Skip to content

Play⚓︎

Play is where you turn your creations into shows, play them on your projectors, and schedule them to run automatically.

Shows⚓︎

A show has one timeline for each location it plays on. For example, a show might have one timeline for the Garage door on one Illumibot and another for the Porch on a second. When you play the show, every timeline plays on its own projector at the same time.

In the Cards view, each show card on the Play tab shows:

  • the show's name and how many timelines it has
  • Play show (green) and Stop show (red) buttons
  • its schedule, if it has one, with a Paused switch

Tap a card to open the show. Long-press it to Delete show.

Play tab with show cards

Finding your shows⚓︎

  • Search shows... at the top finds shows by name.
  • Locations lists only the shows made for the locations you pick.
  • The sort pill orders shows by Newest first, Oldest first, Recently updated or Name A–Z.
  • The View pill lays shows out as Cards, a List, or a grid of 2 or 3 columns. The Paused switch only appears in Cards, and the 3-column grid has no Play show or Stop show buttons.

Creating a show⚓︎

  1. Tap Create (+).
  2. Under Where does this show play?, pick one or more locations. Only locations with a wall photo are listed, and a show can use only one location per Illumibot.
  3. If you're offered a choice, pick how to build it:
    • Automatic — we write the scenes and build the show for you. See Automatic timelines.
    • Manual — you arrange the clips on a timeline yourself.
  4. Give your show a name. The timeline editor opens.

Where does this show play? location picker

You can also send creations straight to a show. In the gallery, open a creation's menu and tap Add to Show, or select several and tap To Show. Then pick a show, or tap New show and give it a name.

  • Your creations are added to the end of the show.
  • If the show has no timeline for a creation's location, one is added for it.
  • If the show already has a timeline for a different location on the same Illumibot, that creation is left out. The app tells you how many were added (Added N of M…).
  • The timeline editor opens when they're added.

The timeline editor⚓︎

The editor has one timeline for each location. Use the selector at the top to switch between them. Add Timelines adds more locations to the show.

Each timeline has a main track for your video and image clips, plus overlay and audio tracks.

Timeline editor

Adding clips⚓︎

Tap add on a track. The picker has four tabs:

  • Prompts — your AI creations.
  • Uploads — your own images, videos and audio. See Uploading your own media.
  • AtmosFX — decoration videos you've bought.
  • Timelines — timelines you've already exported, so you can reuse them as clips.

The audio track only takes audio from Uploads.

Editing clips⚓︎

Select a clip to use:

Action What it does
Split Cut the clip in two at the playhead.
Swap Replace the clip with a different one.
Edit Move or Mask the clip. Overlay clips can also Size and Warp, and set their Opacity.
Reverse Play a main-track video clip backwards.
Extend Use AI to continue the clip from its last frame (costs tokens).
Transition Choose how this clip blends into the next one (see below).
Copy / Delete Duplicate or remove the clip.
Volume Set the clip's volume.

Audio clips have Split, Volume, Fade and Delete.

  • Trim a clip by dragging its edges.
  • Reorder clips by long-pressing one on the main track, then dragging it.
  • Undo and Redo are in the playback controls.
  • Snapping makes clips stick to each other as you move them. It's off by default. Turn it on with its button in the playback controls.

Transitions⚓︎

  • Built-in: Fade, Fade Black, Fade White, Dissolve, Slide and Wipe (each in four directions), and Radial. Set how long it lasts, from 0.1 to 2 seconds. None removes the transition, and All puts it on every cut.
  • AI Transitions: AI makes a short video that morphs one clip into the next. Choose This transition or All transitions (every cut at once). AI transitions cost tokens.

Cues (lighting)⚓︎

On Illumibots with newer firmware, you can add a Cue at any point on the timeline. A cue sets DMX lighting levels or Arduino pins at that moment. See Automations & integrations.

Saving and exporting⚓︎

A timeline must be exported to a video before it can play on your projector. Tap Save and choose:

  • Save Only — keep your edits without exporting.
  • Save & Export Locally — build the video on your phone. It's free, but don't switch apps while it runs, or the export may fail.
  • Export in Cloud — build the video on our servers and keep using your phone. Each quality shows its token cost before you confirm.

Both exports ask you to choose Fast, Medium or High quality. If the location has a mask, Apply surface mask keeps the video inside your masked area. It's on by default.

The export options also let you pick which locations to export.

Export Options dialog

  • For longer timelines, the options show roughly how long an export takes on your phone or tablet (About … on this phone).
  • A long export on your phone asks first. Choose Export in Cloud, or Export on phone and keep the app open with the phone plugged in.
  • If a timeline is too long, or needs more memory than your phone has free, Save & Export Locally tells you why. Untick it to export the rest, or export it in the cloud.
  • If a timeline is too long for Cloud, shorten it to export it there.

Cloud exports show their progress on each timeline card:

  • Queued while it waits to start.
  • Then its progress and time left (Compiling…).
  • Your video is ready with how long it took and the file size.
  • If it fails, Compile failed, with the reason and any tokens refunded.

