Dithered animation, the 1-bit look

Dithering turns smooth shading into a pattern of hard dots in just two colours, the way an old Mac screen or a newspaper photo did. Lately it moves. MindStudio wrote up the viral dithered website effect: an AI-made painting or cathedral, animated a little, then dithered to black and white dots and played at about 11 frames a second. Motion designer @studio__aaa joked that people think the "dither effect" was invented this year, and that post got 84,000 views. Dither Boy, one of the main dithering apps, has added animation and video features.

Why it works

Dithering looks retro and clearly made on purpose, which feels fresh in a feed of glossy AI footage. Using only two colours gives every frame a strong graphic shape, and the choppy frame rate makes it feel hand-made.

How this ingredient gives it to you

Dither Animation turns brightness into dots. Pick the Dot pattern (fine checker, chunky checker, round halftone dots or engraving lines), the Dot size, the Colours (black and paper, four Game Boy greens, navy on cream, amber or your own two) and Frames per second feel for the jumpy look. Contrast and Brightness decide where the dots fall. The demo shows a turning moon with falling ash, or an endless tunnel. Both loop seamlessly.

You can also use the same code on your own canvas: draw a photo, a video frame or a 3D scene, then dither it. Run it over Hypnotic Particle Tunnel for a 1-bit version of that loop, or dither just the background and put Kinetic Title Reveal on top so the text stays sharp.

One limitation

It works only from brightness, so a colourful source loses its colours. It also doesn't include the Floyd–Steinberg style, because that pattern flickers on video.