stepping and limb actions, Shadow Reach changes the length of the silhouettes, and Sway changes their bending. Use Tendril Creepiness for more hesitant, uneven tendril movement, or lower it for smoother motion.

Shadow styles

Tendril Styles offers Creeping Tendrils, Branching Roots, Hooked Tentacles, and Shadow Wisps. Branching adds side shoots and smaller forks; Tendril Thickness changes their width.

Humanoid Styles offers Slender, Gaunt, Hunched, Broad, Cloaked, and Wraith silhouettes. Select one style for a consistent look or several for variety. A shadow keeps its form during an appearance, and manual placements keep their saved style selections.

Tint, Opacity, and Edge Softness control how the shapes blend with the artwork. Tint is disabled by default, producing black shadows rather than applying the saved tint color.

Glowing eyes and mouths

Enable the Apply switch beside Glowing Tendril Eyes, Glowing Humanoid Eyes, or Glowing Mouth to add that feature, then choose its color. All three are disabled by default. Their glow is part of the filter, not a Foundry light source.

Tendril eyes have their own intensity, frequency, and duration. They appear along the stems and branches and can blink while moving with the tendrils. Increasing Tendril Eyes Frequency also allows more eyes per cluster.

For humanoids, Mouth Style selects Smile, Frown, or both. Mouth Width controls how wide the expression becomes.

When Glowing Mouth and Glowing Humanoid Eyes are both enabled, the eyes follow Mouth Frequency and Mouth Duration (Seconds). The separate eye frequency and duration controls are hidden in that case. Eye and mouth intensity remain independent, and the eyes can still blink within the shared appearance. Setting Mouth Frequency to 0 stops both synchronized features.

Manual Placement

Enable Living Shadows and Manual Placement through Filter Effects or an FXMaster: Filter Effects Region behavior. Choose the shadow type and appearance before placing it.

Control	Action
Place	Click the map to add a shadow using Placement Direction, or drag from its anchor toward the desired facing.
Delete	Click near a saved shadow anchor to remove that placement.
Clear	Remove saved placements for the current Scene or Region behavior.

Placement Direction uses 0 degrees for right, 90 for up, 180 for left, and 270 for down. Right-click or press Escape to leave the placement tool. Placements are saved as they are added or removed; there are no separate Undo or Save placement buttons.

Each placement keeps its type, size, facing, tint, opacity, selected styles, movement settings, eye and mouth settings, and token interaction settings. Changing those controls prepares the next placement rather than modifying shadows already placed. Delete and replace an existing shadow to give it different settings.

Tendrils and Humanoid Silhouettes still show or hide saved shadows of their type. Layer placement, Scene Levels, darkness visibility, and Region display controls remain shared. Region placements must be inside that Region and belong to that specific behavior.

Density, Visible Time (Seconds), Fade Time (Seconds), and Appearance Frequency are hidden in Manual Placement. Saved shadows remain present while the effect and their type are enabled, subject to the shared visibility controls and their saved opacity. Their movement and glowing features continue using their saved settings.

Token interaction

Enable Token Interaction to let shadows reach toward nearby visible tokens. Interaction Radius sets the detection distance in grid spaces; Reach Frequency controls how often they extend, pause, and withdraw; Reach Strength controls the amount of turning and extension. Shadow Reach also affects the silhouette length.

Automatic humanoids can turn toward tokens. Manually placed humanoids keep their saved facing while reaching. Tokens must be visible and within the effect’s Region and Level scope where applicable; hidden tokens are not revealed. Reaching does not move tokens or change their documents.

In Manual Placement, these settings are saved per shadow. Set them before placing a shadow that should react to tokens.

Scene and Region placement

Living Shadows starts with Below Tokens enabled. Below Tiles, Below Foreground, darkness activation, and Manage Layers control where it appears relative to the map and other effects.

For a local patch of shadows, enable it through FXMaster: Filter Effects on a Region. Edge Fade % softens the boundary of the whole Region effect; Edge Softness changes the edges of individual shadows. Token Enters and Token Exits can control when the Region behavior becomes active.

