ANR Fractal Noise
Makes grayscale fractal noise for mattes, textures and break-up: fourteen noise types, eight fractal types, warp, seamless tiles and looping motion.
- Comp
- Comp & Depth pack
- 2 inputs
- 49 controls
Overview
Fractal Noise makes grayscale noise from nothing: no footage is needed. Choose one of fourteen Noise Type bases (smooth gradient noise such as OpenSimplex2 and Perlin, value and Block noise, five cellular types such as Voronoi Edges, fine White Noise grain or directional Gabor waves), then layer it with one of eight Fractal Type modes, from Basic fBm clouds to Ridged and Rocky patterns.
Transform places and stretches the pattern, Fractal sets how many layers there are and how each smaller one differs, Warp bends the field into curls and wisps, and Tone shapes the grayscale into soft gradients, contour rings or a clean black and white matte. Twelve Starting Look presets, from Soft Clouds to Marble Veins, set these controls in one click with Apply Look, and everything stays editable.
Animate Evolution, or set Evolution / Frame, for smooth motion; with Loop Evolution the motion repeats exactly, for seamless loops. Seamless Tile makes the pattern repeat across, down or both. The node renders on the CPU, and each frame is made on its own, so frames can render in any order.
Inputs
- Format Referenceoptional
Optional. With Render Area on Reference Bounds, the noise covers this input's bounding box. Its picture is not used.
- Maskoptional
Optional. Limits where the noise appears, by the mask's alpha (a mask without alpha uses its luminance). Where the mask has no pixels, there is no noise.
Output. Grayscale noise. Alpha decides the alpha: Noise (the default) puts the noise in alpha too, over premultiplied white, ready to use as a matte; Opaque / Mask gives a solid alpha, or the Mask when one is connected.
Quick start
- Add ANR Fractal Noise. It needs no input: with Render Area on Project it fills the project format.
- Pick a Starting Look, for example Wispy Fog or Marble Veins, and click Apply Look. Picking a look alone changes nothing.
- Set the size of the pattern with Scale (the feature size in pixels) and its detail with Complexity (the number of layers). Sub Influence % sets how strong the smaller layers are.
- Shape it in the Tone section with Contrast % and Brightness %, add Contour Bands for rings and veins, or tick Black and White Matte and set Threshold for a clean matte.
- To animate it, set Evolution / Frame (for example
0.02), or keyframe Evolution. - For a loop, tick Loop Evolution. With Cycle Length at
1and Evolution / Frame at0.02, the noise repeats every 50 frames: render frames 1 to 50, as frame 51 is frame 1 again.
The panel
The node's panel as Nuke shows it, with the values of a new node. Click any control to see what it does; tabs and sections work as in Nuke.
No control matches.
All controls
ANR Fractal Noise49 controls
Pattern
- Starting LookMenu
preset Twelve looks: Soft Clouds, Wispy Fog, Turbulent Smoke, Electric Ridges, Water Caustics, Rock Surface, Dirt and Grunge, Cloud Matte, Wood Rings, Marble Veins, Fine Fibers and Digital Blocks. Choosing one does nothing until you click Apply Look.
- Apply LookButton
applyPreset Sets editable look controls. Keeps Seed, placement, Evolution, Speed, Loop, tiling, alpha, quality and opacity. Existing keys on look controls are retained; use on a fresh node before animating those controls.
- Noise TypeMenu
algorithm Base noise algorithm. Cell and Gabor algorithms cost more than gradient/value noise. White Noise is fine random grain; Block uses coarse cells.
- Fractal TypeMenu
fractal How octave layers combine. These are independent implementations, not AE presets or matching seeds.
- Random SeedSlider
seed Picks another random variation of the same pattern. Changing it jumps to a new pattern; animate Evolution for smooth motion.
Transform
- ScaleSlider
scale Base feature size in full-resolution pixels. Smaller values make finer noise.
- Width %Slider
stretchX Horizontal stretch around the canvas center.
- Height %Slider
stretchY Vertical stretch. Use unequal Width and Height for streaks and fibers.
- RotationSlider
rotation Rotate the pattern around the canvas center, in degrees.
- Offset XSlider
offsetX Move the pattern horizontally in full-resolution pixels.
- Offset YSlider
offsetY Move the pattern vertically in full-resolution pixels.
Fractal
- ComplexitySlider
complexity Number of fractal layers. Fractional values fade the last layer smoothly. More layers cost more render time; subpixel layers are filtered.
- Sub Influence %Slider
influence Amplitude retained by each smaller layer. 50% halves it; zero leaves only the base layer.
- Sub Scale %Slider
subScale Size of each successive layer relative to the previous one. 50% doubles spatial frequency.
- Sub RotationSlider
subRotation Additional rotation for each smaller layer.
- Sub Offset XSlider
subX Offset between successive layers in base-scale pixels.
- Sub Offset YSlider
subY Offset between successive layers in base-scale pixels.
Animation
- EvolutionSlider
evolution Morph the noise through a third dimension. Animate this for smooth motion; animate Seed only for deliberate pattern jumps. Units are revolutions.
- Evolution / FrameSlider
speed Automatic evolution added per frame from frame 1. Zero freezes automatic motion. Example: 0.02 and Cycle 1 loops every 50 frames.
- Cycle LengthSlider
cycle Evolution revolutions before repeating when Loop Evolution is enabled. Other animated controls must also loop. Skip the duplicate endpoint frame.
