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Projection Mapping
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In this tutorial you will learn how to:

 

 

Create Projection Maps

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Projection Mapping Window

With the Projection Mapping feature TextMachine 3D Output as well as screen input from sources like Video Player Applications can be mapped to custom projection surfaces like: buildings, room corners, deco spheres & cubes, cylindrical screens etc.

The mapping design occurs in real-time. 
Once your beamer is setup in place, you can easily draw your mapping  by clicking the target surface corners.

Example of Projection Mapping with TextMachine 3D:

 

 

Rendering Setup

 

Rendering Setup 

Start TextMachine 3D playback before continuing.

[Enable]
Toggle Projection Mapping feature on/off

[Color]
Background color of the screen not covered by the Projection Mapping Grids. 
See example on the right.

Load Projection Mapping Setup from file

Save Projection Mapping Setup to file

[Capture]
Toggle capture mode on/off.
Capture Windows can be defined on screen to grab input from other applications such as video players, web cams etc.
The input of the Capture Window(s) you define on screen is routed to the Projection Mapping Grids.

See "Capture Screen Input" for more information.


Background Image
A Background image can be loaded to test/learn the Projection Mapping design technique.

Load Background Image

Remove Background Image

 

 

Background [Color] Example

 

Projection Mapping with Background Image

 

Design Grid

Click [Design Grid] button to start

[Design Grid] Button

Toggle the Projection Map Grid design mode ON/OFF
If ON, the Projection Map Grid(s) are shown in TextMachine 3D output window and they can be manipulated via mouse and keyboard shortcuts.
 

NX/NY Sliders
Number of Projection Map Grid Cells in X and Y, when adding or resetting Projection Map Grid

[Add] Button
Add a new Projection Map Grid

Draw Projection Map Grid Mode ON/OFF

if ON, the Projection Map Grid can be designed by clicking the boundaries of the Object (building, room corner, custom screen) to be mapped.

For easier drawing a crosshair is shown in the TextMachine 3D output window according to the mouse position 

Overlay Projection Map Grids ON/OFF Toggle.

Reset Projection Map Setup

Texture Operations

[Detach] Button
Detaches the selected Grid portion from a Projection Map and creates a new Projection Map Grid. The output texture coordinates are recalculated according to the status of the [H] Hold Button. 
For example, this functionality can be used to split a projection over multiple screens.

[H] Hold Button
ON - Detached Projection Map Grid holds the texture coordinates from the original Projection Map Grid. 

OFF - Detached Projection Map Grid matches the texture coordinates to the number and position of detached Objects from the Projection Map Grid.

See examples later in this chapter

Tile Mode

Full - Tile the input for the Projection Map to the whole Grid

Cell - Tile the input for the Projection Map to each Grid Cell

[X] and [Y] Buttons
Swap texture coordinates X and Y
For example this functionality can be used to build mirrored Projection Maps.

 

 

Design Grid

 Multiple Grids and Selection

Drawing Grid 

 

Projection Map Design Commands
Adding a Projection Map Grid

Press "N" key on the keyboard or click [Add] button in Projection Mapping Window.

Selecting Projection Map Grid Points

Click to select a Grid Point

Hold "CTRL" Button on keyboard and click to select multiple Grid Points

Click and Drag Selection Rectangle over the Grid Points

Selecting Projection Map Grids

Double click a Projection Map to select the whole Grid.

If at least one Grid Point is selected, "Enter" on the keyboard selects whole Projection Map Grid. 

 

Advanced Selection Options

Holding F1 pressed while selecting Grid Point, selects all Grid Points in X

Holding F2 pressed while selected a Grid Point, selects all Grid Points in Y

To select all Projection Map Grids press "CTRL+A" on the keyboard

To select next or previous Projection Map Grid Points (all points in X or Y) - Press "W" or "Q" on your Keyboard

 

Invert Selection

To Invert the selection Press "CTRL+I" on your Keyboard


Clear Selection

Press "Escape" or "Space bar" on the keyboard

Double click outside Projection Map Grid(s)


Freeze / Unfreeze Projection Map Grid Points


Individual Projection Map Grid Points can be frozen  to further manipulate the rest of the Projection Map Grid.

To freeze selected Projection Map Grid Points Press "F" on your Keyboard.

To unfreeze selected Projection Map Grid Points Press "U" on your Keyboard

 

Remove Projection Map Grids

Select the desired Projection Map Grid(s), then press "Del" key on the keyboard. 

 

 

Grid Manipulation I

Undo

Press "Ctrl" + "Z" on your Keyboard

Copy

Select the Projection Map Grid you want to copy.

Press CTRL+C on the keyboard.


Move

Select the Projection Map Grid/Points you want to move.

Drag with the mouse or 

Use keyboard arrow keys. 
If "CTRL" key is pressed on the keyboard, the steps made with the arrow keys are bigger.


