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Particle playground – hit wall, then explode
Hello
I’m trying to make an effect where Particle Playground fires a load (well, a hundred or so) particles (layer maps) at a wall, then each one explodes as it hits the wall and disappears. The explosion can be a simple dot-particle affair – it doesn’t need to ‘shatter’ each layer (although something like this would be nice!).
I can easily set up a wall and have the particle layers bounce off it and I also have a ‘persistent property mapper’ layer to give them lots of kinetic friction when they reach the bottom of the screen to make them stick in a big heap.
But I’d prefer them to just explode into oblivion when they hit the wall, but in the ‘particle exploder’ options there’s no option to select ‘particles from wall’ or something like that.
Amy thoughts (other than “use Trapcode Particular!”)? Thanks!
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4 Replies
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Nobody got any ideas? At all?
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wow, you never see questions about particle playground… i’m surprised roland wasn’t all over this. it really is a good particle system that can do some particle interactions that other systems can’t.
there are two things that could be the problem…
first, the selection map for the particle exploder need to have transparency. transparent areas won’t effect particles, opaque areas should explode them. also, depending on how the selection map has transparency (ie, its own alpha, a mask or effect, or just repositioning to use the edge of a layer) you may need to precomp that layer first — generally i’d precomp any layer (choosing move all attributes) that i’m using in conjunction with a compound effect, it will give you more options in the long run.
second, the new particle radius needs to be at least half of the original particle radius… i’m not sure that is documented anywhere, but it is something i have noticed.
the new particles will obey the settings of the original particles, so they should respond to walls, gravity and other mappers.
there is one other possible issue… if you have a wall mask and line it up exactly with the transparency edge of the exploder selection map, then they may be hitting the wall before they hit the exploder selection map. try adjusting the wall to be further into the selection map, at least half the original particle radius or more.
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
[Kevin Camp] “try adjusting the wall to be further into the selection map, at least half the original particle radius or more.”
actually, after playing around with this, make the overlap of the wall boundary and the exploder selection map at least the full radius, if not double the radius of the original particles or larger to get most of them to explode….
Kevin Camp
Senior Designer
KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW -
Thanks, Kevin for all the suggestions. I’m on some really boring job at the moment but will try out the joyous exploding particallic ideas as soon as I get a spare few minutes!
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