Fish and Particle Playground

[Walter Soyka]

[sam baum] “Is there a way of controlling particle playground so that it starts with a set number of particles and doesn’t emit any more? I’m trying to make a school of fish and so don’t really want more to be produced by the effect.”

Most particle systems use emitters that allow you to specify particles per second. If you want to emit only a fixed number of particles, you have to keyframe the emitter and do a little math.

If you want to emit 100 particles, and your frame rate is 30 frames per second, you can keyframe the emitter to 3,000 (100 * 30) particles on the first frame, then 0 on the second.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Karl-jason Mawdsley]

[Walter Soyka] Most particle systems use emitters that allow you to specify particles per second. If you want to emit only a fixed number of particles, you have to keyframe the emitter and do a little math.

If you want to emit 100 particles, and your frame rate is 30 frames per second, you can keyframe the emitter to 3,000 (100 * 30) particles on the first frame, then 0 on the second.

Also, you might have more joy using CC Particle World rather than particle playground. Particle world runs much faster and you can specify a custom particle by setting ‘Textured Square’ as your particle type and setting the ‘Texture Layer’ to be your fish layer. Just make sure you set your ‘Opacity Map’ in ‘options’ to be constant otherwise your fish will fade in.

KJ

[Sam Baum]

Hi Walter

Thanks for this, I knew there was a way that was more complicated than just messing around with setting!

I’ll have a play and let you know the outcome.

Sam

[Sam Baum]

Hi Karl

Is this CC Particle World a free plugin? Unfortunately I’m not in the position t be buying anything new at the moment.

Thanks

Sam

[Walter Soyka]

[sam baum] “Is this CC Particle World a free plugin? Unfortunately I’m not in the position t be buying anything new at the moment.”

It’s included with After Effects.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Karl-jason Mawdsley]

Sam,
Yes it is. All Cycore plugins are part of a standard install. If you go to Effects > Simulation you should find it there.

KJ

KJ Mawdsley
Editor/Mograph Designer

[Sam Baum]

hi again

Right, so I’ve decided to go for Particle Playground and it works nicely, but I’d love the particles to follow a path I draw, or a dummy object. Is this possible so that the fishes look like they’re swimming by?

Thanks

Sam