How to use the studio

Open Studio — no account to open it, nothing to install. The particles are already moving; everything below is about what you feed them. An account is asked for when you record. After a few seconds without input the controls fade away so nothing sits over the visual; move the mouse, touch the screen or press any key to bring them back.

The bar at the top holds Energy, Motion, Look, Hands and Shuffle; the dock at the bottom holds Sound, Media, Record, the Output screen and Lineup. Each opens one panel at a time, and its label says what is on (“Sound: Microphone”).

On the first visit a short tour walks you through five steps — play some music, add your picture (or Not now), shuffle the look, set the energy, record a clip — each moving on only when it is done; Skip or Don't show again end it. The first time you open each panel, it shows its own one to three steps. Help (key h) puts a caption of a few words on every button and opens the help panel — gestures, keys and a line for each panel — with Show me around to replay the tour.

Open Sound and pick Track, then choose a music file — mp3, wav, m4a, aac, ogg or flac (an aiff is converted in the browser). It plays out loud, on loop, and the visuals follow it. The file stays on your machine; nothing is uploaded. A picked sound is pinned: a screen share or a video you load afterwards does not take the audio over. Stop ends it. Desktop only; on a phone the option stays visible and says so.

Music playing in another tab — Spotify on the web, YouTube, SoundCloud, a mix on any site? Open Sound, pick Tab or system, choose that tab in the browser's picker and tick “Also share tab audio”. The audio arrives straight, with no room in the way. This works in Chrome and the other Chromium browsers on a laptop or desktop; in Safari and Firefox the option reads “(Chrome only)”, and on a phone or tablet “(laptop only)” — there the microphone is the way.

For music coming out of a desktop app — Spotify, Apple Music, a DJ program — pick Tab or system, choose a whole screen or a window in the picker and tick “Share system audio”. This needs Chrome 141 or newer, and on a Mac, macOS 14.2 or newer with Chrome allowed under Privacy & Security → Screen Recording (the checkbox only appears on the whole-screen choice there).

Where it is not offered — an older browser, Firefox, Safari — there is still a route: install a loopback audio driver (BlackHole on macOS, VB-Cable on Windows; on Linux the “Monitor of…” device is already there), send your sound through it, pick Microphone, and choose the loopback device under Input. On macOS, pair it with a Multi-Output Device in Audio MIDI Setup so you keep hearing the music yourself.

Microphone reacts to whatever is playing in the room and works in any browser, phones included — there it is under Menu, in Sound. Once it is running, Input appears in the same panel and lets you choose which device it listens to (loopback devices are listed first); the choice is remembered. If the microphone is blocked, or any capture fails, the Sound panel says why and the Sound button turns amber; picking again retries.

Open Media and pick Camera: your webcam becomes what the particles rebuild, live. It is video only, so whatever you picked under Sound keeps ruling the audio — camera plus an uploaded track is the combination it was built for. It starts on the front camera; on a phone, Flip beside it in Loaded swaps to the rear one. Its ✕ in Loaded stops it. The video never leaves your browser.

With more than one camera, Media shows a Camera row while it runs, with a picker that remembers your choice. Anything the system sees as a camera is in it: a USB webcam, a capture card with a GoPro or any HDMI camera behind it, an iPhone through Continuity Camera on a Mac, a phone running a webcam app, OBS's virtual camera. Bluetooth itself carries no video, so a wireless camera needs one of those bridges. When the camera has a microphone of its own, Camera mic switches the sound to it, so the picture and the music come from the same device.

Watch it: Reach in and touch the music ↗

Screen, in Media, shares a browser tab, a window or the whole screen and rebuilds it as particles while it plays — a video on another site, a slideshow, a game. Tick “Also share tab audio” in the picker and its sound drives the visuals too, unless a Sound source is already picked. Its ✕ in Loaded, or Chrome's “Stop sharing” pill, ends it. One live source runs at a time: Screen and Camera replace each other. On a laptop or desktop; in Safari the option reads “(Chrome only)”.

Watch a website turned into particles: Inception ↗

Photo, in Media — or just drop one or many photos onto the screen — and the particle stream decomposes and rebuilds each as a glowing point cloud in its own colours. With several loaded they take turns at the pace set by Every, in Motion, each transforming out of the last; drop more any time, up to 12. Double-click (or double-tap) skips to the next photo, or re-scatters a single one. Video adds a video clip as a slide that plays on loop; if no Sound source is picked, its own sound drives the visuals.

Under Text, in Media, type a short phrase and the particles rebuild your words like a photo; it joins the collection. Loaded lists everything: switch any one on or off, or remove it with its ✕, and Shapes and scenes can be switched off too, as long as one thing stays on. Scene picks never push your photos off screen; the collection stays for the whole visit until Clear all empties it. Nothing you load leaves your browser.

Watch photos turn into each other: Painting carousel ↗
Watch a video as particles: Moroccan roads ↗

One click on Hands (or key g) turns on the webcam and opens its panel; another click turns it off. While it runs, the button says whether it sees a hand, and the arrow beside it reopens the panel. How to move, in the panel, shows the gestures for whatever is on, and a row ticks while the camera reads that gesture. Shuffle there picks another hand object and leaves the scene alone.

