Shake
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Shake is a Distortion effect.
What it does
Section titled “What it does”Wobbles the layer as though the camera were handheld.
Parameters
Section titled “Parameters”| Parameter | Control | Range | Default | Unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amplitude | Slider | 0 to 400; up to 2000 | 30 | Pixels at composition size |
| Frequency | Slider | 0.1 to 30; down to 0 and higher | 8 | - |
| Rotation amount | Slider | 0 to 45; up to 360 | 1 | Degrees |
| Rotation frequency | Slider | 0 to 4; higher | 1 | - |
| X amount | Slider | 0 to 2; higher | 1 | - |
| X frequency | Slider | 0 to 4; higher | 1 | - |
| Y amount | Slider | 0 to 2; higher | 1 | - |
| Y frequency | Slider | 0 to 4; higher | 1 | - |
| Z amount | Slider | 0 to 20; up to 100 | 0 | Per cent |
| Z frequency | Slider | 0 to 4; higher | 1 | - |
| Motion blur | Checkbox | On or off | Off | - |
| Shutter | Slider | 0 to 1 | 0.5 | - |
| Samples | Slider | 2 to 64 | 9 | - |
| Edges | Dropdown | Transparent · Repeat · Mirror | Mirror | - |
| Seed | Seed | Any whole number | A fresh random seed per instance | - |
| Mix | Slider | 0 to 100 | 100 | Per cent |
| Blend | Dropdown | Normal · Darken · Multiply · Colour burn · Linear burn · Darker colour · Add · Lighten · Screen · Colour dodge · Lighter colour · Overlay · Soft light · Hard light · Linear light · Vivid light · Pin light · Hard mix · Difference · Exclusion · Subtract · Divide · Hue · Saturation · Colour · Luminosity | Normal | - |
| Matte | Layer | Any layer in the composition | None | - |
| Invert | Checkbox | On or off | Off | - |
| Channel | Dropdown | Luminance · Alpha · Red · Green · Blue | Luminance | - |
In the Effect Controls panel:
- Per-axis wobble groups X amount, X frequency, Y amount, Y frequency, Z amount, Z frequency, and starts closed.
- Motion blur groups Motion blur, Shutter, Samples, and starts closed.
- Matte scales the shake’s displacement per pixel, read where the pixel lands: white moves it the full Amplitude and Rotation amount, grey less, black leaves it still, so a soft matte turns the shove into a warp. Invert reads that matte inverted.
What each control does
Section titled “What each control does”- Amplitude: the overall scale for the intensity of the shake.
- Frequency: how fast wobbles happen, in cycles per second.
- Rotation amount: how much the frame rotates as it moves.
- Edges: what fills the border. Mirror reflects the picture back. Repeat holds the edge pixel. Transparent leaves it clear.
- Seed: generates which random shake occurs.
- Mix: how much of the result replaces the original.
- Matte and Invert drive the strength of the effect from another layer’s brightness; see Effects.
The Per-axis wobble group biases the movement rather than adding to it:
- X amount / Y amount: multipliers on the amplitude for each axis.
- X frequency / Y frequency: multipliers on the frequency per axis.
- Z amount and Z frequency: depth shake.
The Motion blur group adds the shake’s own smear:
- Motion blur: samples the wobble several times across the shutter and averages the results.
- Shutter: how far across the shutter window those samples spread.
- Samples: how many of them there are. A big amplitude at few samples shows each one as a ghost; more samples make a smooth smear at more cost.