Intro

Equirectangular projections are a method to represent the surface texture of a sphere as a flattened rectangular image. The horizontal and vertical lines running the curved longitude and latitude of a sphere are instead upwrapped and flattened out to be perfectly horizontal and vertical lines aligned to the straight edges of the equirectangular image. Usually the aspect ratio of this equirectangular image is 2:1.

Broadly speaking equirectangular projections are used for 360 degree workflows, be it photography, videography, or in the case of PIXERA, 360 playback of content. Frequently, but not exclusively, the Equirectangular Layer Mapping effect is used in virtual production workflows.

In this article we will cover the use of the Equirectangular Layer Mapping Effect within the PIXERA. This approach utilizes a 2D workflow and 2D Screen Groups. 

Project Setup

Download project files to follow along

When setting up a 2D VP workflow there are three common places to work within to configure the perspective of the flat content to look correct on output: 2D Screen Groups, Layer Setup, and the Layer Mapping Effect itself.

LED Library

To start add Display or Screen objects within the Screens tab of PIXERA. If utilizing PIXERA's built-in LED panel library simply type in the name of the panel in the Library tab's search bar. After that adjust the panel array Horizontal, Vertical, and Panel Angle values within the Inspector on the right hand side to create a curved LED wall.

Import Custom Model

To work with a custom 3D model navigate to the LED Panels within the Library tab and scroll down until you see the Custom dropdown. With this folder selected hit the + button and navigate to either your obj or fbx mesh and double click to import. When it imports successfully it will appear under the Custom dropdown.

Dragging and dropping into the center Workspace makes the mesh visible and editable. The next steps are to assign your outputs.

Before moving to the Mapping Tab you'll want to ensure your Screen/Display objects are set to the intended resolution per-display/screen. This step is highly recommended for best practices.
 

Assigning Outputs

Move to the Mapping tab. You'll see available systems within the Live tab. If you're looking to set up a Manager/Client system then refer to this article on further steps.

Pressing the i button at the bottom identifies outputs of your connected systems. 

To assign outputs to your many or single VP Screens you can drag and drop output assignments onto your screens.

2D Screen Group Setup

Next navigate to the Compositing tab and go to the Screen Groups tab. Rename the current Screen Group to “2D”. This will be our 2D Screen Group and where we will work in the next section. Screen Groups are a powerful tool within PIXERA for grouping Screens or Displays into related functions or compositional arrangements. Since we're working with 2D Screen Groups, this means that all Displays within this Screen Group will work together as a grouping for 2D Virtual Production workflows.

If you are working in a new file, chances are the Screens you have added will be added to this 2D Screen Group. If it is not, right click on the Screen Group name and add all volume screens to it.

To access the following parameters make sure you left click on the Screen Group name under the Screen Group tab within the Compositing tab.

Perspective Mode

Confirm your Perspective mode is set to 2D. 

Layer Render Order

Setting the Layer Render Order swaps the display order based on either Sort by Depth or Sort by Layer Order. Sort by Depth refers to the relative spatial arrangement of your content in the 3D world space, while Sort by Layer Order orders content based on how you've stacked your Layers within your Timeline. If Sort by Layer Order is selected then the Layer nearest to the top of the Timeline will render over content Layers near the bottom of the Timeline. If Sort by Depth is selected then content which is placed in -300 on the Z parameter will render behind content placed 0 or 300 in the Z parameter.

Reference Screen

This parameter is automatically populated with the first listed Display or Screen within your Screen Group, but can be changed by selecting the dropdown and choosing a screen.

If you're working with a mixed pixel pitch for LED you should consider which of your screens would be selected for the Reference Screen, as this selection is used as the baseline for the pixel denisty for your output. Whichever screen is selected first defines the pixel density of the screens that follow it.

The four check boxes just below the Reference Screen define the manner by which the Perspectives of these screens are laid out in Inner Compositing. To compare and contrast toggle each item on and off and hop into and out of Inner Compositing (use shortcut ‘D’ to Dive In and out) to see the change. 

Perspectives Follow Screen Position

This toggle's use is more visible when your Screen Group's Perspective Mode is set to 3D. While this article doesn't cover 3D Perspective Mode I'll define it here:

When the Perspective Mode of your Screen Group is set to 3D, PIXERA's Eye-Point is automatically exposed as a 3D element within the Workspace which is used like a handle. When this Eye-Point moves, so does the Perspective by which your screens are rendered. When Perspectives Follow Screen Positions is not checked, the Eye-Point's Perspective of the Screen which moved does not update, effectively leaving the Perspective in it's place. When this box is checked on the Perspectives will automatically update.

This isn't strictly a Virtual Production specific feature, as it is often something used with projects which utilize Moving Screens. For the most part it's safe to keep this checked, however since this article follows a 2D VP Workflow which uses a 2D Screen Group it won't mater if this is checked or not.

