Gak! Image well in Emitter locked?

[Andy Neil]

When you say it’s locked, what do you mean?

The typical way to create a particle system is to select the layer you want to create particles from, and then click the Make Particles button on the toolbar, or hit E on the keyboard.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Jiggy Gaton]

Thx for that, but no problem creating the particle system. I am trying to customize them so they play out within a certain shape or geometry as advertised that they can do. Only I can’t get anything into the image well as the manual says u have to. It’s not accepting any drags from anywhere! Frustrating to say the least. Not sure if my Motion is broke, but have used the image well for other things before.

Maybe there is another way. I am generating an explosion of cell phones. Fine, got that. But now I want that explosion to only appear in the country of Nepal (I have a black and white alpha png of that, where I want the phones to NOT explode past the inner white map bit). There is an option referred to in the book to do this, but it dunna work. If I could only get something into that well, I bet it would:(

Thx again!

Phoenix Studios Nepal: A small A/V Production House in Kathmandu.

[Andy Neil]

Can you explain how you’re trying to get it to work? If the shape you’re using to constrain the emitter is an image, then the emitter shape needs to be set to Image. If you have it set to Geometry, then the image won’t be allowed in the well. Geometry is for shapes only (like those made with the bezier tool). If you DO have it set to Image, could you take me through a step by step to see if there’s anything you’re missing (though that’s unlikely).

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Jiggy Gaton]

yes andy, I set up an emitter and it’s just scattered across an area (any default setting: circle burst rectangle etc.). So I change the Shape to “Image” expecting I can use that to restrict the area of the scattering, see image below. But I can’t get anything into the Image Source Well. What’s the trick? thx!

Phoenix Studios Nepal: A small A/V Production House in Kathmandu.

[Jason Diebler]

What type of image?

“The deepest blues are black” – Foo Fighters
(this doesn’t help me when I’m chroma keying!)

[Jiggy Gaton]

Any type! I’ve tried them all I think. What are u supposed to use? It’s just a black and white mask of Nepal in png alpha format. But I can do anything that works:)
thx!

Phoenix Studios Nepal: A small A/V Production House in Kathmandu.

[Jason Diebler]

My only thought was maybe its a bit depth conflict. Open in Photoshop go to Image>Mode and see if another setting works better. RGB 8 or 16… just something to double-check and try.

“The deepest blues are black” – Foo Fighters
(this doesn’t help me when I’m chroma keying!)

[Andy Neil]

Can you post the image you’re trying to use? I can see nothing overtly wrong that you’re doing. Although I find it strange that your 3rd particle says none in the source as if you added it as a particle and then deleted it from the Media tab.

The only thing I can think of is that the image is of a mode that is incompatible with Motion like Grayscale, or Index or something like that. All images need to be RGB, but if that’s the case, I’m not sure why it’s not accepting the image source in the well.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Jiggy Gaton]

Ha! the third particle is the image that I am trying fill…I was just trying everything, but that obviously was a mistake. Attached is the file, just a normal PNG as far as I can tell…thx all for your help! I have several of these that need to be done before morning (just a few hours from now:)

Here is the file:
936_nepalmapbandwjustmap.png.zip

Phoenix Studios Nepal: A small A/V Production House in Kathmandu.

[Andy Neil]

Your image is Indexed Color. That’s not compatible with Motion. You’re liable to get all kinds of issues and errors. Here’s an RGB version. See if this works for you.

937_rgbmap.png.zip

https://www.timesavertutorials.com