Important controls

• Manual Placement: Uses saved map positions instead of automatic appearances. Each new placement captures its size, facing, type, styles, tint, opacity, motion, glow, and token-interaction settings. Later changes to these controls affect new placements, not existing ones.
• Tendrils: Allows tendril clusters to appear automatically. In Manual Placement, it also shows or hides saved tendril placements and controls whether new placements can be tendrils. Hiding the type does not delete its placements.
• Humanoid Silhouettes: Allows humanoid silhouettes to appear automatically. In Manual Placement, it also shows or hides saved humanoids and controls whether new placements can be humanoids. Hiding the type does not delete its placements.
• Movement: Adjusts the amount of local stepping, limb movement, and tendril flexing around each shadow anchor. Larger values make the motion more pronounced. Reaching toward tokens has separate Reach Frequency and Reach Strength controls.
• Shadow Reach: Adjusts tendril length and the elongation of humanoid silhouettes. It affects the shape and extent of a shadow; Interaction Radius separately determines how far away an eligible token can be.
• Glowing Tendril Eyes: Adds glowing eyes along the tendrils and branches. Enable Apply to show the eyes and choose their color. Tendril Eyes Frequency, Duration, and Intensity control their appearances separately from humanoid facial features.
• Glowing Mouth: Adds an animated glowing smile or frown to humanoid shadows. Enable Apply to show it and choose its color. When humanoid eyes are enabled as well, both facial features use the mouth timing controls.
• Token Interaction: Allows shadows to reach toward nearby visible tokens in the effect area. Automatic humanoids can turn toward a target; manually placed humanoids keep their facing. The effect does not move tokens or change their documents.

Setup notes

• Below Tokens is enabled by default. Adjust the shared layer controls when the shadows should cover token artwork instead.
• Use Density, Visible Time (Seconds), Fade Time (Seconds), and Appearance Frequency for automatic shadows. Manual Placement replaces that cycle with persistent saved positions.
• To place only one shadow type, enable Tendrils or Humanoid Silhouettes on its own before placing. With both enabled, each new placement can choose either type.
• In Manual Placement, set the appearance and interaction controls before using Place. To change an existing shadow, delete it and place a replacement with the new settings.
• Glowing Mouth controls the timing of enabled humanoid eyes. Mouth Frequency at 0 hides both synchronized facial features, even if the eye toggle remains enabled.

Bundled preset usage

No bundled preset currently uses this effect directly. Add it through Filter Effects or the Direct Effect API.

Parameters

The table combines the settings available for this effect in Scene and Region contexts. Scene-only and Region-only badges identify controls limited to one context. Hover or focus an info button to see what the parameter changes on the canvas. Select it to keep the card open. Each card also includes the default, range or choices, context, availability, API key, and control type.

49 exposed parameters1 Scene-only1 Region-onlylivingshadows API type

iHover or focus an info button to see what the parameter changes on the canvas. Select it to keep the card open. Context badges identify Scene-only and Region-only controls; unbadged parameters are available in both. Hover or focus an availability condition to highlight the parameter that controls it.

