Melt effect

Reads tone as a force and drags the picture along it: tearing, streaming, coming apart.

Made with the Decay filterWorks in

Melt effect on a portrait of a woman with red hair in a studded beanie, made with the Decay filter in Filter Archive (Torn preset)

BeforeAfter

Decay makes a photo slump, tear and stream. It reads the picture's tones as a force field and drags the pixels along it in many small steps, so the motion follows curves. Let only the shadows move, add swirl for a vortex, or smear the whole trail.

7presets
15settings
3apps

Same effect, different presets.

8 photos, each with its own preset. Try it on yours

Melt effect on a portrait of a man in black sunglasses, made with the Decay filter in Filter Archive (Wind preset) — Wind

Melt effect on a portrait of a man in sunglasses on a red background, made with the Decay filter in Filter Archive (Melt preset) — Melt

Melt effect on a portrait of a man with silver hair and red sunglasses, made with the Decay filter in Filter Archive (Gather preset) — Gather

Melt effect on a portrait of a woman in white sunglasses with a lollipop, made with the Decay filter in Filter Archive (Combed preset) — Combed

Melt effect on a portrait of a man with spiky red hair on a blue background, made with the Decay filter in Filter Archive (Shadows Only preset) — Shadows Only

Melt effect on a portrait of a woman in a red jacket on a blue background, made with the Decay filter in Filter Archive (Long Drag preset) — Long Drag

Melt effect on a portrait of a woman with silver hair and blue sunglasses by the sea, made with the Decay filter in Filter Archive (Melt preset) — Melt

Use the melt effect in Photoshop, Affinity or Figma.

One licence covers all three: $9.99 a month or $59.99 once. See pricing

Photoshop

Open Filter Archive from the Plugins menu, pick Decay and press Apply. The result lands on a new layer above your original.

Mac & Windows · Photoshop 2024+

Affinity

Choose Filters, Plugins, Filter Archive on a pixel layer, pick Decay and apply it to that layer.

Mac & Windows · Affinity 3

Figma

Select an image, frame or shape, run Filter Archive and apply Decay as a new layer or in place.

Figma Community

Settings worth touching.

StepsField: How many small moves the drag is made of. Many follow the field's curves; one big one is a straight shove.
SwirlField: Rotates the force field. At 90 the drag becomes a vortex.
What MovesGate: Which tones travel. Moving only part of the range makes one thing slump out of another.

Plus 12 more in the panel, all editable after you pick a preset.

Melt Effect questions.

What is a melt effect?

A melt effect makes an image look like it is dripping, sliding or being pulled apart, with parts of the picture dragged into streaks while others stay in place.

How do I make a melt effect in Photoshop?

Open Filter Archive from the Plugins menu and choose Decay. Start from a preset such as Torn or Wind, adjust the settings while the preview updates, then press Apply. The result goes on a new layer and your original stays untouched.

Can I use it in Affinity or Figma?

Yes. The same Decay filter runs in Affinity 3 on Mac and Windows, from Filters, then Plugins, then Filter Archive on a pixel layer, and in Figma on an image, frame or shape. One licence covers Photoshop, Affinity and Figma.

Which presets come with Decay?

7 presets: Torn, Wind, Melt, Gather, Combed, Shadows Only and Long Drag. Every setting stays editable after you pick one, and you can save a stack of filters to use again.

Can I change the colours?

Decay keeps the colours of the picture you run it on. To recolour the result, stack it with a filter that has its own palette, such as Thermal or Bitmap, in the same panel.