Playing with Group Effects & Shaders and building a personal library

This guide will provide you with creative tips on how to make the most of Proxima's built-in resources to animate your mapping.

Note: This article focuses on creativity and content generation using Proxima's built-in effects. Make sure you've covered the basics of "Managing Group Effects" and "Managing Group Properties" before reading!

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Customizing Group Attributes
  • Playing with Group Effects
    • Start from scratch...
    • Start from a preset base...
    • Start from a random base...
• Configuring Group Properties and Playing with Shader Effects
  • Apply Group shader(s) to your effects base
  • Repeat previous steps
• Saving Favorites as Presets for Reuse
  • Saving Custom Presets
• Organizing a Personal Library
• Mix It Up!
• Saving Group Presets from Combinations You Like

Customizing Group Attributes

Playing with Group Effects

Let's start with Group Effects. Located on the right panel, they are divided into tabs, each with many customizable parameters.

Start from scratch...

If you already know your way around the software and have a clear vision, starting from a clean base can be the way to go. If you're not familiar with Proxima, it can also be a good way to explore and understand each effect and their behavior.

The downside is that it can sometimes be time-consuming, and you might end up with similar combinations of effects after some time.

Start from a preset base...

To get you started quickly, we've integrated a few built-in presets on each effect tab and on group effects as a whole. Presets allow you to load a set of pre-configured values quickly.

Use the lightning  icon next to the group name or an effect name to find the available presets for this category. While browsing through a presets list, you'll get a live preview of the rendering on your shapes to help you choose easily!

Start from a random base...

Looking for another source of inspiration? Try random values!

Use the dice icon to affect all effects at once, or "Randomize values" from the presets list  of a specific category to quickly generate random parameter values.

Obviously, as the result is by definition random, it won't always be to your liking, but don't hesitate to spam the button! Even if the Random function is hidden in a menu for tabs, you can assign a Controls key to trigger it quickly.

Note
The Random function is not a pure randomization of all values. For your comfort, we've added a few rules so that you don't end up with crazy speeds or a fully transparent result.

...and make it match your identity

Whatever previous method(s) you've used, you can always go back to the result and customize it. The built-in presets and random function are mostly there to get you started.

Want to make the variations even more immersive? Make some parameters react to audio!

You like an effect but it doesn't quite match the color identity of your show? Browse through the effect categories and change the color that doesn't fit!

Configuring Group Properties and Playing with Shader Effects

In addition to Group Effects, the Properties are another aspect of Groups that affect the visual aspect of shapes.

Check out the related article to learn about all Group Properties.

Here, we'll focus on one parameter section in particular, Shaders, as they are another quick and easy way to generate new visuals from an existing base.

Apply Group shader(s) to your effects base

Go to the Properties panel of your Group on the left and click on the + sign of the Shaders section to access the library and choose which shader(s) to apply: they'll work like filters on your existing visuals. Once the choice is made, keep reading.

Repeat previous steps

You can randomize shader parameter values!

Similarly to what we've seen with Group Effects earlier, use the random function for inspiration and tinker with the values afterward to make them perfect for you.

Don't like the way the effect overflows out of the shapes in this group? Check out the Rendering properties.

Saving Favorites as Presets for Reuse

Saving Custom Presets

Once you have a combination of parameters that you like, you can quickly save it as a new preset to keep it ready if you need it later. Use the lightning icon and click on "Save current values as..." to create a new preset.

Once saved, it will appear in the presets list  with other built-in presets.

Organizing a Personal Library

Presets are already organized by their type, so that when you open a presets list, you only see the related presets (i.e., you won't end up with a Line preset in the Structure presets list).

But once you start creating your own presets, each list can become long pretty quickly. That's why you can use "/" in the name of a preset to store it in a subfolder and keep your library tidy.

Mix It Up!

We've given you a few tips; now it's up to you to combine all these creative resources to create new visuals. Mix and match presets from different categories, share ideas with friends, add a touch of random here and there, reset an effect when it goes wrong...

Saving Group Presets from Combinations You Like

While we've mentioned presets for Group Effects and Group Properties, you can combine both in a single Group preset.

As for other types, use the lightning  icon of a Group in the Layers list: