Signal Loss - Case Study
For a long time, I wanted to recreate the actual processing chain behind degraded video and display imagery. The idea was to rebuild the chain that could produce those artifacts in the first place.
Signal Loss is a Photoshop plugin built around a Source → Display → Capture pipeline. You choose where the image came from, what kind of screen it passed through, and how it was captured or transmitted. Each stage treats the image differently, so the path changes the result.
Services
Plugin Development
Client
Personal Project
Date
2026
Context
Most retro effects fake analog wear with a few familiar tricks: RGB splits, noise, scanlines, distortion, and overlay textures.
VHS, broadcast video, CRT displays, camera capture, and transmission errors each affect an image differently.
Problem
Putting all of those artifacts into one preset often yields the same generic analog look. The image does not change with the path it supposedly went through.
Approach
Build the effect around a signal path: Source → Display → Capture.
Give each stage its own controls, so users can adjust and combine them to explore different results.
What I Built
I built a Photoshop plugin that turns the signal-path idea into a simple, flexible tool, with the following key features:
• Three Source modes: Clean, Broadcast, and VHS.
• Four Display modes: CRT TV, CRT Monitor, VGA Grid, and Early LCD.
• Three Capture modes: Direct, Camera, and Transmission.
• Signal Health sets the overall level of degradation.
• Overdrive adds glow, saturation, and chroma distortion before the main processing stages.
• Each Apply generates a new random seed, so repeated runs come out slightly different.
Outcome
The same image can pass through many combinations of source, display, and capture, with each path producing a different type of degradation. The entire chain remains adjustable inside Photoshop.
Reach me at thewaytoxibalba@gmail.com