Group effects glossary

This glossary aims to present all the effects type you can find in the Group Effects panel. Effects are organized in tabs in the panel and for the purpose of clarity in this article we've also separated them in 3 categories, according to their type: Outline, Filling and Transformation.

Note: Group effects are assigned to groups and only apply to the faces they contain, not your whole output.

 

Outline effects

The first type of group effects animate the outline of the faces you have drawn. By default, a static white border effect is activated when you create new group, so that you can see the face appear in your projection when you draw your mapping.

The two Outline tabs are Border and Line. You can activate one effect from each tab at the same time. 

  Border

The effects from this tab draw and animate the edges of your shapes. There are four of them. You can choose between:

  Basic: displays all the edges of faces.

  Blinking: alternates between showing and hiding the edges of faces, which makes it seem like it’s blinking.

  Half: only shows one out of two edges of each of the faces at the same time. Alternates between all edges.

  Quarter: only shows one out of four edges of each of the faces at the same time. Alternates between all edges, clockwise.

All these effects are in a basic configuration by default, but they have many parameters that you can play with, here are examples of what you can achieve in just a few seconds:

 

  Line

The effects from this tab draw and animate lines along the edges of your faces. There are three of them. You can choose between:

  Normal: displays a line moving along the border of faces.

  Boomerang: displays an animated line on each edge of the faces. Each line moves back and forth between the ends of the edge it’s on in a sort of bouncy motion.

  Yoyo: displays an animated line on each edge of the faces. Each line is tied to one end of the edge it’s on and extends until it reaches the other end, then retracts completely and so on. Kind of like a yoyo that goes down till the end of the thread, then comes back up.

All these effects are in a basic configuration by default, but they have many parameters that you can play with, here are examples of what you can achieve in just a few seconds:

 

 

 

Filling effects

The second type of group effects animate the filling of the faces you have drawn. By default, no filling is activated.

The three Filling tabs are Color, Special and Snake. You can activate one effect from each tab at the same time. 

  Color

The effects from this tab animate the filling of your faces with color. There are three of them. You can choose between:

  Plain Color: fills faces with a plain color (or an animation of plain colors).

  Linear Gradient: fills faces with a fixed or animated linear gradient of two colors. The progressive transition between the colors follows a straight line.

  Radial Gradient: fills faces with a fixed radial gradient of two colors. The progressive transition between the colors radiates from the center of the faces.

  Angular Gradient: fills faces with a fixed or animated angular gradient (also known as conic gradient) of two colors. The progressive transition between the colors seems like it is rotating around the center of the faces.

  Diamond Gradient: fills faces with a fixed or animated diamond gradient of two colors. The progressive transition between the colors, well, is diamond-shaped.

  Random Color: fills faces with plain colors that alternate randomly.

All these effects are in a basic configuration by default, but they have many parameters that you can play with, here are examples of what you can achieve in just a few seconds:

  Special

The effects from this tab add animated colored geometric elements inside your faces. There are ten of them. You can choose between:

  Inside: fills faces with an animated tile that grows from their center towards their borders.

  Outside: fills faces with an animated tile that grows from their borders towards their center.

  Corner: fills faces with animated tiles that grow from their corners towards their middle.

  Swipe (solo): fills faces with an animated tile that grows like it has been swiped from one side. Each shape has its own tile.

  Swipe (global): fills faces with an animated tile that grows like it has been swiped from one side. There’s one tile that covers all shapes of the group.

  Stairs: fills faces with an animated tile that looks like stairs.

  Hypnotic: fills faces with a hypnotizing animation, with a motion that originates from their center.

  Stripes: fills faces with animated stripes.

  Double Stripes: fills faces with two layers of animated stripes.

  Mosaic: creates a mosaic inside faces, with a different opacity for each tile.

Note: the animated geometric elements created by these effects are placed above the effects in the Color category in your filling. That means that if you have a Color effect on and you put a Special effect with a slightly transparent color setting, you’ll start to see the Color effect behind.

All these effects are in a basic configuration by default, but they have many parameters that you can play with, here are examples of what you can achieve in just a few seconds:

 

  Snake

There’s only one effect in this tab, indeed the snake is an effect on its own. It creates an animation that lights up the fillings in your faces one by one, following a path that you define.

You can choose to apply it on the Color, the Special, or both at the same time. That means that if you don’t have at least a Color or Special effect on, it won’t show anything.

Here’s how to set up the path of your snake:

1. In the corresponding section of the effects panel, click on “Start drawing”.
2. You’ll see that your cursor turns into a cross and you can now draw a line by clicking and dragging the cursor in your work area. Every time your cursor goes through a face, the face will turn white, which means it has been added to the snake’s path.
3. Release your mouse button when you are satisfied with the path you have drawn.
4. You’ll notice that once you start drawing, the “Start drawing” button turns into “Validate path”. Click on it once you’ve finished drawing to validate the path.
   Note: when you are in the drawing phase, clicking anywhere on your work area before validating will erase the current path and you’ll have to start a new one!

Once your path has been defined, know that you can always go back and edit it later by starting the previous process again.

Here are examples of the Snake on Color and Special effects:

 

 

Transformation

The third and last type of group effects animate the faces you have drawn and transform their form. By default, no transformation is applied.

The two Transformation tabs are Rotation and Structure. You can activate one effect from each tab at the same time.

  Rotation

There’s only one effect in this tab, indeed the rotation is an effect on its own. It will allow you to animate your faces in a 2D or 3D rotational motion, along the X, Y and Z axis. You can combine the 3 axis of rotation.

It affects the content of your faces: when you apply the rotation effect to a group of faces, the Outline, Filling and Structure effects they contain will follow the circular motion.

Here are examples of rotations on Color and Special effects:

 

  Structure

The effects from this tab create visual effects with motion from your faces. They are a bit difficult to
describe with words, so we’ll let you guess from the icons! You can choose between 6 of them:

  Radial Glow

  Wire Frame

  Round Trip

  Origami

  Strokes

  Elastic

Note: these visual effects are generated from the outline of your faces, but they don’t depend on the Outline effects. The structure effects are completely independent, you can activate them and see their visual animations without having any other effect on.

All these effects are in a basic configuration by default, but they have many parameters that you can play with, here are examples of what you can achieve in just a few seconds: