Paint with Fire using Motion FX

Motion FX is a very cool real-time video effects tool that uses your Macs built-in camera to detect movement and render a slew of special effects ranging from fire to smoke and any variation of colors or distortion in between.

Using the apps Motion Detect or Effect Paint mode, you can literally paint with fire (or a psychedelic blend of colors) by using your hands or mouse, and create some really wild looking videos. Motion FX also utilizes OS X Lion’s facial recognition tools, so you can set any of the 80 different preset special effect modes to your head and face as well. It’s a bunch of fun and well worth playing around with.

The best part about Motion FX? It’s completely free on the Mac App Store:

Download Motion FX for OS X Lion for free (App Store link)

Describing the app only does so much, it’s best to download and play around with, or check out the video below for Motion FX in action:

If you were wondering, OS X Lion is required because of the dependence on the facial recognition and movement detection features.

Modes include:

✓ Motion Detect – Effects are created based on motion detected by your computer’s camera
✓ Face Detect – Emit effects from all visible faces
✓ Color Detect – Choose the color to emit effects from the video feed
✓ Effect Paint – Paint effects using your mouse or trackpad
✓ Video Warp – Warp live video using your mouse or trackpad

Have fun!