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For possible future situations like this, some stuff I do…

— I always make backups of my emitters every time I change something in them. I have a shortcut in my main emmitter folder to the backup location and just drag the most recently tweaked one into it.

— I make and name my own “best of” collections by type keeping the originals in their own folder. That way, I can always go back and rix things do one degree or another.

Last but not least:

— Projects are really the best place to edit and fine tune emitters: far more manageable with multiple viewable undos. Then if a real winner I want to archive, I can save it in and/or as a library.

I hope your situation works out.

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What is, is, and priorities matter. Do whudya gotta do, Alan.
No complaints here and I am looking forward to 3.0.2.

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I never got into AE very deep at all, and I had a really old version (3.1), so I can’t comment on it with any solid authority.

That said, I disagree a bit with with Elvis saying one can’t really composite or do effects in Vegas, or titles. (On the latter and While v.1 of it, Vegas Pro 8 now has a decent title/tiler.)

My signature visual style which I carried over from still work is VERY effects intensive — dreamy, mystical, etc. It can take 2-4 to 6 layers for just to get a PI PNG to do what I want it to do.

In short I have no problems compositing or getting creative in Vegas (6 or 8). My main obstacle can be, uh, patience 🙂

There are some very pro people there who know far more than I and I have yet to see a posting lamenting compositing — or effects for that matter.

As for Vegas Pro 8’s ProType tiler, well, we’re all giving our feedback and so it’s bound to only get even better in v.0 🙂

Now, as to real-time preview when using such, well neither Vegas or any other company has gotten that one down to a totally smooth ride – lol.

Does AE probably do a better job overall at compositing?

From what I know and have read, yes, but not by that much.

Vegas Track Property settings, envelopes, etc. are pretty decent IMO. Pan/Crop and 3D Track Motion in Vegas isn’t anything to spit on either.

Nor are the in-prog transitions and effects, incl. basic but powerful stuff like 3 wheel Color Correction to Magic Bullet.

So for those who don’t have New York ad agency budgets, I still believe that Vegas provides the most all round capabilities. Adobe is top of the line in many fields, but it also ain’t cheap.

Hence why I suggested Vegas in this thread: he’s not some company with bottomless fiduciary pockets.

So to sum up, Vegas isn’t Pinnacle Studio, nor can it do what far more expensive apps can do. But it’s a real NLE with a nice toolbox of tools and versatility.

And/but in the end, whatever one’s preferences or budget, it still comes down to what applies to any art form:

— It’s who and how the tools are used that separates mediocre from stunning work.

Without an eye and instinct (and some willingness to learn what the tools one has can do), having all the highest end progs in the world won’t change the essential quality of the outcome.

It’s just like PI:

— It can be used for cheesy and run-of-the-mill effects, but… with some elbow grease and creative intuition turn out stuff that can stun the eye and heart.

(I ain’t quite there yet, but I’m definitely slowly but surely working on it 🙂

————————-

P.S.: Am I biased? Sure, I’m a believer in Vegas — and grateful that I could afford any NLE this good.

As Alan knows, I’m not exactly Bill Gates in the wealth department.

And I do the same “postive P.R.” for PI at the Sony Media boards when PI is mentioned, as well as offer advice when I am in a position to do so even though I’m still learning.

IMO, both Vegas and PI are truly “democratic” programs:

WiTHIN reach of those outside of the sometimes clcky-y and snobby circles of “the Biz” (I live in Los Angeles CA and while not directly in said biz, I do know a teeny bit about that kind of stuff.)

So to me, Vegas’s and PI’s accessibility in that way is worth all the tinsel in Tinsel Town. For the people, by the people, etc.

OK, ‘nuf pontificating here.
You get my social drift 🙂

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I know at least of one person at the official Sony Vegas forum who did just that — upgrade from the $99 deal. CD-only doesn’t mean no serial number 🙂 B&H is one of Sony’s trusted retailers.

You don’t get DVD Architect with it, but you will probably get it with the upgrade.
BUT:

— To make Fort Knox certain, just call B&H up and ask them about upgradaability for your own peace of mind.

You can also call Sony and see if you would get DVD Architect if you upgraded from that deal. Sony Media Software Customer Service (I.e. pre-sales questions):

— 800 577-6642 9-11:30 AM + 12:30 TO 5:00 CST — note the lunch break 🙂

________________________

Now, did I go this route? Unfortunately no:

I did buy my v. 6 from B&H, then a few weeks later, they put up the $99 deal. I was, well, not happy – lol. Since I’ve been on the Net for a while, it also seemed too good of a deal. Why would a veteran retailer do this?

So I called them and asked about the legitimacy of it. This was over a year ago and the deal is still up there, and as stated, others have taken advantage of it.

I could have saved myself about $300 dollars had I been psychic 🙂

As to the difference between that $99 deal and the usual regular packaged one, not much: You get a hard copy “get started” manual and keyboard shortcuts fold-out thingy with the latter.

I never used either one. The in-program Help files + forum are all I need.

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Hi,

Such decisions are very personal and I’m not a wealthy person, so I did a lot of online research to find a good win-win. Result:

— I’ve worked in an earlier version of AE and one thing that drove me nuts was work-flow or ease of use. Not easy. So I got Sony Vegas.

Never been happier. The official forum at Sony for Vegas is also an active one which I visit just about every day.

And, if you act soon, you could get yourself a great deal too. If you go the route suggested, you could get yourself the newest Vegas Pro 8 for about $250.

Legit, the real deal.

If you don’t want the upgrade right away, then you’ll get Vegas 6 for only &99. Again, no joke.

(BTW, v.8 just had “Pro” added to the name, that’s all. Not a different application, meaning the v.6 deal is a deal on the same, only earlier version of the professional version of Vegas).

