Fractal Noise and Turbulent Noise are incredibly versatile effects, but their interfaces don't make that obvious. Fractal Noise Browser transforms this experience with 250+ curated presets featuring visual thumbnails and animated previews. Explore organic backgrounds, atmospheric simulations, grunge textures, glitch effects, and much more - all without guesswork.

New in v1.1+: 52 new presets and a User Presets section for you to store and apply your own Fractal Noise and Turbulent Noise presets!

Preset "Fire" + animated Offset + Colorama

Preset "Moonlit Sea" + animated Offset + Colorama

Preset "Data Corruption" + text + Displacement Map

Presets "Blotchy Stone", "Salt", "Concrete" + Colorama

6 Grunge presets + Colorama + blending modes

Preset "Hills and Valleys" + CC Ball Action + Colorama

Preset "Islands" + Colorama + Stardust

Preset "Dappled Shadows" + Compound Blur + Colorama

Preset "Op Art" + Tint

• 250+ presets in 9 curated categories
• Resizable, dockable, and scrollable interface
• Works with both Fractal Noise (GPU-accelerated, loopable) and Turbulent Noise - just set your preferred effect
• Thumbnail images and animated previews - a visual way to explore the effects
• Easy double-click application (or single-click + Apply button)
• Option to Randomize Seed for instant variations
• Options for instant animation and seamless looping
• New User Presets section with the same controls and flexibility as the built-in presets
• Also available in a discounted bundle with GradientHub.

Get the bundle and save 20% - perfect for coloring your noise presets:

Tutorial 1. Built-in presets and application features:

• 00:00 Intro
• 00:19 Overview of Fractal Noise and Turbulent Noise
• 00:54 Browsing and applying presets
• 01:54 Note about render speed of Fractal Noise versus Turbulent Noise
• 02:12 Randomise seed on Apply
• 02:33 Animation options
• 03:29 Options if Fractal or Turbulent Noise already exists on layer
• 04:15 Using Fractal Noise Browser together with Colorama Browser
• 04:38 Usage examples
• 05:16 Outro

Tutorial 2. User Presets (v1.1+):

• 0:00 Intro to Fractal Noise Browser
• 0:30 Accessing the Help documentation
• 0:40 Saving a preset
• 1:46 FN and TN badges
• 2:11 Subfolders / Subcategories
• 2:27 Reload button
• 2:40 Adding thumbnails and videos
• 3:09 Example process for making a thumbnail and video
• 4:13 Reminder about accessing the Help documentation
• 4:21 Conclusion

Open the panel via Window > Extensions > Fractal Noise Browser

The panel is resizable, dockable and scrollable.

To apply a preset to your layer just double-click the preset. Or single-click, then click the Apply button. This will add a Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise effect to your layer.

Note: If you're not familiar with the Fractal Noise effect, read the full documentation at After Effects Help - Fractal Noise Effect

Presets for both Fractal Noise and Turbulent Noise:

Most of the presets can be applied either as Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise, as shown by the green FN/TN badges on the thumbnails. Some presets are Fractal Noise-only, which is indicated by a blue FN-badge, and some are Turbulent Noise-only, which is indicated by an orange TN badge.

For presets that support both Fractal and Turbulent Noise, the default effect is Fractal Noise, but you can change that in the Application Settings at the bottom.

Note: Fractal Noise is loopable, and GPU-accelerated (since 2017), making it faster than Turbulent Noise despite what older tutorials (and even some current Adobe documentation) claim.

Randomize seed on Apply:

Leave this unchecked if you want consistent results, or check it to get fresh variations of each preset.

Evolution animation options:

For non-animated noise, leave this at "None".

Select "Add expression" to create an expression that animates the Evolution over time. Enter a speed in degrees per second, or edit the expression afterwards to adjust the Evolution speed.

Alternatively, you can choose to make a seamless loop. This will create Evolution keyframes rather than using an expression. This option is only available for Fractal Noise, as Turbulent Noise doesn't support looping.

Application settings:

Here you'll find options to set your preferred noise effect. (Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise.)

You also have options that control what happens if you already have a Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise effect on your layer. In most cases, you won't need multiple Fractal Noise and Turbulent Noise effects on the same layer, in which case leave it set to "Replace existing noise effect" so you can quickly try out lots of presets from the panel without ending up with a stack of noise effects.

If  you have multiple Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise effects on your layer and you're in "Replace existing noise effect" mode, the last instance of the effect (bottom of the effect stack) will be replaced.

If you do want to add another Fractal Noise / Turbulent Noise effect to the same layer, you can switch to "Add new unless effect is selected". Now it will add a new instance of the effect to the layer, unless you specifically select the Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise effect first that you want to replace.

Notes:

• The free trial version is limited to the first seven presets in each category.
• Because a few of the presets are Fractal Noise-only or Turbulent Noise-only, sometimes you'll be switching between the two effects. And in that case the new effect will always be added last in the effect stack and you may need to drag it manually in the Effect Controls panel to change the effect order. Unfortunately this a default After Effects behaviour that cannot be changed with scripting. If you're just replacing a Fractal Noise with another Fractal Noise, or a Turbulent Noise with another Turbulent Noise it's not a problem.
• Best practice when layering Fractal Noise and Turbulent Noise effects is to keep each noise effect on its own layer, so you can have easier control over coloring them individually and using blending modes.

