Embedded Files
Often times, when we're searching for a cinematic feeling of realism in a shot, it's the imperfections that matter most. In the digital realm, everything is precise, clean and pointed. Ones and zeros. In reality, this is rarely the case. Camera shake brings that purposeful lack of precision to a shot and makes the difference between whether it feels game-y or fairly real, as if a real human was holding a real camera to film the action on screen.
"But I can achieve camera shake in Post", you say, "by simply expanding the frame by 5-7% and keyframing it myself". Well, sure, but the results won't feel believable, as the camera shake we see on our phones and in the cinema is different; it also incorporates depth and parallax. As a human steps, the camera not only moves up and down and side to side, but also forwards and backwards. In short, we need our camera to shake in 3 dimensions.
Learn how to apply and manipulate our 3D camera shake below.
Shake Presets & Size
Shake Presets & Size
Switch between 5 presets that increase in complexity as you increase the value.
These have been setup to get you shooting immediately or to serve as a solid base so you can further refine the camera shake to your liking.
A good camera shake has two equally important components that combine to produce a believable result: a small shake and a large shake.
Your Small camera shake should have a small magnitude but a high frequency to add jitter and detail.
Your Large camera shake should have a large magnitude but a low frequency to add volume and body.
The only place to toggle and control your camera shake is in the ImGui, pictured above.
Frequency
Frequency
Frequency refers to how fast the shake occurs within a certain period.
Lower numbers (left side) will give you less shake within a certain period.
Higher numbers (right side) will give you more shake within a certain period.
Movement Magnitude
Movement Magnitude
Movement Magnitude refers to the distance the camera physically travels on all three axes (x, y, z).
Lower numbers (left side) will give you a smaller distance.
Higher numbers (right side) will give you a bigger distance.
Rotation Magnitude
Rotation Magnitude
Rotation Magnitude refers to the amount that the camera physically rotates or rolls.
Lower numbers (left side) will give you slower rotation.
Higher numbers (right side) will give you faster rotation.
Best Practices
Best Practices
We strongly recommend following the advice above, which is to have a shake that is large in magnitude but low in frequency and a complementary shake that is small in magnitude but high in frequency. That being said, the system is flexible and allows for it to be muted or played solo for unique use cases.
Page updated
Report abuse