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Some Basic Fundementals
Hi All
You may have gathered that I’m a newbie so here are some newbie questions if that’s OK.
1. Is there a ‘Basic’ emitter that you can start developing your own emitter from? The examples all start from some sparkly thing and then convert it, but I’ve found that you have to check every parameter or there may be some set that are messing up your understanding of the emitters performance.
2. Number – Is that total number of particles emitted over the Life of the emitter, the number of particles emitted per Frame or the Number of particles emitted per second?
3. Life, velocity, size etc are they all set at the value of the graphs at the frame when the particle was born?
3. Anything over life – Is the ‘Life’ here that life that was conferred on each particle when it was born? What units is Life in if any, frames? seconds?
Thanks for your patience
James
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4 Replies
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[jamesinnewcastle] “1. Is there a ‘Basic’ emitter that you can start developing your own emitter from?”
You can load the “blank” library (on our website if you don’t have it).
You can also open the properties dialog for any library, then select a folder (not an emitter) and click the “new emitter” button under the hierarchy.[jamesinnewcastle] “2. Number – Is that total number of particles emitted over the Life of the emitter, the number of particles emitted per Frame or the Number of particles emitted per second?”
None of the above. Think of it as a relative quantity of particles. Elvis may have figured out the settings needed to get X particles per second (I think I remember that posted some time ago, but I may be wrong).
[jamesinnewcastle] “3. Anything over life – Is the ‘Life’ here that life that was conferred on each particle when it was born? What units is Life in if any, frames? seconds?”
Yes, the life of each particle. Life has no units — like most parameters, it’s unitless. Think of it as a relative value.
Alan.
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Thanks Alan – I’m off to have a play!
James
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I had thought that Number was a particles per second count, but I just gave up and realized it doesn’t matter really.
Place a blank emitter on the stage, set the particle type’s Number graph to 30, and you’ll get 30 particles by frame 30 if you look at the emitters/particle number counter in the lower right status bar area of the screen. That seems right for lower numbers, but once you get higher (60 and up) it’s hard to tell because particles start to die off as new ones are born unless you start adjusting your Life and other than by sitting there and counting the particles, it’s almost impossible to know.
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Elvis Deane!
The Apprentice Magician’s Guide to particleIllusion
Wilbur of Wumbaberry -
Thanks Elvis
I suspect that mostly it doesn’t matter but I always seem to choose the application where it does!
It’s working great now.
James
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