Creative Force integrates with capture systems such as Orbitvu, Looklet, and Profoto, so images shot there arrive in Creative Force automatically. Auto-mapping and Auto-continue take this a step further by placing those images on their Style Guide positions and moving the task along without anyone opening Final Selection.
Introduction
This article walks through everything auto-mapping needs, from the Workflow setting that switches it on to the Style Guide rules that decide where each file lands. Use the table below to jump to the part you need.
Section | Details |
Turn on Auto-map to positions and Auto-continue, and what to do when a task needs a manual push. | |
How ghost mannequin and normal positions are filled, and how filenames are matched to positions. | |
What happens in Final Selection once a production arrives from your capture system. |
Workflow Setup
Auto-mapping is switched on in the Final Selection (in Browser) step of your Workflow. Select Auto-Map to Positions to reveal a second setting, Auto-Continue, directly below it.
Setting | Details |
Auto-Map to Positions | Maps assets to Style Guide positions by their filenames. It’s available only for Looklet, Orbitvu, Profoto StyleShoots Image, and Profoto StyleShoots Video production types. |
| Continues the task to the next Workflow step when auto-mapping completes successfully. |
Auto-continue⚠️ Orbitvu pulls no properties from Creative Force other than the one you scan, so filenames must follow the Style Guide’s naming setup for auto-mapping to work.
Handling Manual Steps
In a few situations, auto-mapping hands the task back to your team. The table below shows what to do in each case.
Situation | What to Do |
Auto-mapping fails in Final Selection | Open the task and push it through manually. |
A task is rejected in Final Selection | The task isn’t returned to Orbitvu. Reset it to Photography and push it through Kelvin as usual. |
A task is reset to Final Selection | Auto-map and Auto-continue don’t run again, so push the task through manually. |
Once the Workflow is set up the way you want, you can move on to the Style Guide. Auto-mapping relies on both being configured.
Style Guide Setup
For Auto-map and Auto-continue to work, the Style Guide’s Capture and Naming setup must follow the logic below. Each position is either a ghost mannequin position or a normal position, and each type is mapped differently.
Mapping Ghost Mannequins
Creative Force fills mandatory positions before optional ones. The main image must be mapped; otherwise, the process stops and needs manual action.
Type | Details |
Main images and in-clips per shot | Up to 99 combined, or 5 when the post-production vendor is Pixelz or Bright River. |
Resource files per main image | Up to 20. |
Main images per ghost mannequin shot | Exactly one, with no alternative main images. |
Example | If the shot limit is 5 and a ghost mannequin shot uses its one main image, it can include up to four in-clips. You can set each position’s shot count in its Capture Tab |
Optional positions are handled differently depending on which files are mapped to them. The table below shows how each case affects the task.
Scenario | Result |
In-clips or resources are mapped, but the main image is missing | The files are placed in the position, so it isn’t skipped or treated as empty. It isn’t complete either, so the task stops in Final Selection until a user adds the main image. |
No Files Mapped | The position stays empty and counts as complete, so it doesn’t block submission. |
Mapping Normal Positions
To map files correctly, each position needs the right priority, minimum and maximum shot counts, and enforced and non-enforced ALT counts. Creative Force maps images from the first position to the last using each position’s priority, always filling mandatory positions before optional ones.
Priority Order | Details |
Highest Priority ↓ 1 | Minimum shot count, then minimum enforced ALTs, for each position from first to last. Mandatory positions come first, then optional positions. |
2 | Extra shots up to the maximum shot count, for mandatory positions and then optional positions. |
3 | Extra enforced ALTs up to the maximum, for mandatory positions and then optional positions. |
4
Lowest Priority ↓ | Extra non-enforced ALTs up to the maximum, for mandatory positions and then optional positions. |
In short, Creative Force meets every minimum requirement for mandatory positions first, then adds shots and ALTs up to their maximum limits. The mapping cycle stops when there are no images left.
Naming Main Assets
Until Final Selection is complete, Creative Force creates a temporary asset name from your asset naming setup. It uses this temporary name to match each asset with its actual filename.
Part of the Name | How It’s Treated |
Tokens with no value | Ignored and replaced with a wildcard. |
Recurrence Index, Date, DateTime, Position Sequence Number, Position Sequence Letter, Production Type Sequence Number, Production Type Sequence Letter, Sequence Number, Sequence Letter, Day of Month, Day of Week, Month, Month Name | Ignored and replaced with a wildcard. |
Fixed text | Included and not case-sensitive. |
Creative Force then compares the temporary name with the actual filename. If they match, the asset is mapped.
Ghost Mannequin Main Asset
For a ghost mannequin shot, auto-mapping completes as soon as the main image is mapped, even with no in-clips. If several files could be the main image, including the same image in two formats such as .jpg and .cr2, the first one submitted is used, and the rest are skipped. Ghost mannequin positions don’t accept .eip files.
📝 Note: A filename another position has already taken can’t become the main image, which stops a ghost mannequin position from grabbing another shot’s file when two positions share a naming pattern.
Example
Take the naming setup below as an example. It combines fixed text with Date, Product Code, and Sequence Number tokens.
The
and
tokens are ignored, so Creative Force creates the temporary pattern IMG_.*_[Product Code]_.*.
The .* wildcard matches any characters of any length, including none.
A filename such as IMG_123_Product 01_456 is therefore mapped, because it follows the structure IMG_[any characters]_Product 01_[any characters]. Only the fixed text and the Product Code value need to line up.
🗣️ The fixed parts of the filename must match, while the ignored token sections can contain any characters.
Naming In-clips & Resources
In-clips and Resource files aren’t main assets, so they don’t have their own naming setup page. You’ll need to name these files yourself so auto-mapping can detect them. These files must follow the pattern [Main asset]_[role][number]. Each part works as shown below.
📝 The suffix number is only a label, so numbers don’t need to run in order, and a shot holding only _inclip2 has one in-clip, not a missing one.
Part | Rule |
[Main asset] | The main asset’s name, following the naming setup in the Style Guide. |
_[role] | Must be separated by an underscore, with a role of either Inclip or Resource. |
[number] | Digits 0–9 of any length, with leading zeros allowed, so _inclip1, _inclip001, _inclip00001 and _inclip0 all work. |
⚠️ Ghost mannequin in-clips sent without the number suffix are complete with the first file as the main image, and the others are skipped without notice.
Production Behavior
Once the Workflow and Style Guide are set up, you can send productions from Orbitvu, Looklet, Profoto StyleShoots Image, or Profoto StyleShoots Video. What happens next depends on the settings you turned on in the Final Selection step.
Enabled Settings | Details |
| The task appears in the Final Selection To Do Kanban for you to check. Any skipped files that weren’t mapped are available there to review and become the non-selects. |
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| Creative Force moves the task to Done in Final Selection and sends it to the next Workflow step. |