DOCS/Modifiers

Wiggle

Behaviors

Procedural noise on position, rotation and scale — hand-drawn or shaky-cam.

Wiggle adds smooth random motion to the layer without a single keyframe. It is the fastest way to stop something looking mechanically still.

The noise is seeded and deterministic, so what you see while scrubbing is exactly what renders. Two layers with different seeds wiggle independently; two layers with the same seed wiggle in lockstep.

Try itWiggle

Frequency2.0 Hz

Amount X22 px

Amount Y22 px

Amount rotation4°

Amount scale0

Octaves1

Seed0

This stage redraws the effect for the page; the editor runs it through the full layer pipeline, so expect the shape of the behaviour to match and the exact pixels not to.

When to reach for it#

Hand-held camera feel on a whole scene.
Idle motion so a static element does not look frozen.
Hand-drawn wobble on illustrated elements.
Breaking up the sterility of a perfectly aligned layout.

How it works#

Each property gets its own noise stream, so X, Y, rotation and scale never move in a correlated way — that correlation is what makes cheap wiggle look like a circle.

Octaves stack noise at doubling frequencies, each quieter than the last by the falloff amount. One octave is a smooth drift. Three gives you a slow drift with fine chatter on top, which is what real hand-held footage looks like.

Parameters#

Frequencyfreq#

How often the noise changes direction, in hertz. Below 0.5 is a slow drift. Above 4 is a vibration. The number you want for hand-held is usually between 1 and 2.

Amount X / YampX#

Maximum displacement in pixels. These are independent, so a large Y with a small X gives a bob rather than a wander.

Amount rotationampRot#

Degrees of wobble. A little is potent — 2° reads clearly at any size, and 15° reads as broken.

Amount scaleampScale#

Fractional scale wobble. 0.05 is a subtle breathe. Leave at 0 unless you want the layer to feel like it is being handled.

Octavesoctaves#

Layers of noise. 1 is smooth. 3 adds fine detail on top of the drift. Past 4 the extra detail is below the pixel level for most amounts.

Octave falloffampMult#

How much quieter each octave is than the last. 0.5 is the natural-looking default. Push it to 0.9 and the high frequencies stay loud, which reads as jitter rather than movement.

Smoothnesssmoothness#

Softens the corners of the noise curve. Lower values give a twitchier motion with visible direction changes.

Seedseed#

Picks which noise you get. Change it when two layers are wiggling in sympathy and you want them independent.

Time offsettimeOffset#

Slides the noise along in time. Another way to desynchronise layers, and unlike Seed it keeps the same character of motion.

Recipes#

Hand-held camera

Select every layer in the scene and parent them to one Null.
Add Wiggle to the Null.
Frequency around 1.4, Amount X 8, Amount Y 6, Amount rotation 1.
Octaves 3, Octave falloff around 0.45.

Wiggling the Null instead of each layer keeps the parallax right — everything moves together, as if the camera moved rather than the objects.

Hand-drawn boil

Add Wiggle to the illustrated layer.
Frequency around 8, Amount X and Y around 2, Amount rotation 0.6.
Octaves 1.

The look depends on high frequency and tiny amplitude. Large amounts at high frequency read as a glitch, not as ink.

Things that catch people out#

Identical seeds move identically

Duplicate a wiggling layer and both copies wiggle the same way, which reads as one object. Change the Seed or the Time offset on the copy.

It adds to keyframes, it does not replace them

Wiggle layers on top of whatever motion the layer already has. That is usually what you want. If the wiggle appears to fight a keyframed move, lower the amount rather than removing keys.