• Open palmCarries the particles or your picture, and spreading your fingers makes them bigger
• FistHides them
• Two handsChange the size, by how far apart they are
• Snap thumb and middle fingerYour next picture when several are loaded, else the next shape (not in Freeze or Locked)
• Pinch thumb and indexNext colours

With your own photos loaded, an open palm carries your picture and keeps it facing you, and a snap steps through the album. Mirror my camera shows your camera behind the stream; Cage draws the cube you are holding. When the Camera source is already running, Hands shares it instead of opening the camera twice.

On a laptop the panel's Camera row picks which camera reads your hands (an iPhone through Continuity Camera or a phone webcam app works) and Preview puts a small view of your hands in a corner of your own screen, never on the Output screen or in a clip, so with Mirror off the projector shows only particles.

A phone, a tablet or another laptop can be the remote. On the screen you play on, press Remote in the dock, then Link a remote: a six-letter code appears. On the phone, press Remote at the top (on a tablet or laptop: the Bloomalizer menu, then Use as a remote) and type the code. The remote sends its hands, and its camera when you switch Camera on — it becomes this screen's Camera, straight over your Wi-Fi, never through our servers — and has a few buttons: Energy, Shuffle, Freeze, the next shape and colours, and the hand effect. Both need the same Wi-Fi. Linking needs the Studio pass or an invite on the screen you play on; the remote needs no account.

Watch it: Real magic ↗

Effect swaps the particles for one hand effect at a time, and the menu beside it picks its style. Neon makes your hands the light: lightning between your two hands' fingertips, a ring on each pinch, rainbow sparks pouring from an open palm and trailing your fingers, all on the beat; style Vortex whirls sparks around your open palm and Spiral turns two spiral arms. Trail is your index finger painting light that stays a few seconds — write in the air, and pinch to lift the pen. Elements pours one of five built-in looks — Flame, Smoke, Embers, Plasma, Ice — from your open palms and fingertips (style Ball: two palms close hold a ball of it), or your own: Load a clip — fire, smoke or light on pure black works best — or a photo to use as the look. It lasts until you refresh the page. With Mirror off and the void background it records as effects on black.

Neon

• Open palmA fountain of rainbow sparks
• Two hands close togetherLightning between your fingertips
• Move your fingersSparks fly off them
• Pinch thumb and indexA ring of light, and the next background colours
• FistStops it, and what's lit falls

Watch it: It's alive ↗

Trail

• Move your index fingerPaints light that stays for a few seconds
• Pinch thumb and indexLifts the pen, and the next background colours
• FistLifts the pen

Elements

• Open palmPours from your palm and fingertips
• Move your handsIt trails behind them
• FistStops them, and what's lit burns out
• Pinch thumb and indexNext background colours

Window (key w) needs an invite code until launch. It is frame only: the particles step aside, and when you hold both index fingers up with your thumbs toward each other, like |__|, the space between your hands becomes a window on your camera, recoloured in the current colours, with the look changing on the beat while everything around it dims. Colour in the window fills it with a colourful shape instead of your camera — your hands still move it. Tracking runs in your browser; the video never leaves it.

• Both index fingers up, thumbs toward each otherOpens a window on your camera between your hands
• Let go of the shapeCloses it

Energy is the master dial — low is dark, slow and rare scene changes; high is bright, fast cuts and punchy beats (keys 1, 2, 3).

Look (s) holds how it looks. At the top is the view: Particles, or for whatever you have loaded in Media, Dots (d), a field of glowing dots, and Plain (p), the photo, video, screen or camera exactly as it is, effects off — drag it to move it, pinch or wheel to zoom; a slider breaks the picture into its dots. Plain and Dots wait until something is loaded.Shuffle on the bar (r, or a double-click on the visual) makes everything in the view new and never changes the view: shape, background, colours, camera, moves and lens at once, even in Freeze, or with Plain the next picture. A row's own Shuffle changes only that row. Scene applies one of 15 built-in looks — background, shape, colours and dials in one pick; the rows below it pin the shape, the background and the colour palette on their own, each with its own Shuffle for a new one now, the colour grid builds a palette from any one colour, and Photo takes the colours from your own picture. Particles and Colours set how many dots and how many colours; Vivid finishes it. Only what acts on the current view is shown. Colour presets sit in the Colour row as small strips, and one swatch opens a grid of 96 colours. On a device that struggles, the heaviest looks step aside and the Look panel offers Show anyway.

Motion holds how the show runs. Program plays one whole show (Stream, Scenes, Picture, Words, Dots, Plain, Blend, Shaders, Shader particles, Shader dots, Geometry or Sculpt), or Autopilot walks them all, a few minutes each, on the beat, for as long as you leave it; touch any control and it stops where you are. Energy and Every stay yours. Scene changes: Auto rotates through mood-weighted scenes, Shuffle jumps somewhere fully random, Freeze (z) stays exactly here. Every is the seconds a scene lasts (1 to 180; at 1 with music playing it cuts on every beat). Camera: Free, Locked (c) holds the camera and the shape still while backgrounds and colours keep rotating, and Orbit, Corners and Sway are scripted paths (m) with their own Speed. It starts on Auto and Free; on Plain and Dots, Auto steps through your album.

