One Composition, Two Editors: Multi-Layer Stacks, Graph Effects & Classic↔Studio Parity

A single engine look is easy to move between tools. A stack — particles behind a spectrum, a logo crown in the center, a geometry matte, and a graph that routes bass into glow — is where most creative apps quietly lose fidelity. One editor flattens the graph. Another drops overlays after a second of playback. Suddenly the scene you built is not the scene that renders.

Novus treats Classic and Studio as two views of the same composition document, not two exporters that approximate each other. This post explains what that document contains, how multi-layer stacks survive the Studio→Classic handoff, and how merge and effect nodes actually change the frame in both editors.

One document, several surfaces

When you save or hand off a project, Novus is not saving a screenshot. It stores the editable instructions needed to rebuild the frame: canvas size, engine layers and modes, geometry and logo layers, parameter base values, keyframes, audio bindings, modulation bindings, the node graph, timeline ranges and render settings. Creator Studio exposes layers, graph routing and timeline curves. The Classic editor is the guided customize-and-export surface. Both read and write that composition.

What a multi-layer stack looks like in practice

In Studio you can add more than one engine layer — for example a full-frame particle field under a spectrum, or a radial Logo Crown over a soft bloom. You can also add geometry, media, logo and text layers. Order, opacity, blend and visibility matter: the bottom of the stack is usually atmosphere; the top is the readable brand or lyric beat.

• Engine layers — Particles, Spectrum, Waveform, Radial, Tunnel, Trails, Bars, Bloom and Character Motion, each with a mode and its own controls.
• Geometry layers — 2D/3D shapes used as structure, mattes or focal frames rather than as a separate visualizer family.
• Logo and media layers — brand marks and stills positioned with scale, glow and safe-zone awareness.
• Graph nodes — audio-source, remap, math, envelope, LFO, random, merge, effect, feedback and output routes that modulate parameters over time.

For the branding-centered case — a reactive ring that leaves room for a mark — start from Radial → Logo Crown or follow Make a Logo Visualizer. For a first wired graph, The Creator Studio Node Graph covers the beginner path; this post focuses on what has to stay true when that graph meets Classic.

The Studio → Classic handoff

Opening Classic from Studio ships the full NovusComposition through session storage rather than baking a reduced pack. Classic then projects engine layers into its overlay model and marks a single classic primary engine so the template controls stay unambiguous. Additional engine layers remain as overlays instead of disappearing after a beat of playback.

1. Build and audition the stack in Studio with live or sample audio.
2. Confirm layer visibility, order and which engine should be primary for Classic's guided controls.
3. Use Open in Classic (or export a .novusvis pack if you need a portable copy).
4. In Classic, verify every engine overlay is still present after several seconds of playback — not only on the first frame.
5. Export from Classic when captions, Beat FX, overlays or platform presets are the last mile.

Graph effects that actually evaluate

Merge and effect nodes are not decorative shells. Studio evaluates the graph every preview frame; Classic runs the same evaluator against composition.graph during render. Modulation bindings resolve into layer parameters so an LFO or bass route can push glow, speed or thickness in both surfaces.

• Audio-source / remap / math / envelope / LFO / random — shape continuous signals before they hit a control.
• Merge — combine streams that should jointly drive a target instead of overwriting each other blindly.
• Effect — glow, blur, mirror, shake, chromatic shift, color grade and trail persist applied as graph post-FX.
• Feedback — carefully looped influence; the graph validator rejects cycles that would hang evaluation.

Post-FX intensity is applied once on a composite, not independently on every overlay canvas. That keeps a three-engine stack from looking three times as blurry in Classic as it did in Studio. Engine-level glow and blur controls still feed the Canvas2D engines for per-layer look; the graph effects sit on top of the finished frame.

Controls that must mean the same thing

Parity fails when Studio exposes a knob the runtime ignores. Novus routes shared V3 catalog controls — speed, turbulence, sensitivity, audioAmount, beatSyncAll, geometry shape stamps, trail decay, baseline and peak hold — into UnifiedCanvasEngine so Inspector changes and Classic Dynamic Controls move the same drawing path. If you push speed and turbulence toward their limits in Studio, Classic should not silently reapply lifeless defaults.

Audio bindings still use the same vocabulary as Every Audio Reactivity Control, Explained: source, mapping range, attack, release, contribution and blend. Modulation bindings from the graph are applied in the same resolve step so a wired envelope is not Studio-only theatre.

Portable packs still matter

Session handoff is convenient on one machine. A .novusvis pack is the recoverable copy: composition, graph, bindings and layer order without depending on a particular browser tab. Export before a risky restructure, a collaboration pass or a long break. Re-import into either editor when you need the stack again. Durable cloud saving is covered in Save Once, Create Everywhere.

A parity checklist before you export

1. Play the stack for at least ten seconds in Studio — confirm every layer and graph-driven motion is visible.
2. Open Classic and play again; overlays should remain after the first beat, not vanish.
3. Tweak a shared control (speed, glow, sensitivity) in Classic and confirm the canvas responds.
4. If you use effect nodes, compare intensity: Classic should match Studio's single composite pass, not stacked blurs.
5. Export a short clip or still; check logo safe zones and caption space with Framing Your Visual.

The point of parity is creative confidence: build the ambitious version in Studio, finish platform details in Classic, and trust that particles-plus-spectrum-plus-logo is still particles-plus-spectrum-plus-logo when the export encoder starts. When you are ready to share a frozen revision, publishing captures that same composition document for the community without rewriting your private draft.