Installation

1. Download the Edge Sketch plugin
2. Unzip the downloaded zip file
3. Drag the Edge Sketch.zip file onto the Cavalry interface
4. Find Edge Sketch in the Add Layers window

Tips & Techniques

Viewport Zoom

Important! Set your viewport zoom to 100% for an accurate preview of the filter's result. Viewport scale significantly affects how the filter appears in the viewport, but not how it renders to the final output — the effect operates on the available canvas pixel space, which changes with zoom level. Zooming beyond 100% also forces the effect to process more pixels, so performance will drop at higher zoom levels.

Performance Optimization

• Start with Low or Medium quality during design
• Increase quality to High or Ultra for final renders
• Reduce Soften and Edge Width to lower sample counts

Getting a Hand-Drawn Look

• Set Time Step to 2 or 4 for classic frame-skipping
• Use moderate Boil Amount (100-200) with lower Boil Frequency
• Enable Only Boil Edges to keep the base shape stable
• Add slight Offset Edges with Animate Edge Offset for registration jitter

Controls Reference

General Settings

Grow Bounds

Type: Integer2 (X, Y)
Default: 32, 32
Min: 0, 0

Increases the bounding box of the effect area. Useful when edges or boil extend beyond the original layer bounds. This is automatically driven by the Offset Edges values via a setup expression.

Detection Mode

Type: Enum
Options: General | Alpha | Luminance | Color
Default: General

Controls which pixel attributes are used for edge detection.

• General: Combines alpha, luminance, and color for the most comprehensive edge detection.
• Alpha: Detects edges based only on transparency differences.
• Luminance: Detects edges based only on brightness differences.
• Color: Detects edges based only on RGB color differences.

Quality

Type: Enum
Options: Low | Medium | High | Ultra
Default: Medium

Balance of edge quality and performance. Higher quality samples more points for smoother, more accurate edges.

Performance Impact: Ultra quality uses substantially more samples than Low. Use Low or Medium during design work, and switch to High or Ultra for final renders.

Edge Properties

Edge Width

Type: Float
Default: 30
Min: 0.1

Controls the thickness of the detected edges. Higher values produce thicker, bolder strokes.

Edge Color

Type: Color (RGBA)
Default: Black (0, 0, 0, 255)

Controls the edge line color. Supports full alpha channel for blending transparent edge lines.

Detect Threshold

Type: Float
Default: 45
Range: 1 to 8000

Edge detection sensitivity based on pixel contrast. Lower values detect more subtle edges (finer detail), while higher values only detect strong contrast boundaries.

Soften

Type: Float
Default: 0
Range: 0 to 100

Adds anti-aliasing and softening to the edge lines. At 0, edges are sharp and aliased. Increasing this value smooths the edges for a cleaner, more refined look.

Edges Only

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: Off

When enabled, only the edge lines are rendered without the source layer. Useful for compositing edge lines as a separate pass or for stylistic effects.

Line Boil

Boil

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: On

Enables the line boil effect. When turned off, all boil-related noise calculations are skipped entirely, producing static edges with improved performance. The Only Boil Edges, Boil Amount, Boil Frequency, and Seed controls are dimmed when this is off.

Only Boil Edges

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: Off

When enabled, only the edge lines are affected by the boil animation. The original shape remains stable. When disabled, both the shape and its edges are displaced by the boil noise.

Boil Amount

Type: Float
Default: 150

Controls the intensity of the line boil displacement. Higher values create more dramatic, jittery movement. Set to 0 for static edges with no boil.

Boil Frequency

Type: Float
Default: 250
Min: 0

Controls the frequency of the noise pattern driving the boil. Lower values create broad, sweeping displacement. Higher values create finer, more detailed jitter.

Seed

Type: Integer
Default: 0

Changes the randomness seed for the boil pattern. Use different seeds to get unique boil variations while keeping all other settings the same.

Edge Offset

Offset Edges

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: On

Enables edge offset. When turned off, all offset-related controls are dimmed and the edges remain at their original position.

Offset Amount

Type: Float2 (X, Y)
Default: 10, -10

Offsets the edge lines from their original position. Use this to create registration-misaligned effects or to separate edges from the underlying shape. Dimmed when Offset Edges is off.

Note: The layer bounds automatically expand to accommodate the offset values, with an additional 32px margin.

Animate Edge Offset

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: Off

When enabled, the edge offset position is animated over time. The offset randomly jumps around the Offset Edges position by the Animate Amount. Animation speed is controlled by the Time and Time Step values.

Animate Amount

Type: Float
Default: 2
Min: 0

Controls the random displacement range when Animate Edge Offset is enabled. This value is added and subtracted from the Offset Edges X/Y to define the range of random positions. For example, if Offset Edges is set to [3, -3] and Animate Amount is 2, the X offset will jump between 1 and 5, and the Y offset will jump between -5 and -1. Dimmed when Offset Edges or Animate Edge Offset is off.

Animation

Time

Type: Float
Default: 0

Drives the boil and offset animations. Connect this to your scene's frame or time to animate the line boil and edge offset randomization.

Time Step

Type: Integer
Default: 1
Range: 1 to 12

Controls the quantization of the animation. Higher values cause the boil and offset to update less frequently, creating a more stepped, hand-drawn look:

• 1: Updates every frame (smooth animation)
• 2: Updates every other frame (half speed)
• 3+: Increasingly choppy, stop-motion feel