Trouble with X/Y values for emitter Trapcode particular

[Ellen Leggett]

If I could get some more opinions or help that would be awesome, I’m in a bit of a rush because of the due date for my assessment coming very soon, and the footage I have really needs this effect, and I can’t see any valid work-arounds.

Urgent need of answers, my work has come to a halt!
help me CreativeCOW, you’re my only hope.

[Kalleheikki Kannisto]

If you need quick help, best to upload the project file so we can take a look and see what’s going on with it.

[Ellen Leggett]

thanks so much, didn’t know I could do that. Will do.

10298_makingfire.aep.zip

Here it is. the simplified comp (after my initial building of the effect) is called “# showing Creativecow”
Thanks for your help

[Walter Soyka]

Particular > World Transform > Y Rotation has an expression on it, which is spinning the entire Particular system around — but not the controls. Removing that expression will leave the particle system pinned to the emitter control in the UI, but will change the look a bit.

Also, your Particular solid layer is larger than it needs to be or really should be. You can make that solid the same size as the comp it’s in.

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

[Ellen Leggett]

Thanks so much, I killed the expression (Which previously I’d done a test render I didn’t really like the look of anyways) and that fixed it!! Oh my goodness, I cannot tell you how grateful I am for your help, I never would have been able to figure it out on my own. So glad I can get back to work with a working effect!!

[Ellen Leggett]

I have been working with the particular effects for a while, rebuilding my desired effect, and when I went to do a test render the effect wouldn’t show up. I checked visibility of layers and the parented null object, checked the composition length, but i still couldn’t find why it wouldn’t render. In the preview window it shows up just fine.

So I tried an experiment, and created a coloured solid layer to put underneath the particle layers, in the hopes that with a new background colour I could determine if the render was working for any layers in the comp at all, but found that the layer wouldn’t show up under the particular effect. It just doesn’t seem right, I cant figure out why its working the way it is. I can’t help but think It has something to do with the null object (Which I had to make 3D to make the particular effects show up in the first place), since I have been able to layer the particle effects over images before.

So sorry to bother you again for your help.
Thanks

[Daniel Waldron]

The null object should have nothing to do with the visibility of your particles, unless they are positioned off the screen. The fact that you can’t see layers underneath your Particular layer points to a render setting or blend mode issue. Is your Particular layer black? Could you post a screenshot of your settings?

[Ellen Leggett]

Sorry, I forgot, here’s the updated project file in case you need it.

10306_makingfire.aep.zip

Thanks again.

[Ellen Leggett]

the particular layers are not black, they are light pink to white in particle colour coming form a red solid.
Here are some screen shots of my layer settings inside the comp and the render settings used (Just default as I had been hoping to preview the effect before working further)

And render settings:

hope that helps. Also just posted project file if you need it.

[Ellen Leggett]

EDIT:

Okay, this is very strange, but all of a sudden the render works, shows the solid and everything. as does the preview. I don’t remember doing anything..then again, i could just be forgetting, its very late here.
thanks, ill let you know if my problems come up again. 🙂