TimeSlice Nodes — SYSTMS

Temporal slit-scan / time-displacement effects for ComfyUI. A frame is divided into parallel bands ("slices") and each band is sampled from a different frame in the sequence — like a rolling shutter you can art-direct.

The pack contains three nodes built on a shared slicing engine, so angle, spacing, blending and masking behave identically across all of them:

| Node | What it does | |---|---| | TimeSlice Effect | Classic cascading slit-scan — each slice is offset further in time than the last | | TimeSlice Wave | Animated variant — slice offsets ripple over time following a travelling sine wave | | TimeSlice Dual | Two-input variant — interleaves slices from two clips, each with independent time offsets |

All three nodes can be found under Systms → effects.

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Installation

ComfyUI Manager — search for "TimeSlice Nodes" and click Install.

Manual (git) — clone into your ComfyUI custom_nodes folder:

cd ComfyUI/custom_nodes
git clone https://github.com/systms-ai/TimeSlice-Nodes.git

Then restart ComfyUI. The only dependency is numpy (already present in ComfyUI); torch is provided by the ComfyUI runtime.

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Shared concepts

Slicing geometry

• num_slices — how many bands the frame is divided into. More slices = finer, smoother displacement; fewer = bold, blocky steps.
• angle — slice orientation in degrees. 0 = vertical slices, 90 = horizontal, 45 = diagonal. Any angle works.
• spacing — how slice widths are distributed: linear (equal widths), ease_in / ease_out / ease_in_out (slices compress toward one side or the middle), or random (seeded irregular widths).

Time handling

• loop_mode — what happens when a slice's offset reaches past the ends of the clip:
  • loop — wraps around to the other end (seamless for looping clips)
  • ping_pong — bounces back and forth
  • trim — drops frames at the ends so no slice ever has to wrap. Output is shorter than the input.

Finishing

• blend_width — soft cross-fade (in pixels) across slice boundaries. 0 = hard edges. Fully vectorised, so high slice counts and wide blends cost the same as low ones.
• mask (optional) — restricts the effect to the white area of a mask; the rest of the frame stays untouched original footage.
• seed — drives random spacing and slice jitter, for repeatable results.

Outputs

Every node returns four sockets:

| Output | Type | Description | |---|---|---| | images | IMAGE | The sliced frames | | mask | MASK | The input mask passed through (or solid white if none) | | num_frames | INT | Output frame count — useful downstream when using trim | | slice_edges | MASK | The boundary lines as a separate mask, for feeding glow / glitch overlays |

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TimeSlice Effect

The core cascade. Slice 0 shows the current frame, and each subsequent slice is pushed further back (or forward) in time.

Key parameters

• offset — frame step between neighbouring slices. 1 = subtle smear, higher = stretched time trails. Negative values reverse the time direction.
• direction — which slices carry the most displacement: forward, reverse, center_out (still in the middle, displaced at the edges) or edges_in (the inverse).
• cascade_curve — how the offset grows across slices: linear, ease_in, ease_out, ease_in_out or exponential. Exponential keeps most of the frame coherent and whips the far slices away.
• slice_jitter — seeded random ± frames added per slice, for a glitchier, less mechanical cascade.

Animation (optional)

Enable animate to interpolate num_slices, offset and angle from their start values to num_slices_end / offset_end / angle_end over the clip, shaped by temporal_curve. By default the animation spans the full clip length; set frame_count to complete it over a specific number of frames instead.

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TimeSlice Wave

Instead of a fixed cascade, slice offsets follow a sine wave that travels across the frame over time — an undulating, liquid temporal ripple.

Key parameters

• max_offset — peak frame displacement at the wave crest.
• wave_count — number of full sine cycles across the slices (spatial frequency: how many ripples are visible at once).
• wave_speed — number of full wave cycles over the whole clip (temporal frequency: how fast the ripple travels). Higher = faster. Whole-number values loop seamlessly with loop_mode: loop.

Note on trim mode: because the wave swings both backwards and forwards in time, trim removes max_offset frames from both ends of the clip, so the output is input − 2 × max_offset frames.

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TimeSlice Dual

Slices alternate between two video inputs — built for transitions, split-reality looks and A/B mashups. Input B is automatically resized to match A.

Key parameters

• offset_a / offset_b — independent cascade step for slices drawn from each source.
• pattern — how slices are assigned to sources: alternate (ABAB), pairs (AABB repeating), aba, aabb, abba.
• mix — balance between sources. 0.5 keeps the pattern as-is; pushing toward 0 or 1 reassigns slices (seeded) so one source dominates.
• Supports the same direction, cascade_curve, slice_jitter, masking and start→end animation as TimeSlice Effect, with independent offset_a_end / offset_b_end targets.

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Quick recipes

• Clean classic slit-scan — Effect: num_slices 40+, offset 1, angle 90, everything else default.
• Glitch smear — Effect: spacing random, slice_jitter 4–10, with slice_edges fed into a glow.
• Liquid ripple loop — Wave: wave_count 1–2, wave_speed a whole number, loop_mode loop, blend_width 20–60 for a smooth undulation that cycles perfectly.
• Two-clip transition — Dual: animate from mix-heavy A to B-dominant offsets, or keyframe num_slices low→high for a shatter-style handover.
• Effect only on the subject — feed a subject mask into any node's mask input; the background stays clean.

Performance notes

The slicing and blending are fully vectorised — blend cost does not scale with num_slices or blend_width, so even 2000 slices with wide blends runs fine. Memory is driven by clip size (frames × height × width), the same as any video node: very long, high-resolution clips need RAM regardless of settings.

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License

MIT © 2026 SYSTMS. See LICENSE.