Gobo — questions

Question 1

Is Gobo free?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and there is no account. Everything runs in your browser — nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored on a server.

Question 2

Do the loops really loop?

Accepted Answer

Yes, exactly. Each clip is rendered frame by frame — frame i at i divided by the frame count, times the loop length — with no duplicated final frame, so the last frame meets the first with no jump. Measured across all ten shapes, the seam is zero.

Question 3

Can I export a video with a transparent background?

Accepted Answer

Not as a video. No browser will currently encode video with an alpha channel. It matters less than it sounds: these overlays are one colour with varying opacity, so an MP4 on black with a Screen blend, or on white with Multiply, composites exactly the same. For real per-pixel alpha, export the PNG sequence.

Question 4

What is a gobo?

Accepted Answer

In film and theatre lighting, a gobo is the cut-out placed in front of a lamp to shape the light it casts — leaf shadows, window bars, water caustics on a wall. This makes the same thing digitally.

Question 5

Can I use these commercially?

Accepted Answer

Yes — in client and commercial work, with no attribution required. The one thing you cannot do is resell the output as a stock pack.

Question 6

Does it work on a phone?

Accepted Answer

It works and the layout adapts. But you are nudging shader values by eye, so a desktop screen is a much better time.