Dust/Sand Transition

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Have you searched the COW’s AE Tutorials? I’m quite certain that there’s at least one tutorial on the subject. Maybe it’s to blow up text, but the principles involved are identical.

HTH
RoRK

broadcastGEMs.com – the leader in customizable royalty-free animated backdrops

[David Tunnell]

Yes I have. Particle Playground chokes on 720X480 footage.

Thanks,

David Tunnell
Tunnell Vision Productions

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

More often than not, Particle Playground shouldn’t choke on 720×480 footage. You’ll have to provide more input if you’re keen for others to help you find a solution.

Other than doing a full-screen image transition to sand, what are your settings for PP? What are you using as a Layer Map. Are you invoking Layer or Particle Exploder options?

Cheers
RoRK

broadcastGEMs.com – the leader in customizable royalty-free animated backdrops

[David Tunnell]

RoRK,

Thanks for the help. Sorry for the delay in response, I went back to the basics and re-did the entire test over following the tutorial to the letter.

I am using Emanuel Eriksson’s “Text that Blows Away Like Sand” Tutorial as see here:

https://library.creativecow.net/articles/eriksson_emanuel/sand.php

For my test I pulled in a static image at 320X2240 and precomposed it. I used the Mask from the original tutorial.

I changed the Explode Layer to my new image and kept the “Selection Map” set as he had it to “Wind”

I carefully set everything up as he had it set, replacing only the text layer with my image precomp layer.

In preview it appears to be working but nothing ever happens So I went for a test render, the entire computer and AE locked up.

Here are the PP settings I used:

Apply Effect>Simulation>Particle Playground to the bottom “Text” layer.

Open the Cannon pulldown.
Set Particles per Second to 0.

Open the Layer Exploder pulldown.
Set Explode Layer to 4.Text.
Set Radius of New Particles to .50.
Set Velocity Dispersion to 0.

Open the Gravity pulldown.
Set Force to 0.

Open the Repel pulldown.
Set Force to 1.
Set Force Radius to 5.
Set Selection map to 3.Wind.

Now set a keyframe for Radius of New Particles at 0 and another at :5 value 0.
Make the last keyframe a hold keyframe.

Set this layer’s in point to -5.

Dave

Thanks,

David Tunnell
Tunnell Vision Productions

[David Tunnell]

An addendum …

I just tried this test again using a plain textlayer as described in the tut and it worked. I am left to think that it is choking on the size of the image. I can only imagine how it will choke on moving footage.

Thanks,

David Tunnell
Tunnell Vision Productions

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

Layer & Particle Exploders are render hogs. I tried a quick test with a 768×576 video with Radius of New Particles set to .5 and I get a particle count of 430,000. That’s a lot of particles!

I’ve not used repel because that is also a memory hog. Try switching it off. My thoughts are that it is being used to create some organic movement. This can possibly be accomplished with Gravity’s Force Random Spread.

Things are slow but it is rendering. I’ve also created a Particle Killer property mapper that kills off particles after they leave the comp window. This should help to speed things up further down the timeline as particles leave the comp window. For this, use Lifespan – min=0, max=comp.duration or a number large enough so that you don’t kill off particles too soon).

A particle killer layer should be larger than your comp – by approx 30%. A white solid (approx 110% of comp size) over a black layer, 130% of comp size). White areas will keep particles alive. Black areas will kill them off.

Another option is to kill of particles using the ‘mask layer’ that you created as a particle killer property mapper. The idea here is that SOME of the particles that fly off can be killed sooner than before they leave the comp window without affecting the overall look too much since there are so many of them. For this, an application of fractal noise on the white solid (the actual white solid you used as a particle killer) with fractal noise’s built-in mode setting set to darken or overlay may help.

Just remember to set Radius of New Particles to a high value while testing.

HTH
RoRK

broadcastGEMs.com – the leader in customizable royalty-free animated backdrops

[David Tunnell]

I will give it a try and report back ASAP.

Thanks.

Thanks,

David Tunnell
Tunnell Vision Productions

[David Tunnell]

I am really stunned that this is not a preset. In my mind there should be some way to create a pre-comp that starts solid and then blows away and then use that as a layer matte. Almost like a trasition.

Dave

Thanks,

David Tunnell
Tunnell Vision Productions

[Roland R. kahlenberg]

But even a Track Matte that does that wouldn’t actually move the fill layer. Only the track matte will be moving.

Some folks prefer using Shatter for a similar effect. With repetitions (under shape) set to a high number, about 200, you get really small particles. While that isn’t snail speed, it does hang the machine when cranked up high.

Another suggestion is to add CC Force Motion Blur which helps in that you can work with slightly bigger particles and still get a nice look. Of course, it’s best to render out the particle-d movie, re-import and then apply CC Force Motionblur – for reasons related to memory issues.

broadcastGEMs.com – the leader in customizable royalty-free animated backdrops

[David Tunnell]

Well …. Here is where I am. Yes this will work. But the render times are prohibitive to get the effct I want and given the fact that I have 15 of these to do. I may use a matte and some smoke and just make them wash away.

I tried shatter, but it was almost to violent and I couldn’t get the organic feel of the pieces just blowing away.

Dave

Thanks,

David Tunnell
Tunnell Vision Productions