Looping Tutorial with PNG Sequence….

[Elvis Deane]

Do you mean Bas Wolter’s tutorial? I can’t be certain, but if you are exporting the PNG sequence with an alpha channel the second time and importing into an editor/compositor that’s reading the alpha channel, then the original sequence may seem to vanish. That’s because though pI exports the alpha channel for the particles, it doesn’t export the alpha channel for a background image. That might explain why it would look like you were getting the original sequence and not the looping one when going out to PNG.

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Elvis Deane!

The Apprentice Magician’s Guide to particleIllusion

The particleIllusion FAQ

[Lay.z.boy]

Ahhhh, I understand now. Thats exactly the problem…

But is there any way to possibly do that looping so that I can export it as a PNG sequence with alpha?

Thanks

[Elvis Deane]

You’d have to follow the same basic proceduce outlined in that tutorial, but do it in a video editing or compositing program that allows you to export alpha channels, rather than in pI.

—
Elvis Deane!

The Apprentice Magician’s Guide to particleIllusion

The particleIllusion FAQ

[Lay.z.boy]

There isn’t much of an explanation for exporting the final as a PNG sequence. But what you said to do is to export it as a movie and then bring it into a comp program and export it from there as a PNG sequence…I was just wondering, what is a format that provides really high quality images during the movie as well as an alpha channel to export as PNG sequence.

Thanks again 😀

[Alan Lorence]

Here’s a slight enhancement of the original post, back in 2001 or something like that.

—————
original question:

How’s is best to approach designing a looping animation ? I’m thinking about doing some games effects.

response:

In this case you’d need to take the first few frames and blend them into the last few frames (and the last few blended into the first few). Does that make sense?

better response:

Yep, that’s the way it works, basicly, i’ve done it zillion times. Any editing application can do it. Here’s a short “how to”:

1. Render your clip in pIllusion, make it about a second longer than you want the loop to be. Save as PNG, with “save alpha” checked

2. Split the clip into two sections, one of which is the length of the loop, and the other is the “extra second” at the end.

3. Match the start frames of the two clips to same place in the timeline.

4. Do an one second crossfade (or a wipe or some other transition that looks as unnoticeable as possible) from the “extra second” clip to the “loop length” clip.

You now have a loopable animation you can export to file, as the last frame of the “loop length” clip is the frame that was in the original animation before the “extra second” clip.

————

Is this clear enough? Does somebody have a more clear description?

Alan.
wondertouch

[Lay.z.boy]

Hm…Little bit confused haha

[Lay.z.boy]

Oh ok I understand it now, Thanks 😀

[John Orban]

You know, maybe it’s just me, but I have spent the entire morning trying to figure out how to do this looping thing. I read the tutorials which, quite frankly, muddied the water for me…but hey, I admit I’m a pretty slow learner.

Now…maybe this is what you said in the tutorials, but this is how I got it to work.

FORGET all the crap about reducing the visibility, and number of particles, etc. to ZERO.

Just SIMPLY render out your PNG sequence as instructed.

Import the sequence into your NLE (I used SONY Vegas just because I didn’t want to create a new missle launch package for NASA.)

You do (at least with Vegas) have to do a “File –> Import Media”. Select the FIRST PNG in your sequence and MAKE SURE you check the “Open Still Image Sequence” box (the range should automatically be selected to include ALL your PNGs). The rest of the default settings are OK.

Now put the sequence in your timeline…SPLIT IT at exactly the 1/2 way point.

SWAP POSITIONS of your, NOW, TWO pieces of media. That means, the first media clip/split starts in the middle and goes to the end of the clip and the second piece starts at the beginning and goes to the middle of the clip.

CROSS FADE the middle of your clip (you have to play around with it until you get it like you want it to look).

Render out normally. Works like a champ.