Playing a show⚓︎

  • Play show (or Play all inside a show) sends each timeline's exported video to its projector.
  • If you tap Play show on a card while another show is playing on one of those projectors, the app asks before stopping it. Play all starts straight away.
  • Stop show stops playback on every projector in the show and turns off its schedule. To start the schedule again, turn Paused off.

Inside a show, you can also:

  • Rename show with the pencil icon.
  • Tap Edit timeline to open the timeline editor.
  • Use ⋯ to Clone show or Delete show.
  • Preview every timeline together using the transport bar at the bottom: Play all previews (or Pause all), Volume, and a scrubber. On newer firmware, Live preview mirrors the preview on your projectors.
  • Tap a timeline to view it full screen. From there you can Share it, Play it on its projector, see its Details (Illumibot, Resolution, Created and Copy link), Edit it or Download it.

A show with Schedule and Edit timeline

Scheduling⚓︎

Open a show and tap Schedule to have your Illumibots play it automatically. If an Illumibot in the show is offline, the schedule screen says so. It keeps its old schedule and takes the new one once it's back on. (If any Illumibot in the show is on older firmware, every Illumibot must be online to save.)

If any Illumibot in the show has firmware too old to support scheduling, the Schedule button doesn't appear.

Schedule screen

  • When:
    • Repeats — pick weekdays (none selected means every day), plus Starts at and Ends at. You can also choose Run all day instead.
    • Once — pick a single date and time.
  • Only between — limit a repeating schedule to a First day and Last day.
  • Playback:
    • Loop until the window closes (on by default). Turn it off to play the show once each time it starts.
    • Fades between scenes over — set the crossfade length.
  • Play in sync — with two or more Illumibots on newer firmware, they play off one shared clock. To turn it on, every Illumibot must be online and on the same network, and every timeline in the show must be the same length.
  • Before the show / After the show — switch the projector on or off automatically.
    • On a repeating schedule, you can switch it on up to 5 minutes before the show starts.
    • If every projector uses PJ Link, you can also blank or mute it.
    • Set up projector power first in the Projector Control Hub.
  • When shows collide:
    • Priority — a higher-priority show takes the projector from a lower one.
    • Can be cut off mid-scene — turn this off to let the current scene finish before anything takes over.
  • Paused — the Illumibots keep the schedule but don't run it.

Tap Save or Save and play now. Remove schedule clears it.

Schedules are stored on the Illumibots themselves, so they keep running even when your phone is off. An offline Illumibot picks up changes once it's back online. See every schedule under Scheduled shows on Home, or, on newer firmware, per device under Settings → Scheduled Shows.

Automatic timelines⚓︎

Automatic builds a whole show from a short description.

  1. Where does this play? — pick your locations.
  2. Describe your show:
    • What story would you like to build? (required)
    • What's the vibe? (for example Calm & elegant or Playful & fun)
    • Story or Effects
    • How long?
  3. Pick your show from three ideas. Tap Save as story to keep an idea for later.
  4. Pick your scenes — generate images for each scene, then Approve the ones you like. Animate turns them into clips (costs tokens). You can Regenerate a scene or edit its prompt.
  5. Arrange your show — reorder the clips and add AI transitions. The last transition loops back to the start. Add N transitions fills every gap at once.
  6. Build timeline. The show opens in the timeline editor, where you can fine-tune it.

The History and Saved stories buttons on the Play tab let you resume an unfinished automatic show or start a new one from a saved story. A show built this way has an Edit scenes button to go back into the flow.

Library⚓︎

Tap Library on the Play tab to manage your media:

  • Uploads — your own images, videos and audio.
    • Filter by type.
    • Tap an image or video to Rename, Download or view Details. Audio plays right on its tile.
    • Long-press to select several to download or delete.
  • AtmosFX — decoration videos you own.
  • Timelines — every exported timeline. Filter by Illumibot and sort by date.

Library with uploads

Uploading your own media⚓︎

Tap Upload and choose Image, Video or Audio. For an image or video, pick where it comes from: Photos (iPhone/iPad) or Gallery (Android), Camera, or Files. Audio goes straight to picking a file. Give it a name and confirm.

The app checks videos before uploading. Keep yours within these limits:

  • Up to 1.5 GB per file, and one file at a time.
  • Video no larger than 1920×1200.
  • At least 0.2 seconds long.
  • Standard range, not HDR.
  • A single video stream, exported as a normal MP4. For video with transparency, use WebM.

If a video is rejected, the app tells you why. Re-exporting it as a standard MP4 usually fixes it.

Slideshows are going away⚓︎

Slideshows (scene groups) were the older way to play content, and they're being retired in favour of timeline shows. If you still have slideshows, the Play tab shows Slideshows are going away:

  1. Tap Open to see your slideshows.
  2. Open one and tap Convert to a timeline show to move its scenes into a new show.
  3. Delete any you no longer need.

You can't create new slideshows.