The best fluid image effect components on Framer right now
Image effects are the easiest place on a Framer site to look good, and the easiest place to look tacky. Here are five components I'd actually reach for, what each one gets right, and where to use them — including one I built myself.
Image effects are the easiest place on a Framer site to look good, and also the easiest place to look tacky. The line between cinematic and cheap is thin. Here are the components I'd actually reach for right now, and what each one gets right.
The principle
The best image effect is one the user registers as alive without registering as an effect. If someone scrolls past your hero and thinks "oh, a cool distortion," you lost. They should think the image is well-made and keep reading. The picks below are the ones that clear that bar.
Five image effect components worth using
1: Image Hover Effects
Six effects in one component: Wavy Distort, Liquid Melt, RGB Split, Buttery Smooth, Zoom Blur, Burning Fire. The one I'd point a beginner at. It's free, well-tuned, and covers most of what a designer actually wants on hover. Liquid Melt and Buttery Smooth are the two worth using. Burning Fire and RGB Split are gimmicks. Pick one effect, drop the intensity from the default, and move on.
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2: Image Ripple Effect
My pick for subtle-but-there without leaving the free tier. The ripple reads as "the image is sitting on water" rather than "the designer added a filter." Controls for strength, density, and radius are functional, not decorative. Made by Framer Mint, free.
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3: Fluid Image
Disclosure up front: this one is mine. I built it because the existing fluid-distortion components on the marketplace were either too heavy on mid-range devices or too aggressive on the defaults. Fluid Image is WebGL-powered, tuned to feel tactile rather than melty, and the distortion strength and animation speed are both adjustable so you can dial it in for portraits, covers, or hero images. Free.
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4: Image Flex Filter
RGB separation, pixel displacement, mouse-driven response. Closer to an art tool than a product component. Use it on single statement images, never on grids. Pair with restrained typography or the page tips into noise. Made by Shaigexp.
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5: WaveReveal
WebGL image reveal with a wave-and-dither transition. Different use case from the others on this list — it's a mount/transition effect, not a hover interaction. Good for hero images that want a distinctive first impression without asking for anything from the user. Don't use it on every image on the page or the novelty wears off by the second one.