Preset
Loads a starting analog-damage configuration.
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StylizeIntermediate
Analog Damage
VHS, CRT and analog-signal degradation
Emulates analog video, VHS, television and CRT artifacts including noise, ghosting, scan behavior, chroma errors and geometric instability.
Analog Damage
DaVinci Resolve · Fusion
Analog Damage is a broad degradation tool for building old-video and broadcast-signal looks from one configurable node.
Overview
What Analog Damage does
The node combines multiple analog failure modes: vignetting, shutter weave, signal noise, chroma noise, detail loss, ghosting, chroma misalignment and image-position distortion. Presets provide a starting point, while individual controls allow the look to be reduced or exaggerated.
Because there are many controls, the most believable workflow is to identify the kind of damage you want first—VHS softness, CRT instability, color misalignment or transmission noise—and enable only the components that support that target.
Mental model
Think of Analog Damage as a signal-corruption panel: decide which part of the old video chain is failing, then add only the artifacts that would come from that failure.
Common uses
VHS aesthetic
Old television look
Retro transitions
Signal-loss and glitch sequences
Flow anatomy
Inputs & outputs
The port structure shows how this node fits into a Fusion graph.
Input
The clean image to degrade.
Analog Damage
Fusion node
Output
The image with analog-style degradation.
Inspector
Important parameters
Start with these controls before reaching for more complicated workarounds.
Vignetting
Sets the amount of edge darkening.
Vignette Aspect
Adjusts the aspect ratio without changing the main scale control.
Shutter Weave
Adds frame-to-frame gate weave to mimic unstable film transport.
Noise Scale
Sets the spatial scale of the simulated broadcast noise.
Signal Noise
Sets the overall video-signal noise level.
Chroma Noise
Sets noise in the chroma component of the image.
Detail Loss
Controls how much fine image detail is lost or softened.
Chroma Detail Loss
Controls how much fine image detail is lost or softened.
Ghosting
Sets the strength of the delayed ghost image.
Ghost Offset
Offsets the ghost image relative to the source.
Chroma Misalignment
Offsets color information from luminance.
Brightness
Sets the brightness of the effect.
Contrast
Adjusts image contrast.
Color
Sets the color.
Tint
Shifts the overall color cast of the analog-damage effect.
Adjust Position
Allows the CRT-scan stage to introduce positional distortion.
Image Aspect
Adjusts the aspect ratio without changing the main scale control.
H-Shift
Sets horizontal image shift.
V-Shift
Sets vertical image shift.
V-Hold
Sets vertical-hold instability.
V-Hold Latch
Controls the sudden jumps or latching behavior of the vertical hold.
Overscan
Controls extra image area rendered or processed beyond the nominal frame.
V-Scale
Scales the simulated analog image vertically.
Vertical Blanking
Sets the vertical blanking region.
Line Sharpness
Sets the sharpness of simulated scan lines.
Line Frequency
Sets the spacing/frequency of simulated scan lines.
Colored Lines
Adds colored scan-line artifacts to the analog signal.
Phosphor Brightness
Sets the brightness of the simulated display phosphor.
Phosphor Tint
Sets the tint of the simulated display phosphor.
Defocus
Sets optical or CRT-style defocus.
Screen Curvature
Sets the curvature of the simulated screen.
Edge Mask
Limits the Analog Damage treatment with an edge-based mask.
Edges Transparent
Controls how the operation treats image or region edges.
Mask Curvature
Adjusts the curvature of the mask used to shape the Analog Damage region.
Mask Aspect
Adjusts the aspect ratio without changing the main scale control.
Restless Foot Height
Sets the vertical size.
Restless Foot Offset
Offsets the lower-edge VHS-style disturbance.
Restless Foot Jitter
Adds controlled random variation to this property.
Practical setup
A reliable workflow
- 1
Choose a preset close to the desired medium.
- 2
Disable unnecessary artifacts.
- 3
Tune detail loss and noise before adding geometric distortion.
- 4
Add ghosting or chroma misalignment only as needed.
- 5
Review the effect in motion and after compression.
Typical node chain
Clean image→
Analog Damage→
Degraded signal
Examples
Where this node fits in real work
Soft VHS look
Use moderate detail loss, chroma softness and a little noise.
MediaInAnalog DamageScanlinesMediaOut
Signal-hit transition
Animate stronger shifts and ghosting over a short cut.
MediaInAnalog DamageDissolveMediaOut
Troubleshooting
Common mistakes
Turning every artifact on at maximum strength
Using digital-looking random motion for a subtle VHS target
Ignoring chroma behavior
Adding scan lines before final resize
Production notes
Practical tips
Build from one analog failure mode at a time.
Short animated spikes can work better than constant heavy damage.
Combine with Grain or Scanlines for a more layered result.
Related nodes