Waves Atmospheric

This filter creates a vertical waving offset effect on your artwork.   It's great for making smoke rise, or sun rays shimmer.

The Waves slider indicates how many full waves you want in the shape.  Any value from 0 to 25 (including fractional values like 0.25) will work.   Each whole wave is 360°.

The Distance slider lets you control how far each wave will displace your points.  These values are in whatever units that you've got your document's ruler set for.  The displacement is horizontal since the waves are moving from top to bottom.

The Depth slider lets you vary how much 3D effect you want.    (That's right, each wave works in 3D as well as 2D!)   At 25%, the wave is displaced 25% of the distance in the Z direction as well.   To see this effect, tilt the artwork in the preview image.