Tutorial 36: Recursive Subdivision
Recursive Subdivision produces “fractal like” pattern. Each shape in new row is getting smaller and smaller. It would have been true fractal, if each shape was exactly 50% smaller, than the previous one. However, in this case, we are simply dividing shape size by row number.
In the tutorial and demo scene, I used Apply Layout modifier extensively. It works just like Layer Layout tools in Cavalry. We can easily place generated shapes on top of each other, procedurally.
Index Context Utility is another one that you should get familiar yourself with. It “grabs” Index Context of a Duplicator, through the layer it is connected to. For example, you can use one Index Context Utility across multiple layers. It is super useful, if you don’t want to keep going through Duplicator > Advanced Tab > Index Context field, to use Context in your designs.
Examples with 2x Duplicators
Examples with Rectangle Pattern
Rectangle Pattern is true “workhorse” of a tool. Currently, in Cavalry 2.5.3 it is an experimental feature, so some things may change. But in 2.6 it should be “upgraded” to full featured tool. It does a lot of automatic calculations for us. For example, trying to set up different size scalable boxes with gaps would have been quite difficult. It would involve a lot of math nodes. Rectangle Pattern does it all in one place and it is great to animate with.
It was developed as a data viz tool. However, from example below, you can see that we can use it to create different abstract designs, quite easily.
This project file contains all the assets necessary to make animation in the tutorial in final form. Everything is labeled, linked, with expressions and ready to use, if you wish to make your own version or just play around with it.
If you have any suggestions for tutorials or how I can improve, please do get in touch. I would love to hear from you.