NEW! User Presets:

The User Presets section is a place for you to store and apply your own Fractal Noise and Turbulent Noise presets with thumbnails and animated previews. It's designed to give you the same controls and flexibility as the built-in presets - it stores non-animated presets so that you can use Fractal Noise Browser's Evolution animation options, as well as the Randomize Seed and Application settings.

Making a user preset:

You might want to start with one of the built-in presets and play around with the parameters, or start from a default Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise effect. When you have settings you're happy with, select the effect by its name - Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise - either in the Effects Control Window or the Timeline panel.

This is important: if you select just an individual parameter rather than the effect itself, you won't save the whole effect.

Click on Fractal Noise Browser's + Save Preset button. This will open the Save Animation Preset dialog, typically in After Effects' default User Presets folder, which is:

                    MAC OS

/Users/[Username]/Documents/Adobe/After Effects [Version]/User Presets



WINDOWS

C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Adobe\After Effects [Version]\User Presets
                

Note: If the dialog opens in a different folder - perhaps because you've been saving presets elsewhere during this session - navigate to the folder indicated by the Mac or Windows file paths shown above. Alternatively, save your project and restart After Effects. Save Animation Preset will then return to the default location.

The first time you click + Save Preset, Fractal Noise Browser automatically creates the Fractal Noise Browser subfolder inside your User Presets folder. Navigate into this folder in the Save dialog before naming and saving your preset. The preset will be saved in .ffx format - After Effects' standard preset format.

You can also organise presets further using subfolders. For example:

                    Fractal Noise Browser/Water
                

Fractal Noise Browser displays each subfolder as a collapsible subcategory. Up to two levels of nesting are supported - for example, this works: 

                    Fractal Noise Browser/Water/Calm/
                

but anything nested deeper will be ignored.

Reloading user presets:

Whenever you add new presets to the folder, click the ↺ Reload button in the User Presets section and Fractal Noise Browser will re-scan the folder and display any newly added presets.

FN and TN badges for user presets:

The built-in presets have badges in the bottom-right corner of each thumbnail indicating the effect type. You can optionally add the same badges to your user presets by appending _FN or _TN to the filename before the extension:

                    mypreset_FN.ffx

mypreset_TN.ffx
                

Thumbnails and video previews for user presets:

Thumbnails are recommended but not required - they make presets much easier to browse. Video previews (which play on hover) are also supported, just like the built-in presets.

Thumbnails and videos must share the identical base name as the .ffx file and be saved in the same folder or subfolder. For example, these three files would go in User Presets/Fractal Noise Browser or in a subfolder of User Presets/Fractal Noise Browser:

                    mypreset_FN.ffx

mypreset_FN.png

mypreset_FN.mp4
                

                    THUMBNAILS

.png

.jpg

PNG takes priority if both exist.

Recommended size: 192×192 px



VIDEO PREVIEWS

.mp4

.mov

.webm

MP4 takes priority, then MOV, then WebM.

Recommended size: 96×96 px
                

Thumbnail and video creation is not an automatic feature - it's up to you to create them manually - but it's very easy to do:

1. Make a new comp with a solid layer
2. Apply your preset to the solid
3. Save the first frame as a PNG or JPG in the same folder as the .ffx, with a matching base name
4. If you also want a video preview, add animation to the Evolution parameter
5. Render as MP4 or MOV to the same folder, with a matching base name

Note: WebM is not natively available as an output format in After Effects.

Tips for good thumbnails and video previews

Aim to show a part of the noise pattern that clearly represents what the effect looks like. Apply the effect to a large solid and reposition it in your comp to find a visually representative area. Scaling the solid down to 50% lets you see more of the noise pattern in a small thumbnail.

For the built-in Fractal Noise Browser presets, we used a 3840×3840 solid at 50% scale in a 192×192 comp. We saved the first frame as a PNG for the thumbnail. For the video preview, we applied the expression time * 50 to the Evolution parameter and rendered 4 seconds at 15 fps as a MOV, with the output resized to 96×96 in the Output Module. We then used Shutter Encoder to convert to WebM - but MP4 and MOV are also supported and can be rendered directly from AE.

Best practice is to keep thumbnails under 500 KB and videos under 5 MB and 30 seconds in duration. Non-square thumbnails and videos will be cropped to a central square - use a 1:1 aspect ratio for best results.

User Presets Known Limitations:

• FFX files are version-specific. FFX files created in a newer version of After Effects will not work in older versions. If you upgrade After Effects, copy your Fractal Noise Browser folder of presets into the new version's User Presets folder - they should continue to work normally.

• If a preset contains keyframes, expressions, or effects other than Fractal Noise or Turbulent Noise, these will be ignored by Fractal Noise Browser. To apply the full saved .ffx including any additional effects, use Animation > Apply Animation Preset instead.

• If a preset contains multiple Fractal Noise and/or Turbulent Noise effects, only the last effect in the stack will be loaded. Again, you can use Animation > Apply Animation Preset if you need to apply them all.

Pair with GradientHub:

Just a quick shout out about GradientHub, which is great for coloring your Fractal Noise Browser presets. Available as a discounted bundle with Fractal Noise Browser. These 2 panels together provide a multitude of creative possibilities. GradientHub has over 500 gradients with visual thumbnails and effortless application. Save your own gradients too, and import .GRD (Photoshop), .CSS and .SVG to access 1000's of free gradients online.

Get the bundle and save 20% - perfect for coloring your noise presets: