CompStart

Pro Lessons Courses Elements Software

Surface Distortion

ToolSets / Filter

Filter

2026-09-07

ToolSets/filter/surfaceDistortion.nk

filter

distortion

noise

idistort

mask

warp

View on GitHub

Noise-driven IDistort for organic surface warps, with mask control, animated speed, and optional UV output.

Surface Distortion builds a UV offset field from Noise, turns it into directional vectors, and feeds that into IDistort so the input image warps with an organic surface feel. A second input masks the effect; invert mask is available when you need the opposite region.

Use it when a plate or CG pass needs subtle crawl, heat haze–style ripple, or general surface breakup without hand-animating a distortion map. Speed drives the noise through Z over time; translate, rotate, scale, size, gain, and gamma shape the noise before it becomes UVs.

Blur softens the vector field, UV scale sets distortion strength, and the IDistort filter controls sampling. Enable output UV to pass the warp field downstream instead of the distorted image. Channels follow the IDistort node so you can limit which channels move.

Script code

set cut_paste_input [stack 0]
version 9.0 v7
push 0
push $cut_paste_input
Group {
 inputs 2
 name surfaceDistortion
 tile_color 0x421010ff
 selected true
 xpos -433
 ypos 1377
 addUserKnob {20 surfaceDistortion}
 addUserKnob {41 channels T IDistort1.channels}
 addUserKnob {41 translate T Noise3.translate}
 addUserKnob {41 rotate -STARTLINE T Noise3.rotate}
 addUserKnob {41 scale T Noise3.scale}
 addUserKnob {26 "" +STARTLINE}
 addUserKnob {41 uv_scale l "UV scale" T IDistort1.uv_scale}
 addUserKnob {7 speeder l speed R 0 200}
 speeder 100
 addUserKnob {41 size_1 l blur T Blur1.size}
 addUserKnob {41 size l x/ysize T Noise3.size}
 addUserKnob {41 gain T Noise3.gain}
 addUserKnob {41 gamma T Noise3.gamma}
 addUserKnob {41 filter T IDistort1.filter}
 addUserKnob {6 outUV l "output uv" +STARTLINE}
 addUserKnob {41 invertMask l "invert mask" T Keymix1.invertMask}
 addUserKnob {26 ""}
 addUserKnob {26 lbl l "" +STARTLINE T "Surface Distortion v1.2"}
 addUserKnob {22 btn l DerekVFX.ca T "nuke.tcl('start', 'https://derekvfx.ca')" +STARTLINE}
}
 Input {
  inputs 0
  name mask
  xpos -928
  ypos 502
  number 1
 }
 Invert {
  name Invert1
  xpos -799
  ypos 496
 }
 Input {
  inputs 0
  name Input
  xpos -149
  ypos -96
 }
set N1e512000 [stack 0]
 Remove {
  name Remove1
  xpos -721
  ypos -102
 }
 Noise {
  size 100
  zoffset {{frame/speeder}}
  gain 1
  center {1024 778}
  name Noise3
  selected true
  xpos -721
  ypos -16
 }
set N4ad56800 [stack 0]
 Position {
  translate {2 0}
  name Position1
  xpos -814
  ypos 26
 }
push $N4ad56800
 Merge2 {
  inputs 2
  operation minus
  name Merge2
  xpos -814
  ypos 135
 }
push $N4ad56800
 Position {
  translate {0 2}
  name Position2
  xpos -629
  ypos 32
 }
push $N4ad56800
 Merge2 {
  inputs 2
  operation minus
  name Merge3
  xpos -629
  ypos 142
 }
 ShuffleCopy {
  inputs 2
  red red
  green red2
  blue black
  alpha black
  name ShuffleCopy1
  xpos -629
  ypos 219
 }
set N18447c00 [stack 0]
 Dot {
  name Dot2
  xpos -406
  ypos 223
 }
 Multiply {
  value 0
  name Multiply2
  xpos -440
  ypos 335
 }
 Dot {
  name Dot3
  xpos -406
  ypos 506
 }
push $N18447c00
 Multiply {
  channels rgb
  value 10
  name Multiply1
  xpos -629
  ypos 328
 }
 Blur {
  channels {rgba.red rgba.green -rgba.blue none}
  size 50
  name Blur1
  xpos -629
  ypos 354
 }
 Keymix {
  inputs 3
  name Keymix1
  xpos -629
  ypos 496
 }
 Dot {
  name Dot1
  xpos -595
  ypos 697
 }
set N4ab08400 [stack 0]
push $N1e512000
 Copy {
  inputs 2
  from0 rgba.red
  to0 forward.u
  from1 rgba.green
  to1 forward.v
  name Copy2
  xpos -149
  ypos 680
 }
 IDistort {
  channels rgba
  uv forward
  uv_scale 100
  filter Parzen
  name IDistort1
  xpos -149
  ypos 789
 }
set N89c5ec00 [stack 0]
 Viewer {
  frame 1013
  frame_range 989-1112
  name Viewer1
  xpos 928
  ypos 2297
 }
push $N4ab08400
 Dot {
  name Dot4
  xpos -595
  ypos 977
 }
push $N89c5ec00
 Switch {
  inputs 2
  which {{outUV}}
  name Switch1
  xpos -149
  ypos 973
 }
 Output {
  name Output1
  xpos -149
  ypos 1057
 }
end_group