soapblind

Description

Applies a hazy, washed-over film that resembles the visual blur of “soap-blinded eyes” — a foggy, filmy distortion that softens detail and reduces clarity.
The result is a dreamy, smeared, low-contrast haze that feels like staring through suds, steam, or a semi-opaque membrane.

Purpose

soapblind is designed for creators who want:

• soft-focus blur with a filmy, washed texture,
• low-clarity visuals that feel dreamy, obscured, or emotional,
• stylized haze for music videos, collage, or narrative sequences,
• an immediate, no-argument atmospheric filter,
• a diffused look that smooths harsh details and glazes the frame.

How It Works

1. Surface Diffusion
   A hazy overlay softens micro-contrast and reduces sharpness.
2. Fog-Like Bloom
   Highlights bloom outward, mimicking fogged or soap-smeared vision.
3. Clarity Reduction
   Noise, edges, and fine detail are blurred to create a dreamlike veil.
4. Encoding
   The final treated video is encoded with global Videobeaux settings (codec, CRF, pixel format).

Program Template

videobeaux -P soapblind \
  -i input.mp4 \
  -o output.mp4

Arguments

• (No additional program-specific arguments; uses global videobeaux options only.)

Real World Example

videobeaux -P soapblind \
  -i myvideo.mp4 \
  -o soapblind_styled.mp4

Program Output

Technical Notes

• Smooth surfaces and skin tones take especially well to the soapblind look.
• High-contrast footage will soften dramatically as edges blur.
• Compression can make fogginess appear more pronounced at higher CRF levels.
• Works as a gentler alternative to heavy blur filters.

Recommended Usage

• Emotional, melancholic, or introspective scenes.
• Dream sequences or memory dissolves.
• Music videos needing soft glaze or atmospheric haze.
• Preprocessing for collage pieces to unify mismatched clips.
• Creating softness before applying glitch or distortion filters.

Quality Tips

• Lower CRF yields velvety, smooth haze.
• Higher CRF introduces gritty texture into the fog.
• Combine with slight_smear for a double-soft aesthetic.
• Pair with repainting for painterly, softened brushlike visuals.
• Use before LUTs if you want the softness baked into the grade; use after if you want LUTs to remain crisp.