Installation

1. Download the Metaball plugin
2. Unzip the downloaded zip file
3. Drag the Metaball.zip file onto the Cavalry interface
4. Find Metaball 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.

Getting Clean Merges

• Start with Blur at 600+ for visible merging between shapes
• Lower Threshold (50-150) for aggressive, blobby merges
• Raise Threshold (200-400) for subtle, proximity-only blending
• Increase Smoothing for softer, anti-aliased edges

Performance Optimization

• Use Low or Medium quality during design
• Switch to High or Ultra for final renders
• Reduce Blur to minimize the sampling radius
• Increase Grow Bounds if the effect clips at the edges

Controls Reference

General Settings

Grow Bounds

Type: Int2 (X, Y)
Default: 128, 128

Expands the layer bounding box to prevent the metaball effect from clipping at the edges. Increase this if merged shapes extend beyond the visible area, especially when using high Blur or Expansion values.

Quality

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

Number of Fibonacci spiral samples used to compute the metaball field:

• Low: 512 samples (fastest, may show banding or noise)
• Medium: 1024 samples (good balance)
• High: 2048 samples (smooth, slower)
• Ultra: 4096 samples (maximum quality, slowest)

Performance: Quality has a direct impact on viewport performance. Use Low or Medium during design and switch to High or Ultra for final renders.

Detection Mode

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

Controls which pixel property drives the metaball field:

• Alpha: Uses the alpha (transparency) channel. Best for layers with transparent areas where you want opaque regions to merge together.
• Luminance: Uses pixel brightness (weighted RGB). Useful when shapes are defined by brightness differences rather than transparency.
• Color: Uses chroma (difference between the strongest and weakest color channels). Detects saturated, colorful regions while ignoring grays and whites.

Input Threshold

Type: Float
Default: 9
Range: 0 to 1000

Threshold for detecting input shapes based on the selected Detection Mode. Lower values are more sensitive and detect more of the source material. Higher values require stronger signal (more opaque, brighter, or more colorful pixels) before contributing to the metaball field. Use this to filter out semi-transparent edges, dim areas, or low-saturation regions.

Metaball Field

Threshold

Type: Float
Default: 125
Range: 0 to 1000

Controls the metaball merge boundary. Lower values make shapes merge more aggressively (blobs connect sooner and the overall form expands). Higher values create tighter blending where shapes must be closer together to merge.

Falloff Power

Type: Float
Default: 800
Range: 0 to 1000

Controls the strength of the distance falloff gradient. Higher values create sharper, more defined transitions between merged and unmerged areas. Lower values produce softer, more gradual blending.

Blur

Type: Float
Default: 600
Range: 0 to 5000

Controls the blur radius for the metaball sampling area. Higher values create larger blending zones where shapes can detect and merge with neighbors further away. Lower values restrict merging to shapes that are very close together.

Smoothing

Type: Float
Default: 75
Range: 0 to 1000

Controls the smoothness of the metaball edge transition. Higher values create softer, more anti-aliased edges. Lower values produce harder, more defined boundaries.

Fill

Use Fill Color

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: Off

When enabled, replaces the blended source colors with a solid fill color. When off, the metaball output preserves and blends the original source colors from the input layer.

Fill Color

Type: Color (RGBA)
Default: White (255, 255, 255, 255)

The solid fill color used when Use Fill Color is enabled. Supports full alpha for transparent fills. Dimmed when Use Fill Color is off.

Outline

Outline

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: Off

Enables an outline around the merged metaball shapes. When off, Outline Width and Outline Color are dimmed.

Outline Width

Type: Float
Default: 250
Range: 0 to 1000

Thickness of the outline around the metaball shapes. Higher values create wider outlines. Dimmed when Outline is off.

Outline Color

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

Color of the metaball outline. Supports full alpha for transparent outlines. Dimmed when Outline is off.