Camera Shake Node

Camera Shake animates the shake automatically - no need to keyframe every jolt by hand. The Deviation parameters control the amplitude (intensity) and Speed controls the frequency of the shake.

Major advantages: concatenation with neighboring Transform nodes (no stacked quality loss), several Frequency Methods (Sine for organic, Square Wave for mechanical), a handheld option that slightly changes the behavior for a more natural look.

• Effects Library: Tools > Transform > Camera Shake
• Quick add: right-click in the Node Editor → Add Tool > Transform > Camera Shake

Camera Shake (node)

A visual node applied to an image. Concatenating transform, filter methods, edge handling. The recommended approach to shake an image.

Shake (Modifier)

A modifier you can attach to any parameter (right-click → Modify With → Shake). It generates animated random values. Useful for non-visual shake (e.g. shaking a color parameter).

Rule: visual shake on a shot → Camera Shake node. Random parameter shake → Shake Modifier.

• Primary Input (orange) - 2D image to shake.
• Effect Mask (blue) - optional. Limits the shake to an area (the rest stays still).

Organic handheld:
MediaIn → Camera Shake (Deviation 0.005, Rotation 0.5, Randomness 0.7)
       → MediaOut

Impact shake (e.g. explosion):
MediaIn → Camera Shake (Deviation 0.02 animated 0→1→0, high Speed)
       → MediaOut
(animation: short, intense shake at the moment of impact)

Mechanical shake (helicopter):
MediaIn → Camera Shake (Frequency Method = Square Wave, high Speed)
       → MediaOut

Deviation X / Y

Amplitude of the horizontal/vertical shake. Range 0-1 (normalized coordinates). 0.005 = subtle, 0.02 = noticeable, 0.05+ = extreme.

Rotation Deviation

Amplitude of the rotation. 0.5-1° = a slight natural roll, 3-5° = clearly visible rotation.

Randomness

0 = regular, predictable shake (mechanical). 1 = very irregular/chaotic shake (handheld). 0.5-0.7 is an organic compromise for natural handheld.

Overall Strength

Global multiplier on all the parameters. 1.0 = full effect, 0 = no effect. Easy to animate to ramp the intensity up/down.

Speed

Frequency of the shake. Low = slow shake (calm handheld), high = fast shake (handheld camera during a run).

Frequency Method

See the dedicated section.

Edges

Canvas / Wrap / Duplicate / Mirror - how to handle the edges revealed by the shake (the image moves, so its edges sometimes leave the frame).

Invert Transform

Inverts the effects. Useful to stabilize an already shaky shot if you know the original shake parameters.

Filter Method

Box, Linear, Catmull-Rom, Lanczos, etc. - quality of the resampling interpolation.

Sine

Sine wave. Smooth, continuous movement. Natural handheld look. The default choice for most cases.

Rectified Sine

A "rectified" sine (negative values mirrored into positive ones). Stronger bounces, less smooth than a pure Sine.

Square Wave

Square wave = abrupt transitions between two positions. Mechanical / machine look. To simulate engine vibration, helicopters, earthquakes.

• Adding handheld to a still image - a photo or locked-off shot → subtle Camera Shake = an instant "shot handheld" look. It brings life.
• Impact shake - animate Overall Strength from 0 to 1 over 2 frames, then back to 0 over 15 frames = an impact jolt (explosion, hit, collision).
• Earthquake - high Deviation (0.02+), Square Wave, high Speed = a brutal, continuous earthquake-style shake.
• Inside a moving vehicle - subtle shake (Deviation 0.003) + moderate Speed = the illusion of being in a train, car or plane.
• Helmet / drone mounted camera - a stronger shake + a bit of rotation = authentic GoPro / FPV POV.
• Horror / thriller: tension - a very light but constant shake = a subliminal sense of unease in a suspense scene.
• Helicopter / engine vibration mode - Square Wave with very high Speed + subtle Rotation = mechanical vibration of machines.

• Animate Overall Strength for impacts - no need to keyframe each parameter individually. Animating Overall Strength is enough for a shake that starts strong and fades out.
• Subtle by default - start with Deviation 0.003-0.005 and Rotation 0.3-0.5. You do not consciously see it, but it brings a shot to life.
• Randomness 0.6-0.8 for handheld, 0 for pure mechanical. Avoid 1.0, which can give an erratic, unconvincing shake.
• Sine = handheld, Square = mechanical - the two looks are very different. Feel free to try both.
• Edges = Duplicate or Mirror - Canvas reveals black edges when the shake moves the image. Duplicate or Mirror hide the artifact.
• Concatenation preserved - stacking Camera Shake + Transform preserves quality (a single combined resampling).
• For an already shaky shot (handheld camera), adding Camera Shake on top can get chaotic. Prefer a gentle shake or a stabilizer first.
• For a heavy movie-style impact (Marvel style), combine Camera Shake + a light Blur + a Color Corrector that flashes white for 2-3 frames = a complete audiovisual impact.