What It Does

Dot Pixels is a native plugin from Rowbyte that replaces standard pixel blocks with circles or rings. Apply it to footage and you get a halftone-style grid effect useful for simulating LED screens, porous surfaces, or abstract stylized visuals. It works in both After Effects and Premiere Pro.

Key Features

Circle and ring pixelation. The core effect converts your image into a grid of circles or rings, controlled by the Dimension Factor parameter. Larger values produce bigger blocks and more visible shapes.

Outer Roundness. Adjusts how much of each block is filled by the circle. Pulling this down gives you rounder, smaller circles within each cell.

Inner Radius. When working with rings, this controls how thin the ring band becomes. Useful for getting that torus or donut look.

Shading options. Two modes are available: Spherical shading adds a 3D sphere illusion to circles, while Ring shading makes rings appear curved and volumetric. Shading amount defaults to zero, so it only activates when you dial it in.

Background fill. The area between circles is transparent by default. A Fill Background checkbox lets you set a solid color behind the pattern instead.

32-bit float support is available in After Effects. Premiere Pro users get the core pixelation effect without the floating point precision.

Who It’s For

Most useful for editors and motion designers who need an LED screen simulation or a retro halftone look applied directly to live footage. The ring mode with shading also opens up abstract art directions that would otherwise require manual work. It fits naturally into title card backgrounds, music video aesthetics, or any project that needs a stylized degradation effect.

Dot Pixels is also part of the TV Distortion Bundle alongside Bad TV, Data Glitch 2, TVPixel, and Separate RGB, which covers a range of signal-degradation and distortion effects.

Pricing

  • Single User License: $39.99 (one-time purchase)
  • Render-Only License: $9.99, for headless render machines; requires owning at least one full license
  • Floating Server License: Available via the license type dropdown; specific pricing not listed on the product page
  • TV Distortion Bundle: Includes Dot Pixels and four other Rowbyte plugins; bundled pricing available on the bundle page

A free trial is available for download from the product page.