New stand-alone PI

[Bob Moyer]

In the original version of PI, there was the ability to load a picture of your choice as a background for the stage to aid in the placement of the emitter. Now using Win10 and the 2020.5 stand alone version of PI, I cannot seem to find the ability to do this. Is this still possible?

Thanks,
Bob

[Alan Lorence]

This ability is not present yet, but there is a trick you can do to load an image or possibly even a sequence.

In this tutorial at about the 8:00 mark it’s explained:
https://borisfx.com/videos/getting-started-16-particle-illusion-fun-with-forces-deflectors/

Alan.

………………..
Alan Lorence
Product Manager
BorisFX

[Bob Moyer]

Thank you Alan for your quick response. Do you anticipate that feature coming to the stand alone version in the near future? The ‘work around’ certainly doesn’t make life any easier. I guess I’ll have to go back to the original version for the time being. Thanks again for the response.

Bob

[Alan Lorence]

Future, yes. “Near”? We won’t release any new features until late this Fall.

I want to emphasize how limiting the workflow of adding your particle effects directly in Particle Illusion is. It’s MUCH more flexible and powerful to composite the PI-generated effects in your editing application, where you have access to transfer modes, color correction, glows, and loads of other features.

This tutorial shows how powerful this can be:
https://borisfx.com/videos/getting-started-13-particle-illusion-putting-it-together/

In the original pI3 days you could make the argument “I don’t have a sophisticated video editing app”, but now there are at least two good options that are completely free, and more that are quite inexpensive.

Alan.

………………..
Alan Lorence
Product Manager
BorisFX