Movement in Squares: a checkerboard folding along a sweeping line
Movement in Squares is a black-and-white checkerboard inspired by early-1960s op art, where squares narrow toward a line until the flat grid seems to fold away from you. Here a Fold distortion field at Spatial depth 96 compresses the columns beside the fold to about a tenth of their width, while those farther out keep their full size. On Counterflow, the fold line sweeps from one side of the board to the other in a 7.5-second loop.
Make it yours
Soften the crease
Spatial depth sets how hard the fold squeezes. At 96 the columns near the line collapse into slivers; around 50 they only narrow, which reads less like a crease and more like a slow turn of the surface.
Fold the other way
Direction is 0, so the fold runs vertically and the columns compress. Set it to 90 to squeeze the rows instead, or to 45 to turn the whole board into diamonds with a diagonal crease sweeping through them.
FAQ
Why do narrowing squares look like a surface bending away?
We judge distance partly by how wide repeated shapes appear. When identical squares get thinner toward a line, the brain reads that as a plane tilting away, so a flat board seems to fold, much like a page curling into the spine of a book.
How it works
Choose a starting point
Start from one of 16 looks such as Riley Current, Cobalt Tunnel or Moiré Twins, or pick one of 8 pattern geometries, from Halftone and Checkerboard to Moiré and Weave.
Bend the pattern
Pick a Mark shape and a Distortion field such as Lens, Pinch, Fold or Twist, set Pattern density, Mark weight, Spatial depth, Wave distortion and Color separation, then drag the artwork to position it.
Loop it and use it
Press Play to run a seamless Flow, Breathe or Counterflow loop, set the two inks, Light color and Backlight, then sign in with a free UX Pilot account to use it on the canvas or export it.