How to Add Camera Shake in Adobe Premiere Pro CC (2018)

Tripod shots are stable and clean, but sometimes they feel too perfect. A little camera shake can make a shot feel more natural, more energetic, or more handheld. In After Effects, this is easy with wiggle expressions. In Premiere Pro, we don’t have expressions, but there is a clever workaround using Warp Stabilizer. The idea is to use the stabilizer’s tracking data from shaky footage and apply it to your steady tripod shot. It sounds backwards, but it works perfectly.

Today we go over how to add camera shake to footage in Adobe Premiere Pro CC.

How to Add Camera Shake in Premiere Pro

Setting Up the Source Footage

1. Find or record a clip with natural camera shake. Handheld footage, walking footage, or anything with organic movement works. This is your “shake source.” You can also search online for free camera shake footage.
2. Create a sequence and place your tripod footage (the clip you want to add shake to) on V1.
3. Place the shaky footage on V2, directly above the tripod shot. Trim both clips so they are the same length.

Nesting and Stabilizing

4. Select both clips on the timeline. Right click and choose Nest. This combines them into a single nested sequence.
5. Go to the Effects panel and search for Warp Stabilizer VFX. Drag it onto the nested sequence.
6. In Effect Controls, find the Warp Stabilizer settings. Set the Method to Position, Scale, Rotation. Turn off any motion compensation that is not needed.
7. Let the Warp Stabilizer analyze the footage. This may take a moment depending on the clip length.

Applying the Shake

8. Double click on the nested sequence to open it. You will see both clips inside.
9. On the left side of the timeline, find the eye icon for the shaky footage layer (V2). Click it to make that layer invisible. Only the tripod shot should be visible now.
10. Navigate back out of the nested sequence to the main timeline.
11. The Warp Stabilizer is still applied, but now it is using the tracking data from the (now hidden) shaky footage and applying it to your visible tripod shot. The result is your clean tripod footage with natural camera shake added.

Important: Do not click “Analyze” again after hiding the shaky layer. If you do, Warp Stabilizer will re-analyze using only the tripod shot, which will remove the shake instead of adding it.

Tips

• Use different shake sources for different feels. Walking footage creates a rhythmic, bouncy shake. Running footage is more intense. A slight handheld wobble feels documentary-style.
• Adjust the Smoothness in Warp Stabilizer to control how much of the original shake carries through. Lower smoothness means more shake.
• For a simpler (but less realistic) approach, check out the shake effect tutorial which uses position keyframes instead of Warp Stabilizer. It is faster to set up but does not have the organic randomness of real camera movement.
• Scale up slightly. Camera shake can reveal the edges of the frame. Under Motion > Scale, increase the scale to about 105-110% to give the stabilizer room to work without showing black edges.
• Combine with motion blur using the Transform effect for an even more realistic handheld feel.

That is how you add camera shake in Premiere Pro. It is a creative use of the Warp Stabilizer that takes a stable tripod shot and gives it natural, organic movement.