Explosion of chemical symbols

[Vishesh Arora]

Alan

“I’m aiming to have a light beam hit a human retina”

Beam Effect(generate>Beam) will help you to create the light beams.

Tutorial

“an ‘explosion’ of relevant chemical symbols”

You can use CC Particle World and Red Giant Trapcode Particular for chemical symbols.

Tutorials:
CC Particle World

Trapcode Particular

Vishesh Arora
3D and Motion Graphics Artist
Films Rajendra

Blog:
https://digieffects.wordpress.com

Demo Reel(3D):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHPgIJU_BR8

[Alan Lacey]

Thanks Visheth,

Didn’t really want to have to buy another plugin. I do have BCC and maybe something in that would help?

Alan

FlashXDR,XDcamHD,XDcamEX,D9 etc
FCS,AE,Combustion,LiquidSilver,Vegas,Edius,
G5,MBP,Vista64,XP

[Joseph W. bourke]

To get you started, try putting the particle elements on separate layers in your comp, then use the Particle system (there are a couple that come with AE) with a custom particles setting, and set the layers to be the particles. This should do the trick, with some timing adjustments.

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Alan Lacey]

Thanks Joe, I did investigate AE’s built in particles but couldn’t see how to get the text in there. If you can do it via the layers that’s great and I’ll give it a go.

Cheers Alan

FlashXDR,XDcamHD,XDcamEX,D9 etc
FCS,AE,Combustion,LiquidSilver,Vegas,Edius,
G5,MBP,Vista64,XP

[Joseph W. bourke]

Hi Alan –

I don’t have AE open at the moment, but I’m pretty sure that you put your text or characters on separate layers, then set the particle to be Textured, and assign the layers in that way. Here’s some good info on particles in AE:

https://ae.tutsplus.com/sessions/particle-based-tutorials/

And here are some Particle World tutorials from the Cycore Effects site:

https://cycorefx.com/dloads_ccfx.php

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com

[Alan Lacey]

Hello again Joe,

I’ve had a good look now at the properties now of all the particle effects in my AE (5.5) and the BCC ones but cannot find anywhere about making the particles from layers:-( Could you give me some more help with this?

Once again, many thanks

Alan

FlashXDR,XDcamHD,XDcamEX,D9 etc
FCS,AE,Combustion,LiquidSilver,Vegas,Edius,
G5,MBP,Vista64,XP

[Joseph W. bourke]

Hi Alan –

It’s Particle Playground which allows you to use layers as a particle source. I believe you use the Particle Cannon to do it. Here’s a tutorial:

https://www.videomaker.com/article/14207

Here’s a complete rundown on the plugin from Adobe:
https://help.adobe.com/en_US/aftereffects/cs/using/WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a9d3c597-7acba.html#WS3878526689cb91655866c1103a9d3c597-7ab2a

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com