Displacement map
Using one image's light and dark values to push another layer's pixels around, creating ripples, warps, and heat haze.
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What it is
A displacement map uses one layer as movement instructions for another. Its light and dark values push pixels in opposite directions, while middle gray leaves them close to where they started. In After Effects, the Displacement Map effect can read luminance or individual color channels and drive horizontal and vertical movement separately.
Reach for it when a clean layer needs to inherit the shape of something rough or fluid: text rippling through water, heat haze over a road, a logo bending across fabric, or an image wobbling under animated noise. A soft grayscale map gives broad bends; hard, detailed contrast gives sharp tearing.
Gotcha: the map moves pixels beyond the source layer's edge, which can expose empty borders or create a frozen smear. Oversize the source, keep the displacement modest, and precompose an animated map before using it so the effect reads the finished map rather than an earlier layer state.
Ask AI for it
In Adobe After Effects, apply the Displacement Map effect to this title and use a precomposed grayscale Fractal Noise layer as the Displacement Map Layer. Set both Use For Horizontal Displacement and Use For Vertical Displacement to Luminance, start Max Horizontal Displacement at 18 and Max Vertical Displacement at 8, and animate Evolution slowly for a soft heat-haze drift. Scale the title to 105 percent before the effect so no empty edges enter the frame, and keep the map layer hidden in the final composite.