- Small Detail SpeedSlider
turbulence Evolution speed multiplier per fractal layer. Above one makes small features move faster. Looping rounds each octave's multiplier to a whole number.
- Loop EvolutionCheckbox
loop Makes Evolution repeat every Cycle Length revolutions, so the motion loops without a jump. Other animated controls must loop too.
Warp
- Warp AmountSlider
warp Displace the noise coordinates with smooth noise. Zero skips all warp work.
- Warp ScaleSlider
warpScale Size of the distortion features in full-resolution pixels.
- Warp DetailSlider
warpDetail One to three successive distortion layers. Higher values create finer curls and cost more time.
Tone
- OverflowMenu
overflow Handle values outside 0-1 after contrast/brightness. HDR requires floating-point output. Black/White Levels are applied afterward.
- Contrast %Slider
contrast Contrast around middle gray. 100 is neutral; zero produces flat middle gray before Brightness.
- Brightness %Slider
brightness Add to the grayscale signal. 100 adds one in linear values.
- GammaSlider
gamma Midtone shaping after overflow. One leaves it unchanged.
- Black LevelSlider
black Final output value assigned to black. Swap with White Level for another inversion.
- White LevelSlider
white Final output value assigned to white. Float images can exceed one.
- ThresholdSlider
threshold Cutoff for Black and White Matte. Values above it become white.
- Threshold SoftnessSlider
softness Transition width for Black and White Matte. Zero gives a hard binary result.
- Contour BandsSlider
bands Zero disables contours. Higher values fold noise into rings and veins before contrast; useful for wood, marble and electric patterns.
- InvertCheckbox
invert Flips the grayscale, so white becomes black. It works after Contrast % and Brightness %, before Overflow.
- Black and White MatteCheckbox
binary Turns the noise into a black and white matte: values above Threshold become white, and Threshold Softness sets the edge width (
0is a hard edge).
Tiling
- Seamless TileMenu
tile Repeat the complete warped field in canvas coordinates. This blends opposite portions of the field; both axes cost up to four samples.
- Tile WidthSlider
tileWidth Horizontal repeat in full-resolution canonical pixels. Zero uses canvas width. Tiling is in canvas axes, including rotation and warp.
- Tile HeightSlider
tileHeight Vertical repeat. Zero uses canvas height. Tiling adds sampling cost and blends opposite portions of the noise field.
Algorithm Options
- Cell DistanceMenu
distance Distance metric for the five cellular algorithms.
- Cell IrregularitySlider
jitter Cellular algorithms only: zero is a regular grid, one scatters the cell centers.
- Gabor DirectionSlider
gaborAngle Direction of Gabor wave packets in degrees, before the main transform.
- Gabor FrequencySlider
gaborFrequency Number of wave oscillations inside each Gabor feature.
Output
- SamplingMenu
quality Standard is fastest. High averages four subpixel samples for hard cells, thresholds and fine contours. Fractal octave filtering is active in both modes.
- AlphaMenu
alpha Noise (default) copies clamped grayscale into alpha; RGB stays premultiplied white coverage. Opaque outputs alpha one, multiplied by Mask and Opacity. Mask and Opacity multiply both.
- Render AreaMenu
canvas Project needs no input. Reference follows the connected input's bounding box without processing its image. Custom sets Width/Height in canonical pixels. Nuke keeps the project format; use Reformat to change file dimensions.
- OpacitySlider
opacity Multiplies noise and alpha. Mask input further limits coverage, using its stored alpha.
- WidthSlider
width The width of the noise area in pixels, when Render Area is Custom Bounds.
- HeightSlider
height The height of the noise area in pixels, when Render Area is Custom Bounds.
Tips
- Animate Evolution, not Random Seed: a new seed jumps to a different pattern.
- Voronoi Edges with Invert ticked gives bright cell boundaries.
- For streaks and fibres, make Width % and Height % unequal, or use Gabor and aim it with Gabor Direction.
- Small Detail Speed above
1makes the small details move faster than the large shapes. - Set Sampling to High - 4 Samples for hard cell edges, thresholds and fine contours; Standard is the fastest.
- Seamless Tile, High - 4 Samples and Loop Evolution each add render time, and together they multiply it.
Good to know
- Apply a look before you animate: Apply Look resets the look controls, but keys already on them stay.
- With Loop Evolution on, every other animated control (offsets, Scale, Contrast % and so on) must repeat too, or the loop jumps.
- A loop blends between samples, so local contrast can change slightly through it, and Small Detail Speed is rounded to whole steps per layer.
- Seamless Tile blends opposite parts of the field so the join does not show: near the join, the pattern differs from the untiled one.
- Render Area sets where the noise is made, not the image size: the image keeps the project format. Use a Reformat to change it.
- Overflow on Allow HDR keeps values outside 0 to 1; that needs a floating-point output.
- Runs on the CPU: no GPU and no AI model needed.
Works with
ANR Relief SurfaceLights the image as a bumpy surface, from its own brightness or a Height input, with highlights and optional glass-like distortion.
ANR Noise WarpWarps the image with smooth, animated noise: heat haze, underwater wobble, dreamy distortions and liquid transitions.
ANR Film GrainAdds film-like grain that follows the image's brightness, to match CG, paint fixes and clean comps to grainy footage.
ANR Edge WeatheringWears away the edges of text, logos and cutouts with irregular, noisy erosion, for distressed, grunge and printed-on looks.Something unclear or missing? Write to [email protected].