Frustum Size Depends on Resolution

Frustum Size Depends on Resolution is a setting related to how your Screens are laid out within Inner Compositing. To see what this does, let's look at the toggle when it is on and when it is off. Keep Frustum Size Depends on Resolution unchecked and then dive into Inner Compositing by pressing D on your keyboard.

You should see something like this:

Notice how the perspectives are all stacked on top of one another. Each perspective box also lists it's resolution and position it's deriving. This is not yet formatted to the workflow we need for 2D Virtual Production workflows. So the next step is to align these perspectives side by side, as that better fits an equirectangular aspect ratio. 

Frustum Size Depends on Resolution is partially defined by what Resolution you set your displays to on the Screens tab of Pixera. Note that in the below screenshot each screen is specified to be 480x480. This is because this resolution wasn't set in the Screens tab upon import, however we don't need to return to the Screens tab to change this resolution.

Instead you can change the resolution here on the Screen under it's Screen Group and the layout will change in Inner Compositing as you make these changes:

Note that after setting your resolution correctly and then also ensuring Frustum Size Depends on Resolution is checked will ensure that the aspect ratio of the Perspective is that of your intended Resolution.

Maintain Closest Corner

Maintain Closest Corner is a toggle to attempt to align Perspectives based off of their Screen's location in 3D space from one another.
 

Of course editing these by hand is also an option and is the workflow I did below:

The layout of your Perspectives is going to be dependent on your setup and your creative scope. The layout in these screenshots are common layouts for VP volumes. 

Frustum Position in Logical Raster

Frustum Position in Logical Raster lays out perspectives side by side based off of their naming schema.

Layer Setup

Since many of the workflows covered in this article feature Equirectangular content, this is the recommended content to import into your Resources folder as you follow along. If you don't have one, you can use the provided one here: 

After you've added your Equirectangular content piece to a Timeline as a Layer you'll need to do some configuration. Let's start in the Layer Setup tab. You access this tab by selecting your target Layer within a Timeline. In the Inspector on the right hand side there are a set of parameters called Presence. Let's look at The Big Four aka Home Screen, Scale Unit Mode, Origin, and Screen Group Presence.

In your Resources tab add your image either using the + button in the bottom left of the Resources pane, or you can drag and drop content into your Media folder. One your equirectangular image is added to your Timeline as a Layer, you then want to set up your Big Four with the following settings:

The important thing to note here is that your Screen Group Presence parameter within the Big Four is set to the 2D Screen Group created earlier, as we are using a flat image along with the Equirectangular effect. The reason we want our Origin to be Absolute will make itself apparent at the end of this article.

To keep things organized, also rename "Layer 1" to “2D”

Layer Mapping Effects

Equirectangular Layer Mapping Effect

Now, add the Equirectangular Layer Mapping Effect to your layer. This can be found under Resources > Effects > Layer Mapping > Equirectangular. You can do so by dragging and dropping it directly onto the Layer container.

Immediately, you'll notice that your content has now increased in size. This is expected behavior and indicates that the effect is now in use. Typically, the perspective of content on your LED wall is based off of the texture size of the screen it is assigned to, but Layer Mapping Effects bypass the UV mesh to directly correlate with the object itself. Having the correct perspective is important as it allows content to form a relationship with the Screen object. However, PIXERA no longer relies directly on that perspective and UV mesh for how it displays the content.

Next, twirl down the Equirectangular effect on your layer in order to see all of the available parameters. Hover over one of them, right-click and select Show UI In Workspace. Doing this will expose a UI element that resembles a cube. This will give you a “perspective position” handle which you can click and drag to move around to change the perspective of your Equirectangular effect. Try moving the perspective position forward and backward in Z Space and see the effect it has.

Moving the position changes the center point from which the pixels are being projected onto the screen. Rotating the content will rotate the orientation of the content however it is you see fit.

Equirectangular Ranged Layer Mapping Effect

The Equirectangular Ranged Layer Mapping Effect is identical to the Equirectangular Layer Mapping Effect except that it specifies its Range Start value and the Range End value of the effect, allowing users to scale the content horizontally.

Equirectangular Ranged Bidirectional Layer Mapping Effect

The Equirectangular Ranged Bidirectional Layer Mapping Effect is identical to the Equirectangular Layer Mapping Effect except that it specifies its Horizontal Range Start value, the Horizontal Range End value, the Vertical Range Start value, and the Vertical Range End value of the effect, allowing users to scale the content both horizontally as well as vertically.

Equirectangular RotYXZ Layer Mapping Effect

The Equirectangular RotYXZ Layer Mapping Effect is identical to the Equirectangular Layer Mapping Effect except that it's rotational values are laid out in such a way as to aid in preventing Gimbal Lock.

Conclusion

If you've set up your 2D VP Volume it should resemble something like this

With this application you can now drive your VP volume using 2D content!

PIXERA 25.2 R 12 | 5. Dec 2025 | T.M., A.D., R.J.