Projection mapping on boxes
a stack that glows by Sunday night
Projection mapping on boxes is how most people start, and for good reason. A box has flat faces, sharp corners and edges you can see from across the room. This guide is a two-day build: pick and prepare the boxes on Saturday, map and light them on Sunday.
The classic first project
A wall is flat, so it only shows a picture. A box has three faces turned towards the projector at once: front, side and top. Give each a different colour and the eye reads it as a solid object made of light. Stack a few at different depths and the effect is far bigger than the effort.
Boxes also teach every skill you will use later: aiming a projector, keeping the room dark, fitting outlines to real corners, and choosing looks that suit a surface. Once a stack works, a speaker, a plinth or a doorway is the same job.
Choosing your boxes
The box matters more than the projector. Get this right and everything after is easier.
- White or pale, and matt
- Projected colour mixes with the surface underneath. Plain white card gives true colours; brown cardboard warms everything. Shiny printed packaging throws back hot spots, so turn printed sides away or cover them with white paper.
- Crisp corners
- Corners are what you align to. Square, undamaged boxes fit far better than soft, dented ones. Tape the seams flat.
- Mixed sizes
- Three to six boxes of two or three sizes make a more interesting stack than identical cubes. Plain gift boxes, archive boxes and white packaging all work.
- Faces the projector can reach
- Only faces the light can hit can be lit. Turn each box so the projector sees its front and one side, with the projector a little above to catch the tops.
- Something dark behind
- A dark wall or cloth behind the stack makes the boxes float. A pale wall works too, and you can map it later as a background.
Arrange the stack
- 01
Build it off-centre
Stagger the boxes forward and back and turn some at an angle. Depth is what makes boxes look three-dimensional; a flat wall of boxes reads as one screen.
- 02
Place the projector
Put it far enough back that the whole stack sits inside the picture with a margin, and a little higher than the top box. Focus the lens by hand.
- 03
Switch off the automatic extras
In the projector menu turn off auto-keystone, auto-focus and eco dimming. They change the picture by themselves and move your mapping.
- 04
Fix everything down
Tape the boxes to each other and the projector to its table. The mapping belongs to this exact layout; a nudge later means mapping again.
Three ways to map boxes in Prism Mapper
Pick one. You can mix them in the same project.
Scan with your phone
Prop your phone beside the lens and the projector shows stripes for about half a minute. Prism finds the boxes and asks which to light. A box can be one object or face by face. See projection mapping with your phone.
Pin a 3D box
Add a 3D object ▸ Box, type its measured size, then drag its corners onto the real ones. Four pins place it; six or seven make it exact. The 3D objects page explains each step.
One quad per face
The simplest by hand: add a quad for each visible face and drag its four corners onto the face. Faces that touch share an edge, with no dark gap between them.
Projection mapping on boxes, face by face
This follows the 3D box route, which the manual’s Map a real box lesson teaches with an example project.
- 01
Place it roughly
In Design, choose Add ▸ 3D object ▸ Box. Drag it over the real box and use the coloured rings to turn it. Close is enough.
- 02
Pin the corners
Choose Align to the real object, zoom in and drag each corner until the projected corner sits on the real one. Pin corners on at least two faces and watch the error figure: green, under 1.5 px, is excellent.
- 03
Lock and fine-tune
Real boxes are never perfectly square. Choose Lock alignment (in Simple mode it sits behind the card’s More…), then drag single corners; the faces bend to follow. For a bowed face, press M for a mesh warp: a point on an edge belongs to both faces, so they stay joined.
- 04
Give each face a look
Select a face in the Surfaces list and pick a look. Keep Each face for separate pictures, or try Wrap around so one picture runs round the sides like a label.
- 05
Save and back up
Save scenes, then export the project as a .pmproj file. If you move the box or the projector, realign.
Making a box stack look good
Dark looks win. Looks with black backgrounds leave the gaps unlit, so the boxes seem to float. Give the top and one side a solid colour and the front something moving, and the box still reads as solid.
Let it move with the music. Switch on the microphone in Sound, then use Pulse with the music or Flash on the beat on a few faces, not all of them. Our music-reactive projection page goes further.
On the free plan a phone scan keeps every surface it finds, however many boxes are in the stack. Shapes you add by hand are limited to four, and a 3D box counts once, not once per face. Free looks react to the beat and the volume; your own images and videos need a paid plan.
What boxes are best for projection mapping?
Plain white or pale, matt boxes with crisp corners. Brown cardboard works but tints every colour, and glossy printed packaging reflects hot spots, so turn printed sides away or cover them.
How many boxes should I use for a first project?
Three to six is a good start. Fewer, bigger boxes are quicker to align and still look impressive; you can add more once the first ones fit.
Can I projection map boxes without a phone?
Yes. Add a 3D box and pin its corners to the real ones, or draw one quad per face and drag the corners into place. The phone scan is quicker when there are many boxes.
Why does the light spill off the edge of my box?
The outline is a little too big or a corner is slightly off. Drag the corner in with the arrow keys, add a few pixels of Feather to soften the edge, or in Advanced mode use Erode to shrink the surface inwards.
Can one picture wrap around all the sides of a box?
Yes. On a 3D object, Map content set to Wrap around runs one picture round the sides like a label on a tin. Each face is the default, and Projector lays one flat picture across the whole object.
Build your box stack
Gather a few white boxes, open Prism Mapper in Chrome or Edge, and start with the scan or a 3D box.
Start creating free