Scale

Select the Projection Map Grid/Points you want to scale

Scroll the Mouse Wheel or

Use keyboard + and - keys.

By holding F1 or F2 keyboard key pressed scaling can be applied to X or Y direction only


Rotate


Select the Projection Map Grid/Points you want to rotate

Hold the right mouse button pressed and move the mouse up or down.

 

Trapezoid/Keystone Transform

Clear Projection Map Grid selection first, by pressing "Escape" or "Space bar" on the keyboard.

Press the "ALT" Key on your keyboard and keep it pressed.

Select the Grid Point located at the corner or inside the Projection Map Grid, you want to trapezoid transform

Drag the Grid Point to the desired position, then continue with the next corner Grid Points.


Increase
Quality of Projection Map Grid

To Double the Grid Quality (doubling the Projection Map Grid Cells) select the desired Projection Map Grid, then Press "2" on your Keyboard.


Tesselate

Tesselation can be applied to a  Projection Map Grid, in order to minimze the texture distortion.
TextMachine 3D tesselates the selected Projection Map Grid by using its minium cell size.


To Tessellate a Projection Map Grid, press "I" on your Keyboard

 

Grid Manipulation II

Center Vertically and Horizontally

Select the Projection Map Grid or Grid Points

Press "H" key on the keyboard to center horizontally

Press "V" key on the keyboard to center vertically


Merge Grid Point Position

Select the desired Projection Map Grid Points

Press "M" key on the keyboard

 

Flip Horizontally - Flip Vertically

Press "X" key on the keyboard to flip selected Projection Map Grid/ Points Horizontally 

Press "Y" key on the keyboard to flip selected Projection Map Grid/ Points Vertically

 

Radial Transformation

Select the  Projection Map Grid Points you want to radial transform

Press and Hold "Shift" Button on your keyboard

Scroll the Mouse Wheel to set the Transformation Amount

To subsequently radial transform Projection Map Grid Points Press the "R" button on your keyboard


Linear Transformation

Select Projection Map Grid Points you want to linearize, then press "L" on your Keyboard

 

Creating and Transforming Projection Map Grids
Drawing a Projection Map Grid

Toggle the button in Projection Mapping window

Click [Add] button or to start from scratch

Click the corner points of the object you want to map.

To start a new Grid Line, right click with the mouse

Continue with the next Grid Line by clicking with the left mouse button on the object corner points.

Continue with next Grid Lines as you need.

Once done press Escape on the keyboard or press "N" if you want to draw a new Projection Map Grid.

Once the Projection Map Grid has been designed, it can be further manipulated.

 

 

Tesselation

Tesselation can be applied to a  Projection Map Grid, in order to minimze the texture distortion.
TextMachine 3D tesselates the selected Projection Map Grid by using its minium cell size.

To Tessellate a Projection Map Grid, press "I" on your Keyboard

 

Before and after Tessellation

Trapezoid Transform

Press the "ALT" Key on your keyboard and keep it pressed.

Select the Grid Point located at the corner of the Projection Map Grid, you want to trapezoid transform

Drag the Grid Point to the desired position, then continue with the next corner Grid Points.

 

 

Radial Transformation

Select the Grid Points you want to radial transform.

Hold the "Shift" button pressed on your keyboard and scroll the mouse wheel or press "+"/"-" on the keyboard.

The transformation direction is given by the scroll direction of the mouse wheel

To subsequently radial transform Grid Points press R on your keyboard

To radial transform the whole Projection Map Grid, select it first, then while holding the "ALT" or "CTRL" button on your keyboard, scroll the mouse button or press +/- Keys on your Keyboard.

Linear Transformation

Select Projection Map Grid Points you want to linearize, then press "L" on your Keyboard

Radial Tranformation of selected Grid Points

Radial Transformation of the Projection Map Object by respectively holding "ALT" and "CTRL" keyboard buttons pressed

Texture Operations

Detach selected Grid Points as shown, to split the projection.

Select the Grid Points you want to detach, then click "Detach" in Projection Mapping Window or press "F3" on the Keyboard.

Continue with the next Grid Points you want to detach.

[H] Button influences the texture coordinates of the detached Projection Map Grids. See examples on the right.

 

Detach and match texture coordinates to position and size of the detached Projection Map Grids. [H] Button OFF

 

Detach and hold texture coordinates. [H] Button ON

 

Tile Mode XY Texture Coordinates

To set the Tile Mode select the desired Projection Map Grid, then choose from the Drop Down List "Full" or "Cell" in Projection Mapping Window.

To swap Texture Coordinates, select the desired Projection Map Grid, then click X or Y in Projection Mapping Window.

 

Tile Mode Full and Cell respectively

X,Y Texture Coordinate Swap.

