Point Animation

Every frame (the node requests continuous processing), the animation computes a displacement offset from the original input positions — it never integrates velocity. Each point's output is input + offset(t), so the cloud always stays anchored to its source shape: points wander around their home positions and the overall silhouette never dissolves, no matter how long the patch runs. Change Amount to 0 or Mode to None and the cloud instantly snaps back to its exact input.

Time is sampled as t = CACurrentMediaTime() × Speed — a monotonic clock, so animation continues smoothly regardless of graph activity.

The node auto-detects dimensionality: if any input point has |z| > 0.00001 the cloud is treated as 3D and displacement gets a Z component; a perfectly flat cloud stays flat, keeping 2D compositions clean.

Modes

In Flow and Turbulence, time is fed into the noise field's z (or z-adjacent) coordinate, so the pattern itself evolves rather than merely scrolling. Curl's finite-difference formulation guarantees the displacement field has zero divergence — locally, points neither compress nor spread, which is why it reads as fluid.

• Points (Structure) — the input cloud, [SIMD3] in Grafit units. Any producer works; the animation is stateless with respect to the source, so live inputs (tracking data, morphing clouds) animate correctly on top of their own motion.
• Mode (Int, default 1 = Drift) — selects the motion field from the table above. None (0) makes the node a transparent pass-through, handy for A/B-ing the effect.
• Speed (Float, default 0.5) — time multiplier. 0 freezes the field mid-pose (points hold their current displaced positions); higher values accelerate everything uniformly. Hidden in the inspector when Mode is None.
• Amount (Float, default 0.15) — displacement amplitude in Grafit units. This is the maximum-order distance points stray from home; 0.15 on a unit-scale shape is a lively shimmer, 0.5+ starts to dissolve recognizability. Hidden when Mode is None.
• Noise Scale (Float, default 1.0, floor 0.01) — spatial frequency of the field for Flow, Turbulence, Curl, and Wave (hidden for None and Drift). Low values (0.3) make broad, coherent swells where the whole cloud leans together; high values (3+) decorrelate neighbors into fine-grained agitation. For Wave it sets the wavelength along X (higher = tighter waves).
• Octaves (Int, default 3, minimum 1) — number of fBm layers, Turbulence mode only (hidden otherwise). Each octave adds finer, weaker detail; 1 is identical to Flow, 5–6 gives crackling micro-detail at a real CPU cost (one Perlin evaluation per octave per axis per point).

Output: Points — the animated cloud, same point count and order as the input, which keeps downstream consumers (Plexus connection ordering, Point Morph pairing) stable.

• The signature plexus — Geometry to Points (Sphere, Surface) → Point Animation (Curl, Amount 0.1, Noise Scale 1.5) → Plexus → Canvas. Divergence-free swirling keeps line density even while the network churns hypnotically.
• Fireflies — Geometry to Points (Circle, Volume) → Point Animation (Drift, Amount 0.08, Speed 0.3) → Points Visualize (small additive dots) → Canvas. Independent per-point bobbing reads as a swarm of gently floating lights.
• Flag/water surface — Geometry to Points (Grid) → Point Transform (Rotation X ≈ 60) → Point Animation (Wave, Noise Scale 3) → Plexus → Canvas. The wave travels along X and, because the tilted grid is 3D, corkscrews into Z for a rolling-surface effect.
• Audio-reactive agitation — Audio FFT → Smooth → Remap (0.02…0.4) → Point Animation Amount, over any Geometry to Points cloud → Plexus → Canvas. Quiet passages barely shimmer; hits make the whole structure convulse. Drive Speed instead for a tempo feel.
• Living tracked skeletons — Vision Tracking → Landmarks to Points → Point Animation (Flow, Amount 0.05) → Plexus → Canvas. A subtle Perlin wobble makes a static-looking landmark web feel organic without destroying the pose.
• Trail turbulence — Mouse → Point Trail → Point Animation (Turbulence, Octaves 4) → Points Visualize → Canvas. Echoes of the cursor path disperse like smoke as they age.

• Displacement is an offset, not an accumulation — the cloud can never drift away or degrade over time. If you want points to permanently travel, that's particle territory (Particle System), not this node.
• Keep Amount well below your shape's radius if the silhouette must stay readable; as a rule of thumb the shape stops being recognizable when Amount approaches half its smallest dimension.
• Curl and high-octave Turbulence are by far the most expensive modes (Curl evaluates the Perlin field 18 times per point). On clouds of several thousand points, prefer Flow, reduce the count upstream, or thin with Point Density first.
• Because output order matches input order, Plexus downstream won't reshuffle its connections due to this node — flicker-free by construction. Same for Point Morph pairing.
• Speed = 0 is a legitimate artistic setting: it freezes an organic-looking deformation in place, effectively turning the node into a static "noise displace" modifier.
• Flat clouds stay flat by design. To get Z motion on a 2D shape, first give it any nonzero Z (e.g. Point Transform with a slight Rotation X) so the 3D detection kicks in.