Go see the Sept. 30th 4th posting (by me) in the thread here titled “Re: Loss of clarity and increase in size when exporting to PNG”. It’s one of the longest threads below.

Read the second part of my posting in which I talk about NLE and then go to the page at B&H. Once you get the steal-deal, and you upgrade to 8 by Oct. 31, you’ll be all set to go.

Good luck.

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I don’t have a 64-bit system, so can’t answer that. But you could try the below.

First thing to check is: do you have libraries installed in the Program folder of PI?

That is in Program Files/particleillusion/Emitter Libraries, and in there there should be at least one .II3 type file called “default” or something generic like that. (I’ve made my own custom ones, so don’t have the originals anymore)

Point: PI can crash if a library is not present or has become corrupted.

Then try the two following things in order given. I have XP Home, so translate the following for yourself in your Vista equivalent (I’ve only worked on Vista briefly while setting up a computer for a neighbor):

1. Once installed, even if it crashes, let it do so, then make sure it’s unloaded, not running i.e. check in Task Manager (XP-speak). Then go to Start/Programs, choose Particleilluson, reset to default settings. Then try to open PI.

If still not working:

2. Uninstall completely, then re-install PI but this time through whatever the Vista version of installing an application for an earlier OS wizard thing is called. (Too late at night for me to remember even the XP name, my Help files are offline 🙂

If no-go, and no-one from PI has replied here, contact support directly. But my guess is that you will get a reply here on Monday sometime.

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Hey, nice work 🙂

Got a couple of suggestions for subtly bumping up realism, no biggie, but due to my design background I can get detail nit pick – lol

— The motion in the flames (which look great, BTW) could stand to be a bit taller/fuller so as to stand out a bit more.

— Motion of smoke seems to be slower than flames, they should match more, i.e. speed up the smoke a bit, let it get a tad wilder. And/or you can risk making it a bit more opaque by a few percentages. Play around with Life and/or Velocity and proportionally, Number and/or Visibility to keep the original feel (to avoid “white-outs.”

— It’s good to have warm tone/cool tone contrasts and so the blue-ness of the smoke works. But perhaps only have the top half of the smoke in the blues you have, the bottom mmre towards orange. Use particle Properties/Particle Color gradient for that.

Again, I can be a bit uber-detailed, so take or leave the above.
Try it out, see what happens.

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Thanks, Alan.

That’s a thorough list reflecting what seems to be like some extensive hours of work at Wondertouch for the upcoming update. Added to that the handful of other improvements you’ve mentioned here and there at this forum,

RE: 3.0.2: Numerically speaking it doesn’t give the impression of much of an upgrade — going from 3.0.1 to 3.0.2. Considering fixes and improvements, it sounds to me far more like at least a 3.2.0 upgrade.

But then, hey, it’s your baby, not mine.
You have the parental christening rights 🙂

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dxhans5,

I agree, it’s not only a fun program but a very versatile one once you start knowing how to tweak and get really creative 🙂

Alan mentioned having an app in which you could make the output files from PI into whatever size you want.
Meaning video editor, i.e. an NLE.

If you don’t already have one and yet want to get creative with PI-generated work, you might think of getting one. Being a student, you are probably not overflowing with cash, but there are affordable deals.

So… if you don’t already have one and you are interested, below is a slightly edited part of a posting I put up recently here at this forum.

A really great deal in there too.

Good luck.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

“NLE” is short for professional “non-linear editor” = video/film editing software. The Sony Vegas line is one of them and Sony just released the higher version 8 (and changed the name to “Vegas Pro”).

Most such NLE’s cost from $499-$10,000+. Vegas being the most affordable — and easiest to use.

BUT before you hit the “Ain’t got that kinda dough, dude…” button…

IF you want to get into some serious editing firepower, you can get a totally legit, steal-deal on version 6 as long as it lasts–which may not be long since v.8 is out now. It may go away by the end of the month, but that’s just a guess.

“OK, yeah… But how much is it?”

$99. Yup, the top of the Vegas line one. No joke, no scam:

— It’s disk-only, but I’m a regular at the Vegas forums at Sony and so I know that one can upgrade from this ridiculously priced v.6 deal when/if you wish to do so in the future.

Sure, you could get something like Pinnacle Studio, but Studio is to Vegas what a bicycle is to a racing motorcycle. Alternately, you could also get something intermediate from Sony:

— Vegas Movie Studio, it comes in two flavors, $79, $119 MSRP. But you’d be way ahead with the 6 pro version of Vegas, if for but one reason, among many others:

Unlimited tracks.

This can’t quite be appreciated until one actually starts getting into truly creative editing. The other consumer versions of Vegas don’t have that capability, and they also lack other features that the real Vegas does have.

________________________________

So go check out the links below.

You can also search B&H (where the steal-deal is) or elsewhere for Movie Studio prices: but stick to reputable retailers, otherwise you’ll get screwed money-wise and/or product-wise.

You can find decent deals at Amazon, too, but not the steal-deal one — it’s a special one arranged with Sony at B&H.

Bottom line:

— If you want to get good at editing and pull of stuff you can’t yet even imagine, go for the $99 deal, and soon. I’ve blown myself away at what I’ve discovered I could do as I learned (and keep learning) to use Vegas.

—————————————-

—- Vegas 6 — B&H Deal for $99

—- All Sony Vegas Versions — Sony Product Page

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Responses at this board have been a bit scarce lately it seems and my guess is may or may not be due to all the work going into the soon to be released PI updates.(Note that I’m simply a user of PI, I do not work for them, so only going on guesses here.)

I’d suggest you call/contact Wondertouch directly for this kind of question and investment.
.