Installation

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

You can control the design with the following controllers. The base shape is a rectangle and it is “split” into smaller and smaller pieces. You can limit how many pieces you get, how small they are and so on, with the controllers below.

Width

Width of the generated rectangle in pixels.

Height

Height of the generated rectangle in pixels.

Depth

How many recursive subdivisions are preformed. Higher number = more and more complex design. This is limited by Max No of Cells and Min Cell Size.

Min Cell Size

Minimum cell size that will be generated. Smaller value than this one will result in “collapsed” cells e.g. 2 cells merge into 1.

Max No of Cells

Max number of cells that can be generated. Use this to prevent Depth value “spiralling” out of control and generating too many copies.

Gutter Size

Gap between cells and border around the whole rectangle.

Min Split (%)

Edge margin for split placement. 50% split results in equal size rectangles, where possible. Small values results in irregular rectangle sizes.

Split Bias

Force horizontal or vertical rectangles preference.

Cell Drift Speed

Animation of cells drifting. 0 = no animation. Use small values for “gentle” and slow animation. Size of the rectangles and overall design affects this as well.

Seed

Input seed for initial layout design. Change it to get different layout designs.

Time

Phase input for a drift. Use this to animate it as the composition time advances. By default this is connected to a Composition Time attribute.

Loop

Turn it on to enable looping of the animation.

Loop Length

Length of the loop in frames. For example 100 frames will result in 1 loop over 100 frames.

Notes

This plugin is useful for exploring complex visual results from simple subdivision rules. Different settings can produce balanced grids, irregular fragmentation, or layered procedural patterns. You can easily loop the whole design animation with a simple Loop checkbox set to ON.

Note that result may not behave correctly, if you use Noise in Time field. Noise has it’s own delay and Index based staggers that may interfere with Recursive Subdivision calculations.