remotion-dev/remotion · critical · Error

Failed to acquire 2D context for color parsing

Error message

Failed to acquire 2D context for color parsing

What it means

A plain Error thrown inside setup in the Liquid contours effect when a 1x1 helper canvas's getContext('2d', {willReadFrequently:true}) returns null. The effect uses this offscreen 2D context to parse firstColor/secondColor strings into RGBA via fillStyle + getImageData, so color setup cannot proceed without it.

Source

Thrown at packages/effects/src/liquid-contours.ts:353

	gl.bindBuffer(gl.ARRAY_BUFFER, vbo);
	gl.bufferData(
		gl.ARRAY_BUFFER,
		new Float32Array([-1, -1, 0, 0, 1, -1, 1, 0, -1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1]),
		gl.STATIC_DRAW,
	);
	const aPos = gl.getAttribLocation(program, 'aPos');
	const aUv = gl.getAttribLocation(program, 'aUv');
	gl.enableVertexAttribArray(aPos);
	gl.vertexAttribPointer(aPos, 2, gl.FLOAT, false, 16, 0);
	gl.enableVertexAttribArray(aUv);
	gl.vertexAttribPointer(aUv, 2, gl.FLOAT, false, 16, 8);
	gl.bindVertexArray(null);
	const colorCanvas = document.createElement('canvas');
	colorCanvas.width = 1;
	colorCanvas.height = 1;
	const colorCtx = colorCanvas.getContext('2d', {willReadFrequently: true});
	if (!colorCtx)
		throw new Error('Failed to acquire 2D context for color parsing');
	return {
		gl,
		program,
		vao,
		vbo,
		colorCtx,
		uniforms: {
			uResolution: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uResolution'),
			uFirstColor: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uFirstColor'),
			uSecondColor: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uSecondColor'),
			uSpacing: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uSpacing'),
			uScale: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uScale'),
			uComplexity: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uComplexity'),
			uSmoothness: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uSmoothness'),
			uSeed: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uSeed'),
			uOffset: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uOffset'),
			uPhase: gl.getUniformLocation(program, 'uPhase'),
		},

View on GitHub (pinned to 78fe4bb3fd)

Solutions

1. Run the effect inside a real browser context (Remotion renders via headless Chromium).
2. Reduce simultaneously live 2D canvas contexts.
3. Confirm 2D canvas is not disabled by the browser/security config.

function has2dContext(): boolean {
  const c = document.createElement('canvas');
  return !!c.getContext('2d', {willReadFrequently: true});
}

try {
  liquidContours(...);
} catch (err) {
  if (err instanceof Error && /2D context for color parsing/.test(err.message)) {
    // run in a real browser / enable 2D canvas, then retry
  } else throw err;
}

When it happens

Trigger: document.createElement('canvas').getContext('2d') returns null — environment caps 2D contexts, disables canvas, or lacks CanvasRenderingContext2D (e.g. a non-browser DOM shim). Independent of the color values themselves.

Common situations: Headless/test environments with canvas disabled; too many live 2D contexts in the page; hardened browser profiles; SSR/snapshot code that accidentally runs effect setup outside a browser.

Related errors

• Failed to acquire 2D context for color parsing
• Failed to acquire 2D context for color parsing
• Failed to acquire 2D context for color parsing
• Failed to acquire 2D context for color parsing
• Failed to create WebGL shader

AI-assisted analysis of remotion-dev/remotion@78fe4bb3fd (2026-08-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/45303e562483998c. Report an issue: GitHub.