 

 

Create Masks

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Click [Design Mask] Button to start

ON=Display Mask Points, OFF=Display Mask Objects only
Inverts the whole Mask
Resets Mask

 

Different Mask shapes can be placed as well as freehand Masks can be drawn. 
Once a Mask is designed it can be further transformed.

Masking Example  - normal and inverted

Defining the Mask Size 
Click TextMachine 3D Output Window, then press and hold "ALT" key on your keyboard.

Scroll the mouse wheel or press "+" or "-" keys on the keyboard to change the Mask size 
Press and hold "CTRL" key on the keyboard to get a bigger scale amount
Press and hold "F1" or "F2" key on the keyboard to limit the scaling to X and Y respectively. 

 

Mask Design Commands
Defining the Mask Size 
Click TextMachine 3D Output Window, then press and hold "ALT" key on your keyboard.

Scroll the mouse wheel or press "+" or "-" keys on the keyboard to change the Mask size 
Press and hold "CTRL" key on the keyboard to get a bigger scale amount
Press and hold "F1" or "F2" key on the keyboard to limit the scaling to X and Y respectively. 

Adding a Mask

Press and hold following keys on the keyboard:
 "C" for Circular, "T" for Triangular, "S" for Rectangular "D" for freehand/ polygon drawing.

Click in the TextMachine 3D Output window on the desired position.

Selecting Mask Grid Points

Toggle Show Mask Design ON or press "P" on your Keyboard

Click to select a Mask Point

Click and Drag Selection Rectangle around the Mask Points

Selecting Mask Object

Toggle Show Mask Design OFF or press "P" on your Keyboard

Click the Mask to select.

Clear Selection

Press "Escape" or "Space bar" on the keyboard

Click outside the Mask

 

Remove Mask

Select the desired Mask, then press "DEL" key on the keyboard.

 

Remove Mask Points
Toggle Show Mask Design ON
or press "P" on your Keyboard

Select the desired Points

Press "DEL" key on the keyboard

 

Mask Manipulation I

Undo

Press "Ctrl" + "Z" on your Keyboard

Copy

Select the Mask you want to copy.

Press "CTRL+C" on the keyboard.


Move

Select the Mask/Points you want to move.

Drag with the mouse or 

Use keyboard arrow keys. 
If "CTRL" key is pressed on the keyboard, the steps made with the arrow keys are bigger.


Scale

Select the Mask/Points you want to scale

Scroll the Mouse Wheel or

Use keyboard + and - keys.

By holding F1 or F2 keyboard key pressed scaling can be applied to X or Y direction only


Rotate


Select the Mask/Points you want to rotate

Hold the right mouse button pressed and move the mouse up or down.

 

Mask Manipulation II

Center Vertically and Horizontally

Select the Mask/Points you want to center

Press "H" key on the keyboard to center horizontally

Press "V" key on the keyboard to center vertically


Merge Point Position

Select the desired Mask Points

Press "M" key on the keyboard

 

Flip Horizontally - Flip Vertically

Press "X" key on the keyboard to flip selected Mask/Points Horizontally 

Press "Y" key on the keyboard to flip selected Mask/Points Vertically

 

Invert Mask Object

Select the Mask Object you want to Invert, then press "I" on your Keyboard

Circular Mask

Press and hold "C" key on the keyboard, then click the desired position in TextMachine 3D output window to create a circular mask.

 

Triangular Mask

Press and hold "T" key on the keyboard, then click the desired position in TextMachine 3D output window to create a triangular mask.

 

Rectangular Mask 

Press and hold "S" key on the keyboard, then click the desired position in TextMachine 3D output window to create a rectangular mask

 

Free Hand Mask Drawing

Press and hold the "D" key on the keyboard and create the mask border points by clicking the desired position in TextMachine 3D output window

Release "D" key on the keyboard when done ant to repeat the operation.

 

Mask Manipulation

The Mask Objects designed can be selected, copied, rotated, scaled, moved etc.

By default the whole Mask Object is affected, to switch to mask point manipulation click or press "P" on your keyboard

 

Inverting Masks

To invert a Mask Obect, select it an press "I" on your Keyboard.
Note: To invert the whole mask, click in Projection Mapping Window.



 

Gradient Masks

A Gradient can be applied to selected Mask Objects

The first slider affects the size in % of the mask size

The second slider defines the steps of the gradient, less steps result in sharp gradient transitions.

 

 

 

Capture Screen Input

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Click [Capture] Button to start

[Capture] 
Toggle on to enable screen capturing.
You can grab everything from screen trough capture windows and send it to TextMachine 3D Projection Mapping Output

 
Show Capture Window(s) - Drag and size the Capture Windows over the portion of the screen you want to capture.


[1:N]  [N:N]

1:N = one input Capture Window to all Projection Mapping Grids.
N:N = multiple input Capture Window paired to Projection Mapping Grids.

 

[1:N] Capture Example from YouTube video

 

[N:N] Capture Example from YouTube video

 

 

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