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How to create Disney like Fairy Dust (Pixie Dust)
I am a beginner in After Effects Expressions and want to do something a bit complicated.
I want to have “Pixie Dust” follow a charator. I can create this effect in Flash, but I don’t really know what to do in After Effects.
In Flash I have a graphic “Star”. In AE a solid.
In Flash I have a movie “StarSpin”. In AE a comp. “StarSpin” spins the “Star”.
In Flash I have a movie “Sparkle”. It is three KeyFrames with code.
The first keyframe sets position, a random velocity, and its Life.
The second keyframe gets the current position and adds the velocity to it. Using Life it reduces the opacity and scale. It also checks to see if the life is less than zero and then it removes the movie.
The third keyframe is just creates a loop to the second. the loop continues till the movie removes itself from the scene.In Flash in the main scene I replicate the movie as the Mouse moves.
Below is the code in Flash. Does anyone know what I could do to do the same in AE?
MAIN SCENE
var n = 1;
_root.sparkle._visible=false;
_root.onMouseMove = function() {
var t = “sparkle” + n;
duplicateMovieClip(“_root.sparkle”, t, n);
n = Number(n)+1;
};SPARKLE-KeyFrame1
// Initialize particle
this._x=_root._xmouse;
this._y=_root._ymouse;
this._visible=true;
// Initialize X and Y velocities
vx = (random(3)-1)/5;
vy = (random(3)-1)/5;
// Set number of loops particle will live
life = 70;SPARKLE-KeyFrame2
// Get current position and add XYVelocities
curx = getProperty(“”, _x);
cury = getProperty(“”, _y);
this._x=this._x+vx;
this._y=this._y+vy;
// Alpha is dependent on proximity to death
ap = 100*life/70;
this._alpha=ap;
this._xscale=ap;
this._yscale=ap;
// Eratic behavior closer to death
vx = Number(vx)+Number((random(51)-25)/ap);
vy = Number(vy)+Number((random(51)-25)/ap);
// Reduce particle life
life = life-1;
if (Number(life)<0) {
// Life counter is up, remove particle
this.removeMovieClip;
stop ();
}SPARKLE-KeyFrame3
// Repeat until particle is dead
gotoAndPlay(_currentframe-1); -
3 Replies
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It will be more difficult in AE (unless you get Trapcode’s Particular plug-in) but this might help:
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/ebberts_dan/particle_gen.php
Dan
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Thanks,
I’ll take a look at your tutorial.
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What about the Particle Engines? Particle Playground. CC Particle World. CC Particle Systems II. I looked at these earlier. Is there a way to use these and get the same results?
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