Parameter	Control	Default	Range or choices	Availability
Below Tokensi belowTokens	checkbox	On	—	Always
Below Tilesi belowTiles	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Below Foregroundi belowForeground	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Levelsi levelsScene only	scene-levels	All Levels	—	Always
Manual Placementi manualPlacement	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Placement Directioni placementDirection	range	90	0–360 · step 5	Shown when Manual Placement = On
Manual Placement Controlsi placementActions	filter-actions		—	Shown when Manual Placement = On
Tinti color	color	#42314f (disabled)	—	Always
Sound FXi soundFxEnabled	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Sound FX Soundsi soundFxManualSoundIds	multi-select	Rule default	—	Shown when Sound FX = On and the matching enabled SoundFX rule uses Multi-Sound Mode = Manual with at least two configured sounds
Scalei scale	range	0.45	0.1–1 · step 0.01	Always
Densityi density	range	0.45	0–1 · step 0.01	Hidden when Manual Placement = On
Opacityi opacity	range	0.7	0–1 · step 0.01	Always
Speedi speed	range	0.25	0–1 · step 0.01	Always
Visible Time (Seconds)i lingerTime	range	24	1–120 · step 1	Hidden when Manual Placement = On
Fade Time (Seconds)i fadeTime	range	3	0.25–10 · step 0.25	Hidden when Manual Placement = On
Movementi movement	range	0.55	0–1 · step 0.01	Always
Shadow Reachi reach	range	0.55	0–1 · step 0.01	Always
Edge Softnessi softness	range	0.25	0–1 · step 0.01	Always
Swayi sway	range	0.6	0–1 · step 0.01	Always
Tendrilsi tendrils	checkbox	On	—	Always
Tendril Stylesi tendrilStyles	multi-select	Creeping Tendrils, Branching Roots, Hooked Tentacles, Shadow Wisps	Creeping Tendrils, Branching Roots, Hooked Tentacles, Shadow Wisps	Shown when Tendrils = On
Branchingi branching	range	0.65	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Tendrils = On
Tendril Creepinessi creepiness	range	0.75	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Tendrils = On
Tendril Thicknessi thickness	range	0.4	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Tendrils = On
Glowing Tendril Eyesi tendrilEyes	color	#1aff94 (disabled)	—	Shown when Tendrils = On
Tendril Eyes Intensityi tendrilEyesIntensity	range	0.75	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Tendrils = On and Glowing Tendril Eyes = On
Tendril Eyes Frequencyi tendrilEyesFrequency	range	0.35	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Tendrils = On and Glowing Tendril Eyes = On
Tendril Eyes Duration (Seconds)i tendrilEyesDuration	range	5	1–20 · step 0.5	Shown when Tendrils = On and Glowing Tendril Eyes = On
Humanoid Silhouettesi humanoids	checkbox	On	—	Always
Humanoid Stylesi humanoidStyles	multi-select	Slender, Gaunt, Hunched, Broad, Cloaked, Wraith	Slender, Gaunt, Hunched, Broad, Cloaked, Wraith	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On
Glowing Humanoid Eyesi humanoidEyes	color	#ff421c (disabled)	—	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On
Humanoid Eyes Intensityi humanoidEyesIntensity	range	0.75	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On and Glowing Humanoid Eyes = On
Humanoid Eyes Frequencyi humanoidEyesFrequency	range	0.35	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On and Glowing Humanoid Eyes = OnHidden when Glowing Mouth = On
Humanoid Eyes Duration (Seconds)i humanoidEyesDuration	range	5	1–20 · step 0.5	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On and Glowing Humanoid Eyes = OnHidden when Glowing Mouth = On
Glowing Mouthi humanoidMouth	color	#ff702b (disabled)	—	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On
Mouth Stylei mouthStyles	multi-select	Smile, Frown	Smile, Frown	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On and Glowing Mouth = On
Mouth Intensityi humanoidMouthIntensity	range	0.75	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On and Glowing Mouth = On
Mouth Frequencyi humanoidMouthFrequency	range	0.35	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On and Glowing Mouth = On
Mouth Duration (Seconds)i humanoidMouthDuration	range	5	1–20 · step 0.5	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On and Glowing Mouth = On
Mouth Widthi smileWidth	range	0.65	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Humanoid Silhouettes = On and Glowing Mouth = On
Appearance Frequencyi apparitionFrequency	range	0.25	0–1 · step 0.01	Hidden when Manual Placement = On
Token Interactioni tokenInteraction	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Interaction Radiusi tokenInteractionRadius	range	4	0.5–12 · step 0.5	Shown when Token Interaction = On
Reach Frequencyi tokenInteractionFrequency	range	0.35	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Token Interaction = On
Reach Strengthi tokenInteractionStrength	range	0.8	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Token Interaction = On
Darkness Activationi darknessActivationEnabled	checkbox	Off	—	Always
Darkness Activation Rangei darknessActivationRange	range-dual	{"min":0,"max":1}	0–1 · step 0.01	Shown when Darkness Activation = On
Edge Fade %i fadePercentRegion only	range	0	0–1 · step 0.01	Always

Direct-effect API example

The Direct Effect API creates a separate row shown through Manage API Effects. Add a stable apiMacro_…_p or apiMacro_…_f ID when later macro calls need to update or stop the same row.

const created = await FXMASTER.api.effects.play({
  filters: [{
    "id": "apiMacro_wikilivingshadows_f",
    "type": "livingshadows",
    "options": {
      "manualPlacement": false,
      "tendrils": true,
      "humanoids": true,
      "scale": 0.45,
      "density": 0.45,
      "speed": 0.25,
      "humanoidEyes": {
        "value": "#ff421c",
        "apply": true
      },
      "humanoidMouth": {
        "value": "#ff702b",
        "apply": true
      },
      "mouthStyles": [
        "smile",
        "frown"
      ]
    }
  }],
});

await FXMASTER.api.effects.filters.stop(created.filters);

For complete API behavior, scene targeting, stack ordering, and toggle groups, see the Direct Effect API guide.