Workbench’s Joe Clay Shares How to Create an Organic Waves Animation With After Effects Shape Layers

Joe Clay offers a look into creating a more organic waves animation, borrowing from past techniques (sine-wave, and wiggle paths) to build-out the effect. “The idea here is to come up with a more organic wave than can be obtained through any of those things alone,” Clay says.

The technique is simple and relies on the order of operations within After Effects shape layers. You can achieve a more organic waves animation by using Zig Zag, Wiggle Paths and Offset Paths.

Joe references two animations in this tutorial, “Lullaby Theories: A Secret Message” from Coat of Arms and “Love in Conflict – Yana’s Letter” posted by Ignacio Osorio. Both of which use a similar organic-looking leading-edge animation throughout.

You can download the project file from this Workbench tutorial here.