Creative Communities of the World Forums

The peer to peer support community for media production professionals.

Activity Forums Adobe After Effects Trouble with X/Y values for emitter Trapcode particular

  • Trouble with X/Y values for emitter Trapcode particular

    Posted by Ellen Leggett on July 11, 2016 at 10:07 am

    Hi everyone,
    I couldn’t find anything like what I’m experiencing anywhere and I’m hoping someone might be able to help.

    I am currently creating a fire effect using trapcode particular. I have applied lots of effects directly to my solid layers such as VC color vibrance and Vector blur among others. I have two particle layers, and I had created a null object to pickwhip the emitter X and Y position to the null object x and Y position. simple yeah?

    So, I had been trying to test out the particle effects in response to motion and noticed that my emitters had moved away from each other. I tested and realised that while there was a handle for the emitter position for each single effect, there was a second handle, which when moved, affected the emitter position is very strange ways. I could move the emitted handle away from the mystery handle and the particle effect would move in the opposite direction, in weird parabola curves, rotated symmetry stuff while ALSO stretching the effect in a very strange way, like a cross blur. UPDATE: it also seems to be linked to the centre of the layer??

    So, I used my tired brain to think about how I could fix this. I knew that if the two handles were in the same spot that the emitter would also be there, as it should be. BUT because I wanted to move the effect with the benefits of the physics engine, and I did not know what the mystery marker represented, what value or effect it controlled, I could not even tween it manually to move with the other marker. The mystery marker clearly has an affect on the particle emitter, but I cannot for the life of my figure out what or why.

    Until I have this fixed, I cannot even progress to finding out how my effect moves, let along apply it to my footage.
    I really hope that it can be fixed, I have a major project that I am working on, and I really need this basic function working again to make any further progress.

    Here is a screen shot of the situation:

    Walter Soyka replied 9 years, 10 months ago 4 Members · 22 Replies
  • 22 Replies
  • Ellen Leggett

    July 11, 2016 at 12:57 pm

    sorry, forgot how to add an image for a bit there.

    I hope that makes sense…well, not the issue but the information about it anyways. if you need anymore information about my project settings, effect settings etc, just let me know.

  • Daniel Waldron

    July 11, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    The easiest, most predictable way to control the motion of Particular is to use a light as an Emitter. If you need to follow the path of a Null Object, copy the beginning position of the Null Object onto the light and parent that light to your Null Object.

    Otherwise, make sure your Null Object is 3D and pickwhip your Particular emitter’s Z position to the z position of the Null Object.

  • Walter Soyka

    July 11, 2016 at 2:17 pm

    Your mystery handle is the Spherical Field [link], which is a spherical displacement field that can push/pull particles in your system.

    Walter Soyka
    Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
    Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
    @keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

  • Ellen Leggett

    July 12, 2016 at 4:43 am

    Thank you so much! I had no idea. 🙂

  • Ellen Leggett

    July 12, 2016 at 4:46 am

    I am unsure how to make the emitter a light, could you please elaborate form me? thanks 🙂

  • Ellen Leggett

    July 12, 2016 at 4:50 am

    So, if I have no use for the spherical field, setting the values to zero should remove its influence over any aspect of my effect yes?

  • Ellen Leggett

    July 12, 2016 at 4:59 am

    I used the name light option, if that’s what you are talking about, I also reduced all the spherical field options to zero, but I am still experiencing the stretching of the effect when I move the emitter left or right of the centre of the comp. up and down don’t seem to be affected. I have moved the particle layers into new comps, tested them there and still have the stretched problem.

  • Ellen Leggett

    July 12, 2016 at 5:09 am

    Actually, with more testing I can see that moving the emitter above and below centre also stretches it, just to a lesser extent. The stretching seems to be associated with the x axis and looks like a cross blur. The emitter when moved left or right of centre is also still not in the right spot, the stretched effect gets pulled between the centre of the layer and the emitter position or something like that.
    If it helps at all, I used this tutorial to begin my effect, then played around with the gravity and other settings, as well as applying vector blurs etc.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlSq_RPq29A&t=0s
    Perhaps someone can see and option ticked that shouldn’t be?

    Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!

    This happens because the functionality/content marked as “Google Youtube” uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.

  • Walter Soyka

    July 12, 2016 at 8:09 pm

    [Ellen Leggett] “I used the name light option, if that’s what you are talking about, I also reduced all the spherical field options to zero, but I am still experiencing the stretching of the effect when I move the emitter left or right of the centre of the comp. up and down don’t seem to be affected. I have moved the particle layers into new comps, tested them there and still have the stretched problem.”

    Can you post some screenshots that show your entire UI, including the timeline?

    Have you possibly made the Particular layer a 3D layer?

    Walter Soyka
    Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
    Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
    @keenlive   |   RenderBreak [blog]   |   Profile [LinkedIn]

  • Ellen Leggett

    July 13, 2016 at 3:12 am

    I have some rotation of the effect, but I don’t think I made it 3D.
    Here’s a screen shot, I can get more of the settings under particular if you want.

Page 1 of 3

We use anonymous cookies to give you the best experience we can.
Our Privacy policy | GDPR Policy