ANR Noise Warp

Overview

Noise Warp pushes every pixel by a smooth, random amount, so the image wobbles as if seen through heat haze or moving water. Distance is how far pixels move, Feature Size how large the distorted areas are, and Detail adds smaller ripples on top.

The pattern changes by itself: Speed adds to Evolution on every frame, so the distortion boils in place. Set Speed to 0 to key Evolution yourself, and animate Noise Offset to make the whole pattern drift in one direction.

Use it for heat haze, underwater and dream looks, wobbly titles, and distortion transitions.

Inputs

1. Sourcerequired

   The image to distort.

2. Maskoptional

   Limits the effect: where its alpha is black, Source passes through unchanged.

Output. The distorted Source, with the same bounding box as Source. What fills the edges, where pixels are pulled in from outside the image, follows Outside Source.

Quick start

1. Add ANR Noise Warp after the image.
2. Set Distance (how far pixels move, in pixels) and Feature Size (how wide the wobbles are). Small values of both give heat haze; large values give a slow, liquid swirl.
3. Play the shot: the default Speed already animates the pattern. Raise it for faster boiling, or set it to 0 for a still distortion.
4. On a full-frame plate, set Outside Source to Clamp or Mirror so the frame edges do not pull in transparent gaps.
5. Connect a matte to Mask to limit the effect, for example to the hot air above a road.

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.

All controls

Tips

• For a distortion transition, key Distance from 0 up to a high value and back, and dissolve to the next shot at the peak.
• For heat shimmer that rises, animate the y value of Noise Offset downward, into negative values.
• For a hand-drawn boil on titles or line art, use a small Distance, set Speed to 0, and key Evolution with constant (stepped) keys that jump every two or three frames.
• Keep Detail at 1 or 2 for smooth, glassy waves; raise it for a rougher, broken-up distortion.
• For a weaker distortion, lower Distance rather than Mix: Mix fades between the warped and the original image, which can look doubled.

Good to know

• Speed counts per frame, not per second: at the default 0.02, Evolution grows by 1 every 50 frames.
• Each frame depends only on its frame number, the settings and the input, so scrubbing, render order and farm renders all give the same frames.

Works with

ANR Wave BendBends the image with a travelling sine, triangle or square wave: flag waves, wobbles, zigzags and sliced glitch looks.ANR Edge WeatheringWears away the edges of text, logos and cutouts with irregular, noisy erosion, for distressed, grunge and printed-on looks.ANR Ripple TankWater ripples from one or two drops that spread, bounce off the frame edges and fade, as a height map or as a ripple distortion of your image.ANR Radial MirrorsA kaleidoscope: mirrors and repeats a wedge of the image around a centre, for abstract backgrounds, music videos and psychedelic transitions.