expression wiggle rotation after effects

Wiggle is one of the most popular After Effects expressions, as it is easy to use and visually interesting. If you’ve ever seen animations where light is flickering or a camera shakes, it’s likely you’ve seen the wiggle expression in action. When you understand them they really aren’t scary and can end up saying you a lot of time. In this post we’ll show you how to create wiggle easily by modifying numbers…not keyframes.Įditors sometime cringe at the word expressions, but have no fear. If you enjoyed this tutorial, you might find it helpful to see how you can use “wiggle” in combination with other expressions to create a glitch effect in Adobe After Effects.Īre you a current student? See how you can save up to 60%.Use an expression to create random movement with the wiggle expression in After Effects. If you only want the frame rate to affect your wiggling object, create a pre-comp containing the wiggling layer(s) and adjust only that frame rate. Something like “12” will give you a choppier feel, but you can go as low as “8.” Note: Reducing the frame rate will make your entire composition choppier-so if you have other moving elements in your comp, it might not make sense to apply to everything. If you want more of a jerky wiggle instead of something smooth, you can reduce the frame rate of the video to make the overall effect more “choppy.” Go to Composition > Composition settings and lower the frame rate. Optional: Adjust the frame rate of your composition.

Wiggle (10,3) will make a layer dart around quickly without moving too much in any one direction. Wiggle (2,40) will make a layer shake dramatically, but slow. You can adjust these numbers however you would like.

The second number represents the amplitude of the wiggle, which is how far it moves. The first number in this expression represents the frequency of the wiggle-essentially, how fast it appears to shake.

Type “Wiggle (3,8)” and adjust the settings as necessary.

You can edit your expression at any time by hitting alt/option on the stopwatch again-or by pressing the down arrow beside “position” and then double-clicking the text in the timeline. Discover the other things you can do with expressions here. Using a coding language adapted from javascript, you can use all sorts of customizable commands to apply complex motion to layers.

Pressing the alt/option key, click the stopwatch beside “position.” When you see the position text turn red and begin typing in the timeline, you are creating what is called an “expression” in After Effects.

I want to apply a wiggling or shaking effect to both of these layers, so I will repeat these steps for both objects. For this example, I have an image of pancakes and then some stars.

In your after effects file, select the layer that you want to shake.

Expression wiggle rotation after effects