4.3 - Compatibility

AbsentMotion 4.3.0

Three versions: download the one for your phone (Settings > About phone > Android version)

• Latest (AbsentMotion-4.3.0-foss.apk / AbsentMotion-4.3.0-play.apk): Android 13 and newer. Every feature.
• Compatible (AbsentMotion-4.3.0-compatible.apk): Android 8 to 12. Some features are left out: Optical flow High, AI Smooth, AI Enhance and AI background removal 2.0.
• Compatible 32-bit (AbsentMotion-4.3.0-compatible-32bit.apk): phones with a 32-bit system, such as many Android Go phones. Same features as Compatible.

Not sure which one? The download page picks it for you.

A compatibility update: AbsentMotion now runs on more phones (OpenGL, Android 8, 32-bit) and opens Alight Motion projects much closer to how they look in Alight, with new retro effects and a long list of fixes.

Downloads: -foss.apk has no Google libraries and removes backgrounds offline. -play.apk adds Google ML Kit background removal (the Play version ends in 5.0; it shows a notice on its first two starts). -compatible.apk and -compatible-32bit.apk are Compatible versions of foss. SHA256SUMS.txt lists the checksums.

New features

• OpenGL support - phones without Vulkan 1.1, or with a broken Vulkan driver, now run AbsentMotion through OpenGL ES 3.0. It switches on by itself when Vulkan cannot start, and Settings > Graphics lets you pick it. Preview, export, motion blur, Smooth and Datamosh all work on it; the heavy AI tools are locked on OpenGL.
• Android 8 and 32-bit phones - the Compatible version now runs from Android 8, and a new Compatible 32-bit file covers phones with a 32-bit system.
• Retro Dither - a new effect that turns a layer into a few colours with a classic dither pattern, like old consoles and 1-bit art.
• Pixel Tiles - a new effect that rebuilds the picture from small tiles, like a pixel encoder.
• Palette Map palettes - pick from 17 preset palettes or import one from a picture or a Photoshop, GIMP, Lospec, Paint.NET or HEX file, then choose from 23 dither patterns, including Floyd-Steinberg and Atkinson.
• Link several layers to a parent - select several layers and link them all to one parent at once.
• 3D follows the parent - 3D Extrude and 3D Shape now turn with their parent's 3D rotation.
• Chromatic Zoom Blur - a new zoom blur that splits the colours as it zooms.
• Color Wheels and Split Tone - Color Wheels gains an Offset wheel and a By Brightness style; Split Tone gains shadow and highlight levels and a Gradient Map style.
• Energy Beam - draws a glowing beam of light with a bright core and a soft halo between two points; it can wiggle and grow along its length.
• Grunge - distresses the layer with grain, dirt, burnt edges and a dusty tint.
• Hexagon Array - covers the layer with a lattice of hexagons in one to three colours, with gaps and soft edges.
• Luma Stamper - turns the layer into a flat colour whose opacity follows how bright each pixel is, like a stamp.
• Matte Fringe - drains the colour from the edge of a keyed layer so coloured halos fade to grey, while up to three colours you pick stay as they are.
• Key Spill Cleaner - removes the green or blue glow a keyed background leaves near the edges, keeping the brightness.
• New styles - Halftone gets a Two Color style, Mirror a Flip style, Matte Choker an Invert switch and Flip Layer an Axis.

Improvements (18)

• Alight Motion projects look much closer to Alight: photos keep their colour space, and Colorize, Wipe, Stretch, Highlights & Shadows, Hue & Saturation, Brightness & Contrast, Vignette, Gradient Overlay, Flicker, the blurs and Offset follow Alight's look.
• More than 30 more Alight effects import, including the 3D shapes, Flip Layer, 360 Reorient, VR Player, Tunnel, Mirror, Matte Choke, Bump Map, Iridescence, Hex Tile, Colorize, Text Transform, Lift Gamma Gain, Split Tone, Drawing Progress and Stroke Taper, plus the six new effects above.
• Alight Halftone and Zoom Blur match Alight's look much more closely.
• Adjustment layers from Alight keep soft edges and reach past the layer as in Alight.
• Effect directions turn with rotated layers.
• Exposure gains Brighten See-Through Parts, on for Alight imports.
• The import report lists only what did not come over, and does not show when everything did.
• Borders in Frame & Shadow open and close smoothly, and a new border unfolds out of Add Border.
• Export time left starts from the estimate, counts down smoothly and learns from past exports.
• The choppy playback prompt is gone; the preview still renders ahead around the playhead.
• Crop - borders, effects and Move Along Path use the cropped picture.
• Transform has Basic and Advanced controls.
• 3D models keep their textures when simplified and use less memory.
• Shutter Blur, Motion Blur, shadows, borders and blends use less memory.
• Big photos shown small no longer shimmer.
• AI frame interpolation uses all of the phone's fast CPU cores.
• Dragging and sliders stay smoother on big projects.
• A Report issue link in the app menu for people without a GitHub account.

Bug fixes (62)

• Bug - the preview stayed black after a graphics error until you left the editor.
• Bug - a broken project in a backup was restored as if it were fine.
• Bug - deleting a project could delete media a damaged recovery still needed.
• Bug - replacing a sped-up or looping template video lost its real length and loop start.
• Bug - an AI video of a short part of a long clip carried the whole clip's sound.
• Bug - audio and video decoders could hang forever on some files; they now stop with a message.
• Bug - a preview copy of a video could come out black, or was deleted and never made again.
• Bug - a relinked clip could stay marked as missing.
• Bug - one long video scan could stall every other video from opening.
• Bug - text edits reloaded fonts each time.
• Bug - a font picked in the font browser was missing from the font strip on wide screens.
• Bug - a child layer jumped when its parent's scale went through zero.
• Bug - layers next to a clipping mask did not refresh in the preview after a delete or insert.
• Bug - the Border tab went empty after its open border was removed.
• Bug - cancelling Add 3D model could delete the model the new layer used.
• Bug - Rebuild source project said "saved" when it had failed.
• Bug - a GIF that could not be converted left the "converting" message up.
• Bug - the tutorial restarted at the wrong step when its practice project was gone.
• Bug - a theme file saved with a BOM was refused.
• Bug - a broken package file showed a raw error instead of "malformed package".
• Bug - the speed slider could land half a step off.
• Bug - the pre-render progress did not follow the real frame sizes.
• Bug - a failed gallery save on older Android left a stray file behind.
• Small fix - 39 more fixes for rare crashes, hangs and wrong values (bad numbers in files, very small frames, screen readers, reversed layer times and more).

Known issues

• HDR video can look too dark or too bright on phones whose decoder does not convert it.
• Alight's Parenting Helper effect is not imported yet.

Credits: thanks to TrueMotion by Mushroom65, a project based on AbsentMotion, for feature ideas, including the Particles effect planned for 4.4.