Reflecting particles

[Scott Novasic]

theres any number of ways for you to duplicate the effect layer…copy the comp and delete the other layers and render out just the effect with a matte and re import that movie and freely manipulate it as a reflection.. or am I missing something here…

Scott

SuperNova
Animation & Visual Effects
Scott Novasic
Los Angeles Ca
web:https://web.mac.com/finaleffects

[Matt Ratcliffe]

Here’s method I use for relecting particles (especially with bounce): If your camera remains stationery, it could be easy for you to use if u want to get the reflection angle perfect. This is similar to Scott’s method but would retain the correct reflection in the z depth:
• Copy your comp
• switch off all layers except your camera and particles
• move you cameras Y axis to the opposite height by adding the comp screen height (ie, in 720P, if you camera is at default dead center, it would be positioned at x:640 y:360 z:default, reposition Y to 360+720=1080). Keep the point of interest the same.
• In the original comp, add the new camera comp, unlink the scales and make Y -100, switch blend to screen or add, lower trans if needed.
• From this point I reposition by eye, When using bounce u just line up the bounce points and it looks perfect, but without bounce I would just find the balance between the height of the relefction plane and the real particles.

Good luck with which ever method you end up going with!!

[Michael Szalapski]

I know this is about a week old, but I figured I’d hop in for any forum searchers in the future or in case you’re still working on it.
The easy way is a plugin! Zaxwerks makes a nice reflection one that works for particles too.
If you don’t feel like spending money on a plugin, here is a tutorial you might like to follow that shows a great method that should get you some great results.

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[Tim Van helsdingen]

Thanks for all the usefull tips all.
The problem i first had was that I couldnt make a pre-comp with the particular ajustment layer in it, cause particular wont display if there isnt anything else in the comp.
The way I solved is was just to make a blue solid, put the effect on that and use keylight to key away the blue, then precomp that and mirror it. That did the trick 🙂