Box Fitting for After Effects

Released March 11, 2025
Version 1.0
1,140 views

This After Effects plugin will generate randomly fitted boxes.

Free Download
SKU: 49116386 Category: Tag:

Box Fitting is a program originally developed by the genius mind of programmer / artist Jared Tarbell, initially ported to Adobe Photoshop, and now ported to After Effects. The algorithm works by creating a single box and enlarging it until it either reaches the maximum size allowed or reaches the edge of another box. Ultimately, the canvas is filled with as many boxes as possible turning the image into a beautiful mosaic of randomly-sized squares. Box Fitting is an optimized After Effects plugin, featuring 8 bits / channel and 16 bits / channel support and Multi-Frame Rendering (MFR). Best of all, it’s 100% free.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Box Fitting is especially ideal for creating generative design within After Effects. It produces a unique effect not possible without the use of an automated plugin. Moreover, Box Fitting yields spectacular results when used in high resolution.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Box Fitting provides flexible control over how many iterations to attempt, the maximum size allowed, the ability to affect the size through transparency and a random seed generator.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Box Fitting samples color from the image and it supports transparency (alpha channels), allowing the ability to apply layer styles such as strokes, shadows, etc.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Box Fitting supports both 8 bits / channel and 16 bits / channel color modes for professional workflows.

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Box Fitting is 100% multi-threaded capable of using an unlimited number of cores for ultimate speed.

multithreading

Box Fitting is 100% Multi-Frame Rendering (MFR) capable for significant speed gains.

Multi-Frame Rendering (MFR)

Workflow

It’s important to understand how Box Fitting works in order to get the most out of it. The number of iterations specifies how many attempts Box Fitting will try to render boxes before giving up. Each iteration forces Box Fitting to randomly pick a pixel location and, if there is no box already there, it creates a new one. When it creates a new box, it searches outwards from the pixel location in all directions until it either reaches the maximum box size specified, or it reaches the edge of another box. At this point, Box Fitting will draw the box.

As such, it’s important to note that iterations does not mean number of boxes. It may run 10,000 iterations but it will inevitably find pixel locations which already contain a previously-rendered box, meaning that iteration will be terminated and the next one initiated. Typically, the larger the image resolution, the more iterations you’ll want. Otherwise, there will be few boxes rendered.

Box Fitting will automatically render the background transparent, which allows you to drop in any background layer you want underneath it. It also allows you to perform unique layer styles and effects such as adding layer strokes, shadows, etc.

Remember to play with the frame rate to get different results. Box Fitting relies on your composition’s framerate for it’s temporal settings so specifying a frame rate of say 12 frames per second will yield a less frenetic result.

All of the images rendered in this page have been rendered at 1:1 ratio. This means they were not scaled up or down. Why is this important? Because filtered scaling (Bilinear, Bicubic, etc) introduces antialiasing and softens the boxes. If you want a clean result, don’t scale up or down – instead create your composition size at the same size you intend to export.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Parameters

Iterations: Defines the maximum number of iterations to attempt. There is a maximum limit of 100,000,000 iterations. The more iterations there are, the longer the computation. Make sure to check the preview window at 100% for an accurate representation of boxes.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin
Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Maximum Size: Specifies the maximum box size. Any rendered box may be smaller than or equal to this size. The smaller the box size, the more visible fidelity, but more boxes will be required.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin
Box Fitting After Effects Plugin
Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Size Mapping: Specifies how to map box sizing according to image pixels. Constant means the box sizing will be determined only by the box size parameter. By Intensity means the box size will determined by the intensity of the image RGB pixels. By Alpha means the box size will determined by the transparency of the image RGB pixels. When these features are enabled, the darker or more transparent a pixel is, the smaller its box size. In the image example below on the right, the boxes become smaller in darker areas of the source image.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin
Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

In the image example below on the right, the boxes become smaller in the more transparent areas of the source image (as dictated by the color black in this example).

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin
Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Seed: Specifies the seed value for the random number generator. Having the ability to change the seed is important in case you wish to layer multiple instances of Box Fitting together.

Box Fitting After Effects Plugin

Changelog

  • v1.0 – First release.

Installing this software is easy and only requires three simple steps:

1 – Download the software by clicking on the Download Demo button located above on the software page. This will prompt you to save a .zip file on your computer.

2 – Extract the contents from the .zip file and place the .aex file into your host’s plugin folder. For all Adobe After Effects versions CS6 and higher, this folder is the MediaCore folder. Place the .aex file into the location shown below. You can make a sub-folder to keep your plugins organized.

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3 – Launch Adobe After Effects, create a new composition, add a new solid, and click on Effect > Richard Rosenman > Effect Name.

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If you have purchased a commercial license, please review the activation section.

This software is compatible with the following Windows OS:

  • Windows 11 Home 64 bit
  • Windows 11 Pro 64 bit
  • Windows 11 Enterprise 64 bit
  • Windows 11 Education 64 bit
  • Windows 10 Home 64 bit
  • Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
  • Windows 10 Enterprise 64 bit
  • Windows 10 Education 64 bit
  • Windows 8 64 bit
  • Windows 8 Pro 64 bit
  • Windows 8 Enterprise 64 bit
  • Windows 7 Home Basic 64 bit
  • Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
  • Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
  • Windows 7 Enterprise 64 bit
  • Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit

This software is compatible with the following hosts:

  • Adobe After Effects (Version CS6 or higher, including CC) 64 bit

This software is not compatible with Mac OS