Create Shake Effect in Adobe Premiere Pro 2020

A shake effect is a great way to add energy to a shot. Whether it is a punch landing, a car crash, an explosion, or just a heavy bass drop in a music video, shaking the footage to match the action makes it hit harder. The good news is this effect is pretty easy to pull off entirely within Premiere Pro.

The basic idea is simple. You duplicate your footage, use the Transform effect on the top layer to shift it around with keyframes, and add some motion blur. Let’s walk through it.

How to Create a Shake Effect in Premiere Pro

Setting Up the Layers

1. Import your footage into Premiere Pro and place it in a sequence.
2. Create a duplicate of the footage on a layer above. You can hold Alt and drag the clip up, or copy and paste it with Ctrl+C then Ctrl+V.
3. Find the point in the clip where you want the shake to happen. Use the Razor Tool (C) to trim the top layer down to just that section.

Applying the Transform Effect

4. Go to Effects > Distort > Transform and drag it onto the top clip.
5. Open Effect Controls and find the Transform effect.
6. Click the stopwatch next to Position to enable keyframe animation.
7. Place a keyframe a few frames before the impact moment with the position at its default.
8. Move to the exact frame of impact and shift the position values to the side or up/down. This is the “shake” movement.
9. Move forward another few frames and bring the position back to its original values. This creates the snap-back.

Adding Motion Blur

10. In the Transform effect settings, uncheck Use Composition Shutter Angle.
11. Drag the Shutter Angle value up (try around 180 to start). This adds motion blur to the shake movement, making it feel more natural.

Making Multiple Shakes

You can repeat steps 7 through 9 as many times as you want to create additional shakes. Vary the direction and intensity of each one so it doesn’t feel repetitive. Smaller shakes after a big one create a nice lingering vibration.

Why We Use Two Layers

The reason we duplicate the footage instead of just shaking one clip is that when the top layer moves, the bottom layer stays in place. This means the background stays mostly consistent and the shake effect looks less jarring. Without that bottom layer, you would see black bars at the edges every time the footage shifts.

That’s all there is to it. A shake effect in Premiere Pro is really just a few position keyframes and some motion blur. Simple to set up, and it adds a lot of impact to your edits.