Guide for creating your first 3D projection mappings

Mapping a flat wall is a good first exercise, but the moment projection mapping starts to look like magic is when it wraps around a volume. A box that pulses like a neon sculpture reads completely differently from a rectangle on a wall, even though the technique behind both is nearly the same.

This guide assumes you have projected something once before. If not, start with the basics and come back.

What is projection mapping? The full beginner guide →

• A single cardboard box is the standard first 3D target: light, matte, rearrangeable, free. Paint it matte white if it has printing on it.
• Stacked boxes give you a skyline of faces to map and look far more impressive than the effort suggests.
• A room corner is an inside-out box: two walls and a ceiling meeting. Good when you have no object at hand.
• Avoid glossy, dark or transparent objects for now. They swallow or smear the projection.

Head-on, a box shows one face and the projection stays 2D. Move the projector 30 to 45 degrees off-axis and slightly above, so it sees two or three faces at once. Every face the projector can see is a face you can map.

Lock everything down before you start mapping. A projector nudged two millimetres after mapping means doing the corners again, so tripods and gaffer tape are your friends.

1. 1

   One quad per visible face. Add a quad, drag its four corners onto the four corners of one physical face. Repeat per face. Corners that meet on a shared edge should snap together so the seams stay closed.

2. 2

   Or use a cube shape. Lazy Lighting has a cube primitive that maps three faces in one gesture: drag the pose until it hugs the real box. Turn it inside out for a room corner.

3. 3

   Check the seams. Step back and look along each shared edge. A gap or overlap of a few pixels is visible from across the room; refine the corner pins until edges are continuous.

Mapping tools in detail →

• Give each face its own treatment. Identical content on every face flattens the object. Vary hue, direction or timing per face and the volume pops.
• Use edges. Wireframe and outline visuals emphasise the geometry itself. They are the classic look of 3D mapping for a reason.
• Respect gravity. Content that flows downward on vertical faces and pools on horizontal ones reads as physical; content that ignores orientation reads as a sticker.
• Sync to sound. Movement on the beat makes the object feel alive. Audio input, LFOs or a fixed BPM all work.

• Mapping before the projector is locked down. Always rig first, map second.
• Extreme projection angles. Past roughly 60 degrees off-axis, faces stretch and brightness drops noticeably.
• Chasing precision on a soft image. Focus the projector properly before adjusting corner pins.
• Skipping the save. Mapping is object- and position-specific; save the project so the setup can be rebuilt.