Use of BCC Particle Array 3D

Boris FX

Use of BCC Particle Array 3D

Posted by Daniel Skrobowski on February 13, 2013 at 4:20 am

Hello,

I use Boris RED 5, and I am trying to figure out how to achieve a certain look using BCC Particle Array 3D.
In the plugin’s user guide, there is a picture showing what you can do with it.

Here is the picture.

I don’t know how to do this. It wasn’t explained in the user guide. How can one cause Particle Array 3D to take the form of 3D text or other 3D objects while making those objects manipulable from within Particle Array 3D’s effect parameters?

All tips are appreciated.

Daniel Skrobowski replied 13 years, 3 months ago 4 Members · 7 Replies
7 Replies

Peter Mcauley
February 13, 2013 at 4:48 pm

Hi Daniel,

The person best positioned to provide you with tips on this would be Dirk de Jong, who created the actual image that you are referencing in this doc file. I’ll ask him to get in touch with you.

Thanks,

Peter.
Daniel Skrobowski
February 13, 2013 at 5:43 pm

Thanks Peter. That would be great!
Dirk De jong
February 13, 2013 at 6:55 pm

you want to be using the feature called “Control Maps” – here is a screencap movie with voiceover showing the basics ;

https://www.borisfxresources.com/CreativeCowForum/ParticleArrayControlMaps/ParticleArrayControlMaps.html
Dirk De jong
February 13, 2013 at 7:22 pm

I uploaded the AE CS5 project file from that movie here ;

https://f1.creativecow.net/5447/bcc-particle-array-control-maps-demo-ae-cs5-project-using-bcc8?uploaded=file
Daniel Skrobowski
February 14, 2013 at 3:53 am

Hello Dirk,

Thanks for the great video. It was informative. That is a really cool way to use that effect. I appreciate you taking the time to explain…and the quick reply.

I should have mentioned that I am using Boris RED 5 as my environment. So, I’m not sure if I will be able to use the project file, but I’m sure somebody else will be able to.

I was able to replicate what you did in the video except for directly manipulating the graphs for the control maps. I did not see where I could use that feature in RED.

Thanks again.
Kirk Pitts
February 18, 2013 at 11:03 pm

I think it is great that you responded to the request in such an informative way. That’s great. I have a question. How much different should this work in FCP 7? The control map just doesn’t seem to respond the same way. I don’t get clear sets of letters. I tried increaseing the number of spheres but I’m missing something. Should this work the same in FCP 7?

Thanks.
Daniel Skrobowski
February 19, 2013 at 1:47 am

Hey Kirk…just a thought…. When I was experimenting with this technique, I found that the array, when an opacity control map with text as the filter track was applied to it, was very dark and was not showing up/conforming to the text correctly. It was because the control map was set to look at the XY Luma of the text track. Change the control map so that it looks at the XY Alpha or XY Alpha Inverse instead, and see what happens.

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