Lens Warp

Overview

A parametric lens deformation controlled only by center, radius, and strength. It creates bulging, pinching, or twisting without a displacement-map image, and its strength can be driven directly by animation.

Usage tips

• For a soft wobble, promote Strength and drive it with expression_float, for example sin(time * pi * 2) * 0.3, then pass the result to animation_render.
• Positive Strength bulges and negative Strength pinches. Radius is relative to the shorter image dimension; the default 0.5 affects an area fitting within half the image.
• Pixels outside the radius are completely unchanged, making it easy to deform only a face or another local feature by moving Center X/Y.
• Nearest is the default for chunky pixel-art deformation. Select RotSprite only when a smoother outline is more important.

Common mistakes

• Strength 1.0 is weaker than expected: effective strength is limited to ±0.95 to avoid foldover. Chain two nodes only when a stronger result is truly required.
• A custom-shaped warp is needed: use displace or directional_warp; this node is intentionally limited to a circular lens.

Related nodes

• displace / directional_warp — image-map-driven freeform warping
• expression_float / time_source — animate Strength with a sine wave or other signal
• region_warp — deform Region boundaries