Blog » After Effects – Wiggle X or Y Axis Only – 5 Easy Expressions

After Effects – Wiggle X or Y Axis Only – 5 Easy Expressions

Posted on Wednesday, 13 May 2015

Wiggle X or Y axis only in After Effects CC

This guide has everything you need to know about simple scripts to wiggle in X or Y direction only in Adobe After Effects. Keep reading…

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About X axis and Y axis

What is X axis and Y axis? Let’s look at the X and Y axis example image below. The red axis below is the X axis. The green axis below is the Y axis. Another name is an X and Y graph:

wiggle-x-or-y-axis-only

Let’s start with how to wiggle only in the X-axis first (only X!):

The Easy Expression to add to Position, for wiggle in X axis only (the red axis above) is:
x = transform.position[0]; y = transform.position[1]; w = wiggle(2,100); [w[0],y];
In the example expression above, 2 is the amount on wiggles per second, 100 is the maximum wiggle value in the X axis.

Here are some alternative, tried and tested wiggle X or Y axis only (see green and red axis above) expressions you can use:

wiggle only in X (horizontal)

This is the expression for position to wiggle X only:
org=value; temp=wiggle (5,50); [temp[0],org[1]];
Shorthand (short version):
[wiggle(5,50)[0],position[1]]

Wiggle only in Y (vertical)

This is the expression for position to wiggle Y only:
org=value; temp=wiggle (5,50); [org[0],temp[1]];
Shorthand (short version):
[position[0],wiggle(5,50)[1]]

Now you know how to create a wiggle expression in After Effects for only X or Y direction! Hopefully, you found this page about how to wiggle in x or y-axis only helpful.

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