Watch Auto run a set: Autopilot ↗

Three more views in Look fill the screen on their own, with nothing to load. Shaders (v) plays full-colour visuals that move with the music — a synthwave sunset, a jellyfish, liquid paint, glowing fractal tunnels. Auto changes visual by itself, or pick one under Visual; Shown as draws it as it is, as particles or as dots. Phones get the lighter visuals.

• Move your handSteers the visual, except Sacred, which only follows the music
• Pinch thumb and indexShapes the visual, except Sacred
• Snap thumb and middle fingerNext visual, unless you picked one
• FistHides it

Sculpt (x) shows lit 3D objects — fractals and trees — that glow and breathe with the music; pick one under Object or let Auto change it on a beat. It wants a strong laptop: on a device that struggles it steps aside, and the Look panel offers Show anyway.

• Open palmTurns the object as you move your hand
• Snap thumb and middle fingerNext object
• Pinch thumb and indexNext colours
• FistHides it

Geometry draws sacred geometry — patterns that turn and breathe with the music — light enough for any device. Pick a Pattern or leave it on Auto, and shape it live with its dials: Folds, Depth, Line, Spin, Warp and how much it follows the Music.

Watch the new looks: Studio, upgraded ↗

Record opens a dialog, top to bottom:

• Frame shapes the view for where it will be posted — 9:16 for Reels, TikTok and Shorts, 4:5 for an Instagram feed, 1:1 for anywhere, 16:9 for YouTube. The visual re-composes for the shape rather than being cropped; Full leaves the window alone.
• Text on video: a line of your own, with font, bold, italic and a background; Keep for next clips holds it.
• Photo on video: a picture on top, at the size you choose.
• Length: up to 30 seconds; with an invite code, up to ten minutes.
• Clip from track (or video): pick where it starts and ends.
• Watermark: the small bloomalizer.xyz mark, which an invite code can leave off.

It shows you the result, then Download the MP4, Share it (on a phone, straight to WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram or TikTok), Discard it, or Copy post and Copy link for a ready caption. The controls are never in the recording.

Sound is asked about, not assumed: if music is playing when you press Record, a prompt offers silent or with sound. Silent is the safe choice — a clip carrying somebody else's music is the fastest way to get a post claimed or muted. Add the audio in the app you post from; the visuals still land on the beat, because they were made on it. Everything is recorded on your own machine.

Fullscreen (f) fills the display and keeps the screen awake. Output screen (o) opens a clean mirror of the visuals in its own window — no controls, ever. Drag it to the projector or second display and double-click it for fullscreen; everything you do in the studio shows up there instantly, and the mirror keeps drawing while this window is covered. Use Frame, in the Record dialog, to match the projector's shape. The Output screen needs an invite code until launch.

Lineup (l), with an invite code until launch, puts the DJ into the picture. On Now, type who's playing and press Enter; add who's up next, and Next DJ moves them on at the handover. On Timetable, paste the night, one set per line, and each DJ appears at their time; Try it walks through the night before you go live. The name sits in the middle of the picture; up to four sponsors sit in the bottom-right corner, as logos or as names typed in. Under More, the text takes the same font, colours and pill as your clips. The On and Off in its panel hides or shows it at once.

• h — help
• f — fullscreen
• r — Shuffle
• s — the Look panel
• z — freeze / unfreeze
• o — Output screen
• m — next camera path
• c — lock / unlock the camera and shape
• l — the Lineup panel (invite code)
• g — hands on / off
• w — the two-hand window on / off (invite code, while hands are on)
• d — dots on / off
• p — plain on / off
• v — Shaders on / off
• x — Sculpt on / off
• 1 / 2 / 3 — energy low / middle / high
• Esc — close the open panel
• double-click or double-tap the visual — Shuffle, or the next photo
• drag with the mouse — move the view

On a phone the studio runs with a reduced set: photos, videos, the camera (with Flip for the rear one), hands, the microphone and recording. The strip at the top has Shuffle, Record and Menu, which holds every panel and the Energy slider; a double-tap shuffles too. Track upload, tab and system audio, screen sharing, fullscreen and the Output screen need a laptop or desktop browser — which also renders at a higher resolution and records larger clips. For hands on a phone there are Flyer and Magic.

Flyer is the phone page for an event: add the flyer, press record and talk to camera; a fist hides the picture, an open hand brings it back into your hand; share the clip. Two moves, no account, nothing uploaded. Adding pictures, the take, the formats and what to do when a move is not seen have their own page.

The Flyer guide

Magic does eleven augmented reality magic tricks on the phone — hands in, nothing to install: summon objects made of particles and throw them, open a window between two L-hands, vanish with a V sign, fire lasers from your eyes, smash the screen, pour fire from your palms, wear a mask; one tap records it for reels. Every mode and every move has its own page.

The Magic guide