The Mapping panels – HeavyM

Located on the left of the interface, the mapping panels contain everything related to the geometry, transformation and organization of your shapes.

The Layer list

layers_panel_2.12.1.png

Every time you add an object in your work area, you’ll see it appear in this Layer list. In the list, Faces , Masks and Players all have a specific symbol to better differentiate them. Learn more about the role of each of these objects here.

In your mapping, Shapes are always placed in groups, with Masks always at the top of the group they belong to, and Players and Faces mixed below. This group segmentation will, amongst other things, allow you to display different built-in effects in the Faces of your mapping. Indeed, all the Faces in a specific group contain the same group effects.

In addition, know that the order of the layers in the list impacts the rendering order in the output, i.e. if a Group is above another in the list, it will be rendered in front of it in the output. You can change the arrangement of Groups and objects in the list with drag & drop movements, among other methods that will be further discussed later.

In short, you'll see that this panel lets you manage Groups, Shapes and the hierarchy of all these layers in the selected sequence. Its operation will be detailed throughout this guide, but let’s have a quick overview of the features it contains here. Many options in this panel will facilitate your workflow:

Add Group: creates a new Group. If Shapes were selected when you hit the button, they are directly added to this new group.
, Move Group Backward / Forward: moves the active Group (in light gray, here Group 1) one step down / up in the list.
Lock/Unlock Shapes: depending on the line in the list, you can either lock/unlock one Shape, all Shapes in a group, or all Shapes in the list at once.
Show/Hide Shapes: depending on the line in the list, you can either hide/show one Shape, all Shapes in a group, or all Shapes in the list at once.
Options: depending on the line in the list, you can either access options for one Shape, one Group or global options for the whole list.
Collapse/Expand: folds or unfolds the list of Shapes contained in a group.
Group name: double-click on it to rename the Group. This is also valid for Shapes.
Subgroups titles: as we've said before, Masks always have to be at the top of the group and Faces and Players below them. To help you categorize better if you have a lot of objects, you can choose to display titlebars for "Masks" and "Shapes" subgroups, as seen in the screenshot above. This option is located in Edit → Preferences... → General → Interface.
Group color: indicates the color that the Shapes of this group bear in the work area. Clicking on it will reveal a 30-color palette that you can choose from to change the Group’s color.
Group Blend Mode: allows you to choose which of the 26 blend modes to apply on the Group, defining how it is blended with the visuals below it.
Group Preset: opens up the list of available Group Presets and associated actions.
Display mode selector: allows you to choose how to display your Player. Either its content is displayed in the full Player area, or you can choose to display it only in the Faces of the group it belongs to.

Note: some of the options detailed above are also accessible from right-click context menus in the work area.

The Properties panel

When you select an object in your work area or in the Layer list, it might have additional options related to its geometry or transformation. Some of these options are usually not accessible from the canvas, hidden, or need a shortcut to be enabled so the Properties panel gives you a quick and easy access to them.

Note: the Properties panel doesn't handle multi-selection (yet), so you'll only see options appear if you select one element with properties at a time.

Group properties

The properties of a group appear when it is active and no other object is selected in the Canvas. Group properties are detailed in this article.

Player properties

Here are the properties you'll find if you select one Player:

Coordinates & Dimensions (2.13): X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) let you adjust the coordinates of the player in the Canvas (from the top left corner), while W (width) and H (height) let you adjust its dimensions. More specifically, coordinates & dimensions are expressed in pixels and are relative to the rectangular bounding box around the player. Learn more here.
Display mode: this lets you choose whether to display the content of your player in the full player area or just in the faces of its group. Learn more about them here.
Shaders: this section lets you add and manage postprocessing effects on your player. Those are not counted as "content" per say, as they behave more like "filters" that affect the content in your player. Learn more about them here.
Transform: this lets you access the Slice Selector, to crop the input displayed in the Player. Learn more about it here.
Warping: this section allows you to use the warping tool on your player to deform its texture. Learn more about Player warping here.
Soft Edge (2.13): this module allows you to create a soft edge effect on each side of the Player. For each edge, you can define the Width of the area in px, as well as adjust how Smooth the gradient is. An additional Gamma Correction global setting on the Player helps adjust the perceived brightness of the fade area.
Soft Edge can be used to smooth out the edges of a player, or edge-blend blend multiple players together, similarly to what can be done on output displays.

Shape properties

Here are the properties you'll find if you select one Face:

Coordinates & Dimensions (2.13): X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) let you adjust the coordinates of the shape in the Canvas (from the top left corner), while W (width) and H (height) let you adjust its dimensions. More specifically, coordinates & dimensions are expressed in pixels and are relative to the rectangular bounding box around the shape. Learn more here.
Rendering: this lets you choose between two render modes for the Face, depending on the performances/rendering result you wish to achieve. Click on the info icon next to it for more details.
Center: this sections contains the properties of the Center of the Face (see below).

Vertex properties

Here are the properties you'll find if you select one point of a Face:

Coordinates (2.13): X (horizontal) and Y (vertical) let you adjust the coordinates of the point in the Canvas (in pixels, from the top left corner).
Handles: this lets you convert your point to a straight point or one of the 3 types of curve points. Learn more about them here.

Center properties

Here are the properties you'll find if you select a Center:

X and Y: these input fields let you set the coordinates of the Center in the Canvas. You can animate them with LFOs. Learn more about it here.
Reset position: this button lets you reset the coordinates of the Center back to coincide with the geometrical center of the face.