Particle Illusion hanging constantly

[Alan Lorence]

Just saying “2 or 3 emitters” doesn’t tell me anything, as some emitters create 100 particles, while others create many thousands. Are the emitters needed for all 900 frames? If you’re working toward the end of the frame range, any change results in all of the particles being recalculated from frame 1 — which as you’ve seen can take some time (hence the hang).

I suggest breaking your project up into shorter pieces if possible. Also, be aware that converting an emitter into anything but a point emitter can *really* multiply the number of particles that are created — especially an area emitter. Set the “number” to 10% or lower in that case and see if it helps.

Alan.

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Alan Lorence
Product Manager
GenArts, Inc.
http://www.genarts.com
http://www.wondertouch.com

[Dennis Miller]

Thanks Alan. The project is for a pitch I am doing for a 4 minute public screen project and my plan is to create a 900 frame piece in PI then time stretch it in FCP, so it wouldn;t work to break it up into any smaller parts. I do need the some of the emitters to run over the entire 900 frames. The PI project uses multiple instances of Light Trans 03, some starting right at frame 1 and some not entering until much later in the project. It is a Point emitter and I haven’t altered that.

Is there any way to avoid recalulating all the emitters near the end of the range? Something like the “freeze” feature of the particle generator in Cinema 4D (if you happen to know it)? Sounds like that is what’s killing the workflow.
Any other thoughts?
Dennis