Overview
Isadora's powerful and flexible projection mapping feature is called "IzzyMap". IzzyMap can be used in a variety of contexts; from theatre stage mapping, architectural mapping, DJ booth mapping, and custom dance/theatre/other set designs to name just a few.
In its simplest form, IzzyMap takes an input source, slices the video up into segments and remaps the image to make it fit on a physical object. This is done by manipulating the image before it is sent out to the projector. This can be seen in the image below where the Isadora TroikaTronix image on the left has been ‘cut up’ into slices, moved around, adjusted, and manipulated to produce the image on the right.
Projection mapping is time-consuming and can be quite difficult at first, however IzzyMap provides an array of tools to aid you with this process.
Getting Started
- First, make sure you have a video source going into a Projector actor.
- Double left-click a Projector actor and you will be prompted with a message. (You can chose to never see this message again, or leave it as a reminder.)
- The main default mapper window looks like this. The default uses a rectangle mask.
Types of Mapping Slices
Rectangle
A four-point mapping slice which can be manipulated at all four points in an X and Y position.
- Can be rotated
- Can be zoomed in and out
- Additional warping points cannot be added
- No curved paths
- Single blend mode
Triangle
A three-point mapping slice which can be manipulated at all three points in an X and Y position.
- Can be rotated
- Can be zoomed in and out
- Additional warping points cannot be added
- No curved paths
- Single blend mode
Complex
Unlimited points (default is a four point rectangle) with the option to add sub-slices.
- Can be rotated
- Can be zoomed in and out
- Additional points can be added anywhere on a line (in the "INPUT" view) by using Alt+click (Windows) or Option-click (macOS)
- Paths can be curved
- Multiple shapes such as rectangles, triangles and circles can be added to make the shape more complex
- Each individual mask can have a unique blend mode
Bezier
A mapping slice that can be manipulated with a customizable grid (maximum of 30x30 warp points, 90 warp points in total).
- Can be rotated
- Can be zoomed in and out
- Can be curved or straight
- Single blend mode
All Masks
- All masks have an intensity slider (0-100%)
- All masks have a blend mode (additive, opaque and transparent)
- All masks have an orientation switch (top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right) - this flips the image horizontally and/or vertically
- All masks have individual red, green, blue (RGB) adjustment
- All masks can be renamed by right-clicking on the mask in the panel on the right-hand side
- All masks can be re-ordered. Meaning you can change the layering. (This is especially useful for the Blend Mode settings 'Transparent' and 'Opaque'.)
Navigating IzzyMap
The input and output views can get a little bit confusing once you start dividing up the incoming image adjusting mapping slices, so it is import you learn a few key shortcuts and basic navigation around the IzzyMap window.
Input and Output Window
The mapper works on two principles. The input view slices up the video to create masks and the output is where you actually map and distort the image before it is sent to the projector - the final output.
You would also always create at least one IzzyMap slice in the input before you move to the output. To go to the output view you click on the text "INPUT" located at the top center of the IzzyMap window.
Note that the text changes to "OUTPUT" instead of "INPUT" now. Clicking in the same place (on the text "OUTPUT" at the top center) will take you to a split screen mode. There are two split screen modes; horizontal and vertical. You can keep clicking in this same place to cycle through the different view modes;
INPUT > OUTPUT > SPLIT HORIZONTAL > SPLIT VERTICAL
Zooming
The + and the - in the panel located top right zoom in and out in 25% increments.
The keyboard shortcuts are '+' and '-'.
You can also:
- Scroll the mouse wheel forward or back while holding down Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows)
- Hold down Command (macOS) and drag two fingers up or down on a trackpad.
NOTE: The mouse pointer acts as an anchor point so if your mouse is bottom right you will see the image zoom in and out offset to the top left and vice versa. Leaving your mouse directly in the middle of the window may produce a better result.
You can pick a zoom level from the menu at the bottom center of the IzzyMap window. This ranges from 5% to 500%, but a custom percentage can be selected if required.
Moving Your View Up, Down, Left, and Right
Left-click and drag while holding down Option (macOS) or Alt (Windows).
You can also use two fingers on a trackpad
Center and Expand Selection
The icon highlighted blue in the image above is a really useful feature called ‘center and expand selection’.
This automatically fits the full image into the window and zoom in/out to make it a perfect fit.
The keyboard shortcut is 'e'.
NOTE: This helps when working on a complex mapping and you want to navigate back to full screen.
Center Selection
The image above shows the ‘centre selection’ feature.
This does not effect the zoom in anyway but moves you to the middle of the composition.
The keyboard shortcut is 'c'.
NOTE: This is ideal when you are zoomed in and editing one or more complicated slices but need to go back to the middle of the composition for reference.
Snap Off/On
You may find that masks are ‘snapping’ together when editing this is also known in Isadora as Auto-Align.
You can turn this off, or on, by clicking the magnet icon shown in the grey box above.
The keyboard shortcut is 'a'.
NOTE: This is a great feature when editing angular shapes that need to be aligned, but often needs to be turned off for curved masks which do not always line up.
Background Color and Intensity
NOTE: This is not to be mistaken for the stage or global background color, this is purely for visual aesthetics when editing and mapping.
You can change the window background colors from black, white, red, and checkerboard effect (see image below).
This is often handy when working on masks where the edges are black, or white and you need to see the edge of the footage.
For instance a mostly black video will be hard to slice up in the input window if you can’t see where it starts, so if you change the background to white it really helps.
Likewise red and checkerboard add some variety to the background options.
In parallel to the background color you can pick the intensity of the color. This ranges from 0-100% in 25% increments.
OUTPUT RESOLUTION
There may be unique circumstances where you want to adjust the composition output size.
You can do this using the Output list on the bottom right of the screen. The list gives you the follow options:
NOTE: By default the Output is 1920x1080.
If you click ‘Custom’ then the window will change to a manual input for width and height:
Interactive Elements
Publishing Mapper Properties
It is also possible to publish every single element of a mask. This makes interactive features incredibly easy. To do this, right click on a mapping point and you will see all the options available to publish. You can publish the x and y coordinates for a specific point as well as properties that affect a whole mapping slice like rotation, scale all, scale x, scale y, intensity, and separate intensities for red, green, and blue.
The image below shows the options when right-clicking a point on a standard rectangle mask:
Here we can see that point 3 of the rectangle can have the X and Y Offset published. If we click one or both of these you will see the options in this contextual menu change:
In the picture above, "Offset X" was clicked and is now published. To undo this, simply click it again.
So how do we see the published features and how do we control them?
Simply close the mapping window and the Projector actor will now have the published property showing. Below are pictures of a Projector actor before and after publishing the property discussed above:
You can see at the bottom of the second image (right hand side) that "Rectangle 1 : Point [3] : Offset X" is now published. You can treat this like any other numerical input within Isadora and control it manually or programatically.
Other Notes
- Each projector has its own individual mapping properties. So if you copy and paste a projector (or have one embedded in a macro) it will copy all the mapping settings.
- All the ‘normal’ features of a projector remain the same (Intensity, zoom, rotate, etc)
- Published properties do not change the mapping set within IzzyMap. They are used for map modulation. This is an important concept to understand. Changing a published property will only be seen in the Projector actor's output, not as part of the Projector actor's mapping setup inside IzzyMap.