The panel accessible from the red icon in the right toolbar lets you access the different Group effects of HeavyM. "Group effects" means that they apply to all the faces in a specific group.
Check out the video tutorial below, or follow the written instructions after it.
(created with HeavyM 2.1)
Activating group effects
The Group Effects panel allows you to activate effects and adjust all their parameters.
Effects are organized in tabs. On each tab, you’ll find a switch to activate the corresponding effect and all its parameters listed below.
Note: you can also double-click on a tab to quickly switch the corresponding effect ON/OFF.
When you turn on an effect with the switch the first time, it turns ON with basic default values for its parameters. You can use the lightning icon to access a list of Presets that allow you to activate the effect with a full set of parameter values. There are some built-in HeavyM choices or you can even save & load your favorites. Learn more about Presets here.
Note: by default, a white Border effect is on in every new group, so that you can see your shapes in the projection when you draw.
What are groups and how to create them
Faces are contained in groups, so there always has to be at least one group. By default, when you create a new project, you’ll notice a white “Group 1” in the Layers panel. If you activate a group effect then, it will apply to all faces, as seen in the previous GIF.
To create a new group, simply click on the button at the top of the Layers panel. You can have 1 to 30 groups in a sequence.
Moving faces to a group
By default, faces are added to the active group when you create them (the one with the light gray background in the list). There are different methods to change this group assignment and move faces to other groups.
Once a face is moved to a different group, its color in the work area switches to that of its new group. To move faces to a group you can either:
- In the layers list, simply drag & drop a selection of shapes to the desired group;
- Select shapes and use the Add to group + button on the desired group in the layers list (up to HM 2.5);
- Or use the “Move to” item in the right-click context menu of a selection of shapes. This way, you can send the shapes to an existing group or to a new group. (In this last case, it is the same as clicking on the Add Group
button with a selection.)
Note: players can also be added to groups, but it doesn’t serve the same function. Read the display settings tutorial for more info.
Selecting a group and making it active
When you activate a group effect or play with its settings, all changes are applied to the currently active group. You can see which group is active in the layer list because of its lighter color and colored border. It is also indicated by a label at the top of the Group Effects panel.
Here, the blue group named “Door” is active in the layers panel so it is editable in the group effects panel.
To make a group active, you can either:
- Click on it in the layer list ;
- Or select a shape it contains, either in the layer list or the work area.
Note: when you deselect all shapes, the active group stays the same until you select another one. Also, when you make a selection of shapes from different groups, the editable group stays the same.
Now, you can apply different effects in different parts of your mapping by changing the active group:
Note: there has to be one active group at all times. There also cannot be multiple active groups at the same time, so you can’t select multiple groups at once.
Arranging groups
The order of the groups in the layer list has an importance, as the top group is the one rendered at the front in the projection. To arrange groups you can either:
- Drag & drop them in the list;
- Use the Move Group Forward
and Move Group Backward
buttons at the top of the panel;
- Or use the “Arrange” actions in the options menu of a group.
Group options
Group effect parameters
As you can see in the tabs, group effects have a lot of parameters. The best advice we can give you is to try and play with them: it’s easy to get entirely new visuals by combining effects and tinkering with their settings. You can even make them tempo or audio-reactive!
To get an index of all effects, please refer to this article.
Other Group options and properties
Check out this dedicated article for more Group actions.