---
title: "Materials, Ink and Soft"
description: "Give shape and text layers a material for the stage and rendered exports."
canonical: "https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers/materials/"
last_updated: 2026-10-28
---

# Materials, Ink and Soft

Give shape and text layers a material for the stage and rendered exports.

[All layer types](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/layers.md) · [Editing on the stage](https://terminal.lottiefiles.com/docs/editing.md)

## Materials

Looks for a shape or text layer, drawn on the GPU on the stage and in video. The rail (the Properties panel in After Effects or Figma)'s
**Effects** row has **+ material**; `◂ ▸` picks the look, and rows set its three colours (**Base**,
**Tint**, **Light**), **Loops**, **Scale**, **Angle** and **Intensity**.

- **Mesh**: soft pools of colour drifting into each other.
- **Chroma**: sheets of pigment flowing like wax.
- **Aurora**: curtains of light over a night sky.
- **Chrome**: liquid metal with a lit, bevelled edge.
- **Glass**: thick glass, lit from one side.
- **Clay**: soft and inflated, with a shadow.
- **Holo**: holographic foil and sparkles.
- **Rays**: shafts of light with dust in the beams.
- **Bokeh**: out-of-focus lights at night.
- **Sheen**: a band of light sweeping across.
- **Neon**: glowing tubes along its edges or strokes.
- **Aura**: pools of colour running round its edge.

**Loops** is how many times the look goes round over the layer's time (0 keeps it still).
`⇧Z` draws a rectangle wearing Mesh: drag a box, or click for a backdrop under everything.

Players draw the layer plain, so give it a fill that reads without the material. Video, GIF,
WebP, APNG and PNG frames draw the look. The document (`.ctd`) keeps it; Lottie and .lottie
don't, so one opened again has the layer plain.

### Ink and Soft

Before the twelve, ◂ steps to two more looks with rows of their own (Ink on a shape layer with
strokes, Soft on a shape or text layer):

- **Ink** draws the strokes as ink: each tapers to a point at its ends, its colour runs from the
  stroke's own to an **End colour**, and a **Glint** runs down it. With trim paths, a stroke drawing
  on writes like a pen.
- **Soft** melts the edges of the shapes, **Softness** px across. **Crisp side** keeps one side sharp,
  like a sheet of colour on a poster. Keyed, a shape comes into focus.

As with the others, players draw the layer plain and video and pictures draw the look.

Materials, Ink and Soft need a GPU with 16-bit floats in its shaders (an Apple silicon Mac's, and
most recent ones on Windows and Linux). Without one the layer is drawn plain here too, and the
rail says why. The first look can take a few seconds to appear the first time on a computer.

## Material controls

| Look | Rows |
| --- | --- |
| The twelve materials | **Base**, **Tint**, **Light** (colours); **Loops** (0–100); **Scale** (5–1,000%); **Angle** (degrees clockwise from up); **Intensity** (0–100%) |
| **Ink** | **End colour**; **Taper** (0–50% from each end); **Glints** (0–100 trips over the layer's time); **Glint** (colour) |
| **Soft** | **Softness** in pixels; **Crisp side** (0–100%); **Angle** in degrees clockwise from up |

Each numeric or colour row can key. Click **✕** beside the effect to remove it.
If you need the same appearance in another player, use ordinary fills, strokes and effects,
or export a rendered format that carries the look.