When it comes to video, visual trends can be as simple as certain color palettes gaining popularity or as complex as techniques that require hours of work in After Effects. But thankfully, pre-made, customizable templates for video editing software can make experimenting and trying out different trends much easier to do.
With a trend like dreamcore, there’s lots of different ways that you can capture the look and feel of this nostalgic, glowy, blurry aesthetic. We get more in detail about dreamcore and our other predicted visual styles in the Storyblocks 2026 Video Trends Guide, where you can read all about what will influence video in the coming year.
In this article, we’ll talk about the dreamcore aesthetic, what it looks like in video, and how you can use templates to re-create the look in your own content.
What is dreamcore?
A digital aesthetic that first appeared online in the late 2010s, dreamcore has visuals that are reminiscent of memories, daydreams, and hallucinations. It blends nostalgia and surrealism with a hazy, blurry effect that transports audiences into a familiar but fantastical and otherworldly dreamscape.
There are certain elements like eyes, clouds, oceans, and more that are often seen with the dreamcore aesthetic as well, drawing inspiration from liminal spaces.
But dreamcore isn’t just about the visual look – the feelings that it gives you as the viewer is also an essential part. A good dreamcore treatment should make you feel sentimental, hopeful, and sometimes, a little unsettled. After all, memories and dreams aren’t always positive. But they do always have a certain surreal, nostalgic quality that you can’t find in reality.
Ways the dreamcore aesthetic shows up in video
While dreamcore has existed as a digital aesthetic for many years now, it’s always been fairly niche. But in the latter half of 2025, it started showing up more and more in more mainstream video content like advertising campaigns, music videos, and more. That’s why in 2026, we predict it’s going to influence even more video content.
Glossier’s You Fleur campaign
This video from Glossier promoting their You Fleur perfume is unmistakably dreamcore. Blurry, out of focus clips and transitions, flowy dresses that feel out of place in an urban setting, and the joy that radiates out of fast-paced action shots. It’s a perfect blend of dreamy visuals and scenes that inspire nostalgia, backed by a magical, slightly distorted soundtrack.
Sonsie Skin’s Garden pop-up ad
Another great example of dreamcore aesthetics in a video ad is this post from Sonsie Skin promoting The Sonsie Garden pop-up in New York City. After all, what feels more surreal and dream-like than a group of women in Victorian-era bonnets and nightgowns gardening on the streets of modern New York City?
Hayley Williams’ Parachute Music Video
The music video for Hayley Williams’ song “Parachute” masterfully uses blurry, fuzzy visuals to represent the heart-wrenching lyrics and make viewers really feel what she’s singing about. Shots are messily overlaid onto each other with varying transparency, while the focus goes in and out, creating disorienting scenes that look like flashbacks.
The dreamcore aesthetic applied throughout this video captures what it feels like to lose someone you thought would always be there for you. Time slows down and your reality is askew – you’re moving through life like it’s a dream, falling through the sky without a parachute.
10 templates to create a dreamcore aesthetic for your videos
While there’s ways to create a dreamcore look for your videos during filming by using light, depth of field, and different lenses, editing is where you can really enhance the aesthetic.
From blur effects to distortion, there’s lots of editing techniques in post-production that can take your visuals to the next level. And using pre-made, customizable templates helps you get the right look faster, with advanced graphics made by professionals.
Check out our 10 recommended video templates below to help give your videos that dreamy, hazy vibe instantly.
Overlay and effect templates
1. Blur color effects
With 8 different RGB light presets to choose from, this Premiere Pro template gives you a way to easily add disorienting, fragmented blurred color effects to any of your projects. These presets instantly make any footage feel aged, while the different color options add a hazy, otherworldly feel.
2. Distortion glass and light leaks overlays
This template for After Effects combines different glass pattern overlays with light leaks to create a distorted, out of focus look. With 10 different options to choose from, you can pick a softer treatment that adds a gentle blur or a completely transformative overlay that creates a more surreal visual.
3. Color blur effects
Choose from different color-enhanced blur presets to add that soft or distorted look to your videos with this Premiere Pro template.
4. Chromatic overlays collection
Reminiscent of a 3D glasses effect, these overlays for After Effects use colored filters to create a stereoscopic, chromatic effect on any video, resulting in hazy, surreal-feeling visuals. This template is also available for Premiere Pro.
5. Prism light particles color overlays
These overlays for After Effects go the opposite direction of the typical dreamcore aesthetic by enhancing the colors in your video. By adding in pops of vibrant prism light hues that feel otherworldly and magical, you can transport ordinary footage into a whole new dimension.
6. Cinematic dreamy glow effects pack
Choose from different overlays for Premiere Pro to add a dreamy, glowy effect to your footage or video and instantly make it look like a hazy memory. Also available as a template for After Effects.
7. Vintage glow effect presets
With 24 different presets to choose from, you can choose the perfect hazy, vintage glow for your video. These presets range from a subtle, slightly distorted effect to feeling like you’re looking through a frosted piece of glass.
Transition templates
8. Liquid psychedelic transitions
These trippy, psychedelic, and colorful transition presets lean into the hallucination-like feeling of the dreamcore aesthetic, creating the perfect way to enhance the disorienting effect of your videos.
Embrace the unsettling, surreal feeling of dreamcore by using these dissolve transitions for Premiere Pro in your next video. With 15 different options to choose from, you can experiment and customize them to create the perfect look.
10. Shake blur transitions
Choose from 12 different Premiere Pro transitions that abruptly shake and blur your clip, creating unsettling, unexpected moments in your videos to keep your viewers on their toes.
Explore more ways to get the dreamcore aesthetic
Dreamcore is a fun visual aesthetic that has many different elements you can apply to your videos and use to enhance your storytelling. From using these techniques to make a flashback sequence feel more visceral and disorienting to creating a hazy world that feels like it was filmed right inside of someone’s dreams, the possibilities are endless.
Want to learn more about dreamcore in video and the other visual (and content!) trends we predict will show up in video next year? Download your free copy of the Storyblocks 2026 Video Trends Guide today to get ahead of the competition and make your videos stand out.
