What the camera moving distortion effect is
Camera moving distortion is a layered parallax trick. We take the same image, offset it a couple of times, and blend those layers together at low opacity. The result feels like the camera is sliding during exposure because the detail appears to smear in slightly different directions. In this post, we'll give an overview of how it works and talk about how you can configure it yourself.
Step 1: Create a translucent copy of the image
The effect starts by duplicating the input image and making that duplicate semi-transparent. We do this with a linear transform. The alpha channel is multiplied by the value in the bottom right. For normal images, this means the entire image will have an alpha of 0.3 (or 30%).
1 0 0 0
0 1 0 0
0 0 1 0
0 0 0 0.3
Now, we have a transparent version of the original image that we can layer on top.
Step 2: Offset the ghosted layers
Next, we need to overlay this transparent version on the original. In the default version of the tool, we use the values below. But, you can set any values that you choose for this.
- First Image Offset:
(40, 60) - Second Image Offset:
(-60, 20)
We then layer the first offset image over the original, then layer the second offset image over that result to get the shifted appearance.
Step 3: Compute a clean crop
We're almost done. Since we've offset the first and second images, we need to crop to ensure all of the images are visible in the final output. We take the innermost region that contains all of these images for the crop.
Wrapping up
Camera moving distortion is a small pipeline that uses a few core nodes: linear transforms to adjust alpha, translations to create parallax, alpha blending to combine layers, and a crop that trims away the overshoot. The combination gives the effect its characteristic “camera moved during exposure” feel.