Blurs (B)

Any full screen blurs or blurring effects.
Note that the blur need only be present; you do not have to see the transition from unblurred to blurred for this to count as a risk.

• Motion blurs
• Gaussian blurs
• Directional blurs
• Etc.

Exclusions

• Bokeh is either flickering (F) or texture (T), depending on behavior
• Motion blur when used with zooms should only be counted as zooms and/or motion transitions (M)
• If the blur only takes place around the border of the frame, it should be noted as Peripheral (P) instead

Colors (C)

This category is almost entirely exclusive to animated videos.
Live-action videos with scenes in this category are usually strobes, and should be labeled as such.

Special Consideration for Colors

Specific color(s) should always be named in relays. Individuals may have especially high sensitivity to particular colors, but not others.
When possible, include every color that would fall into this category. If there are flashing colors, patterns, or vivid silhouettes (e.g. the utena anime or persona games), include the specific color combinations (like “red/black high contrast scenes” or “red/green glitching”).

Colors

• Any case where a specific colored element is designed to draw your attention.
• Silhouettes (Example is also “P”)
• Pure, solid colors with little to no shading
• A solid color is 25% or more of the frame
• All grayscale except for one color
• Color field offset
• Both pure black and pure white are present
• Color bars
• Invert effects

High Contrast Colors & Scenes

Specify when the colors that stand out are in a scene that has high contrast.

Some examples:

• Black & Yellow
• Red (Also “T”)

Intense Colors

Generally, these are high contrast colors & scenes, but more severe and thus should be separated for specificity.

• Glitching effects
• Colorama effects
• Two (2) or more colors of light are touching (red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta, white, and/or black)
• Most emergency vehicle lighting, although this usually is grouped under “S” due to the movement

Flashing & Flickering (F)

Flashing

Read more about flashing in the Xbox Accessibility Guidelines.

• Rapid dips to any color (most commonly white or black flashes)
• Quick changes in brightness, curves, hue, saturation, or levels

Some examples

• Lightning, including in the clouds, or related magical effects
• Some types of “light leaks” overlays and transitions.
  (These could also be “T”)
• Some types of lens flares
  (These could also be “S”)
• Muzzle flashes
• The flash in flash photography

Flickering

A flicker is a flash that is always present and may never reach 100% opacity.

Some examples

• Light beams or light reflecting off other materials
• Bokeh
  (These could also be “T”)
• “White shinies” such as those on water or waves
• Flickering/twinkling stars
• Faulty flourescent lighting

Motion (M)

Motion effects or transitions that mimic fast camera movement can be risk factors. Such effects and transitions added in the editing process are easily identifiable, but many problematic scenes can be natural to a source.

• Sweeping camera movements
• Handheld camera / “shaky cam”
• Fast-moving characters
• Dramatic rushes toward the camera
• Motion transitions
• Zooms
• Spinning

Note: Dolly zooms should be Peripheral (P) or Warps (W) depending on behavior.

Peripheral (P)

Any effects or motion that happen in the peripherary or along the edges of frames/video can be risk factors.
Any type of peripheral effect would belong here, but always note whether the effect is moving.

Peripheral Effects

• Vignettes
• Borders
• Glitches (on the edge)
• Letterboxing or pillarboxing
• Lens distortions
• Anything that moves which only takes place near the edge of the frame or only one of its sides
  • Example: fire only along the bottom edge

Peripheral Framing

Noting peripheral framing is only necessary when the periphery elements are: (a) moving, or (b) straight lines, and/or (c) a different color from the rest of the frame.

• When the rule of thirds or leading lines are taken to extremes
• When the composition of a scene has straight lines near any of the edges
• Dolly zooms (which may also be “W” based on behavior)

Quick Changes (Q)

Generally speaking, almost all risk categories have things that happen quickly. “Quick Changes” is a special category for items which happen quickly but do not also fit any other category.

This category is for transitioning from one scene to another rapidly (quick fades or quick cuts), but only when the sequence does not otherwise qualify as a strobe.

• Quick cuts
• Quick fades
• Several match cuts in succession
• Cuts between zooms, such as cutting from 100% to 150% to 300% quickly in succession

Strobes (S)

Strobing

One of the most dangerous photosensitive risks as they are often the cause of seizures. Strobes do not have to be single frames flashing by; they can also be a persistent switching at a slower, but continuous interval.

Light Strobes

The first type of strobe that usually comes to mind when you think of the word. It refers to switching between different high contrast colors, objects, or scenes at a persistent interval.

• Multi-flashing or successive flashing used for flash photography
• Emergency vehicle lighting
  (This may also be “C”)
• Strobe lights
• Very strong, moving, and/or pulsating lens flares

Natural-pattern Strobing

Another frequent trigger, these occur most often in nature and/or live-action videos. Colloquically called “Natural strobes.”

• Any source of light that is blocked intermittently. This includes light through pillars, fans, trees, color contrasts, etc.
• Light sources partially blocked by other materials, such as leaves or a hand
• Stroboscopic effects
• Wagon-wheel effects

Other Strobing

• Optical moiré speedup or lenticular effects
• Jerkiness, stuttering, choppy video, or footage that appears to be at a low fps rate.
• Film strips
  (This would also be “P” and potentially “T”, but “S” would take precedence)

Textures, Overlays, Patterns, & Particles (T)

Textures & Overlays

These are any sort of texture or overlay where movement also occurs.
If the video moves while the overlay or texture does not, this counts as movement.

Some examples

• TV snow/noise or film grain
• VHS effects
  (Could also count as “F” and/or “C”)
• Manga halftones
• Moiré patterns
  (Though in some cases this may also be “S”)
• Animations with natural or added styles such as, or similar to, Gankutsuou or Mononoke
• Noticable lightleaks, bokeh, and other similar overlays that may not fall into flashing and/or flickering
• Heat haze
  (Which may also count as “W”)

Patterns

Any sort of pattern that appears on screen and has some type of movement or repeats over time.

Some examples

• Geometric shapes, such as circles or squares (Caution: this link is also a strobe)
• Certain types of water ripples
• Mirroring, tiling, or duplication effects
• Time echo effects, speed trails, or motion trails
• Star trails
• Color Banding
• All sync elements used in the Euphoria AMV
  (VPR: major patterns, major peripheral, overlays, flickering, frequent cuts & dips to black, some low fps scenes)
• This is a GIF of polka dots and tiling (note: the second part could also be a strobe)

Particles

This applies to the more obvious particle effects as well as “busy scenes,” such as ones with complicated backgrounds or where several individual elements move independently.

Some examples

• Crowds of people or animals which move, e.g. Cells at Work and/or Shibuya Crossing
• Fireworks in live-action sources or animated in a realistic/detailed way
• Ephemeral glowing or magic
• Particle effects such as (but not limited to): 1 | 2

Warps, Kaleidoscopes, & Psychedelia (W)

Warps

• Any sort of warping effect
• Turbulence effects
• Wave [warp] effects

Kaleidoscopes & Psychedelia

Typically, these are textures, overlays, patterns, or particles (T) and/or intense colors (C) which have been taken to extremes, and thus should be separated into another category for specificity and caution.

• Any type of kaleidoscope effect
• Mandalas (if they move)
• Colorama effects