The Camera Shake effect creates realistic camera movement that simulates handheld camera motion, impacts, or jitter
How it works
Camera Shake uses procedural noise to generate natural, random movement patterns. The effect combines translation (position changes), rotation, and scaling to create realistic camera motion. It uses simplex noise to ensure the movement feels organic rather than mechanical.
The effect can be configured to create different types of shakes, from subtle handheld camera motion to intense earthquake-like vibrations. It also includes options for motion blur and RGB splitting to enhance the sense of movement.
Use cases
- Simulating handheld camera movement for a documentary feel
- Creating impact reactions for explosions or collisions
- Adding environmental vibrations like earthquakes or vehicle movement
- Creating glitchy or distorted visual effects with RGB splitting
Controllers
Basic shake parameters
| Name | Type | Description | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amplitude X | Number | Horizontal shake strength | 0-30 |
| Amplitude Y | Number | Vertical shake strength | 0-30 |
| Rotation | Number | Rotational shake strength | 0-30 |
| Frequency | Number | Controls how quickly the shake changes | 0-10 |
| Octaves | Number | Controls the complexity of the shake | 1-5 |
Amplitude X controls the maximum horizontal movement distance. Higher values create more dramatic side-to-side motion.
Amplitude Y controls the maximum vertical movement distance. Higher values create more dramatic up-and-down motion.
Rotation determines the maximum rotation angle in degrees. It controls how much the image tilts during the shake, adding a rolling motion to the camera. Even small values (1-3) can add significant realism to handheld camera effects.
Frequency controls how rapidly the shake changes over time. Higher values create faster, more erratic movement, while lower values create slower, more deliberate motion.
Octaves controls the complexity of the shake pattern. Each octave adds finer details to the movement:
- 1 octave: Simple, smooth movement
- 2 octaves: Adds medium-scale variations
- 3+ octaves: Adds fine jitters and micro-movements
Higher octave values make the shake more chaotic and unpredictable, which works well for earthquake or explosion effects.
Scaling and edge handling
| Name | Type | Description | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auto scale | Boolean | Automatically scales content to prevent empty edges | - |
| Pre scale | Number | Amount of scaling applied before shake | 0-1 |
| Texture wrap | Select | How to handle content at edges | - |
| Reverse mirror | Select | How to mirror repeated content | - |
Auto scale automatically scales the content to prevent empty edges from appearing during extreme shake movements. When enabled, the image will zoom in slightly to ensure the frame is always filled with content, even during large movements.
Pre scale determines the amount of scaling applied before shake when Auto scale is enabled. Higher values zoom in more, reducing the chance of empty edges but showing less of the original content. This is a balance between seeing more content and preventing empty edges.
Aliasing
Any kind of scaling can produce visible aliasing artifacts that look like a stairstep. If you want to avoid this, you should use the parameters below instead.
Texture wrap determines how to handle content at the edges when shake moves beyond the frame boundaries:
- Repeat: Tiles the image to fill empty areas
- Clamp: Stretches edge pixels to fill empty areas
- Discard: Shows transparency, or nothing
Reverse mirror controls how repeated content is mirrored when Texture wrap is set to Repeat:
- Default: Standard repetition
- Vertical: Flips vertically at boundaries
- Horizontal: Flips horizontally at boundaries
- Both: Flips both horizontally and vertically
- Either: Alternates between horizontal and vertical flipping
Motion blur and effects
| Name | Type | Description | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Motion blur | Boolean | Enables motion blur effect | - |
| Blur spread | Number | Controls the length of motion blur | 0-10 |
| Blur copies | Number | Number of samples for motion blur | 1-100 |
| RGB split | Boolean | Enables RGB channel separation | - |
| Split length | Number | Controls the amount of RGB separation | 0-100 |
Motion blur enables a trailing blur effect that follows the movement direction. This can help make the movement seem more natural
Blur spread controls the length/distance of the motion blur trails.
Blur copies determines the number of samples used to create the motion blur. Higher values create a smoother blur but require more processing power.
RGB split separates the red, green, and blue color channels during movement, an effect often associated with glitches. This is useful for jittery, fast shakes, for example when creating one synchronized to the audio.
Split length controls the distance between the separated color channels.