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Correction/Clarification Regarding:

“Depending on your monitor resolution, you could crank it up and also calculate a reasonable more-than-100% proportional resolution of your desired resolution.”
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What I forgot to add to the part of the sentence that I have put in italics here was “(… of your desired resolution) in PI’s Preferences and Project Settings.”

I should have separated the two issues into two sentences, because monitor resolution is one thing, PI settings another:

— You can up the PI settings proportionally without changing monitor resolution while working (which isn’t recommended for reasons stated).

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I have PI-3, but the settings are similar:

a) Go to Preferences and set your resolution to what you want.
b) Go Project Settings and match them there too.

Your monitor resolution while working in PI should be obviously more than those dimensions so that you have room when you “Zoom 100%” right before you export the file. AND…

To further maximize file export resolution, and thus quality:

I personally max out my monitor resolution for rendering/exporting out of so I can make the files proportionally larger than project settings resolution in my NLE.

This is done by:

1. Widening the stage area to the maximum by removing or hiding all toolbars, keyframe and particle library windows.

2. Zoom to Fit instead of just Zoom 100%.

That way I usually get 167% in my case. The higher the resolution, the better.

Depending on your monitor resolution, you could crank it up and also calculate a reasonable more-than-100% proportional resolution of your desired resolution.

But:

Be aware that that the larger the monitor resolution, the harder it is for applications to draw vector images and such. Especially subtle and multiple events such as particles.

That’s why even though I have a dual core system with plenty of DDRM, I only increase my monitor resolution when I export or render out of PI, not while I’m working in it.

Based on the fact that kinder one is on one’s system’s heat generation, the longer its life span and cool purposes 🙂

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I hope these tips may be of some help.
There may be others I am not aware of.
.

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Well, that’s sounds simple enough 🙂 Thanks.

As to format to bring variations back into PI, I assume one sticks to that which is saved out of PI. I’ve found out from experience that while using higher bit images can be imported and used in a project, PI export of a project is still 8-bit at this point.

So point getting bit-fancy: anything higher only gets reduced back down to 8-bit anyway.

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Once I’ve finished the overhaul, I guess I’ll just try it and see what happens since there have been no replies to this Q on it’s validity. Keeping a backup of emitters, of course 🙂

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Terry,

No, I don’t work for Wondertouch, I just seem to be the person posting most often recently.

I don’t know what else to tell you since you say you tried masks in PI. I can maybe look into it and the emitter you mentioned in the next couple of days, but I’m reorganizing my entire system and I need to keep focused.

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“NLE (Sony Vegas)”- translation:

— “NLE” is short for professional “non-linear editor” = video/film editing software. “Vegas” is one of them and Sony just released version 8 10 days ago (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…

Going the NLE Way (Got a Deal for Ya)

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.

“OK, yeah… But how much is it?”

$99. 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. 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. (You sound like the creative type (hey, you got PI-3, right? 🙂

The other consumer versions of Vegas don’t have that capability, and they also lack other features that the real Vegas does have.

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So go check out the links below, the second is the official Sony Vegas “family of products” page.

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.

But trust me on this:

— 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 6.

The reason I’m upgrading to 8 soon is due to a customary after-release, limited time upgrade deal from previous versions of pro Vegas for only $134-$149 (until Oct. 31). Otherwise, it would be too steep a price for me cuz… rich, I ain’t.

OK, time to put a sock in it here. And BTW…
No, I don’t work for Sony or B&H, either 🙂

Take care,

~ Soniclight
(a.k.a. Philip in Los Angeles)

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—- Vegas 6 — B&H Deal for $99

—- All Sony Vegas Versions

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I haven’t needed to this type of thing since I do such things in my NLE (Sony Vegas). It comes down to using masks, be it within or outside of PI. If you have PI-3, it should be easy to do so using layers, something like this:

— Laser effects on bottom layer.
— Footage of dancer on next layer.
— Cut-out/mask of dancer on layer above that one.

Adjust how much of the laser effects you want to happen within the silhouette:

— Totally black or 100% opaque/masked out — or just a slight bleed-through to give the effect of the lights sort of being reflected on the dancer – though it won’t be accurately realistic, just kinda-sorta 🙂

If you have PI SE, you’d have to do this all one one layer. As stated, I’ve so far not used masks in PI-3, so open the PI tutorials and use your browser’s page-search function for “mask” etc. if you want to do this in PI itself.

If you have an NLE that allows you to make masks with Bezier curves such as Vegas, that’s another way to go.

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I’m guessing the PI team here is busy working on the to-be-released update for PI, so there may or may not be a slew of feedback for a day or so.

As far as what you want to do, I sense your enthusiasm for getting started on doing such an effect, but ya gotta get to learn PI a bit first to pull it off. This because you may have to use two layers for this effect using two different emitters.

I don’t have the time to go and look these up for you, but if my memory is correct, you could use one of the cloud-type explosions for the mushroom head part — one that oval-ish, and one that is an up-moving fire-swirl type one together.

While the new PI update will give you the ability to download emitter libraries automatically and keep them current, if you haven’t done so yet, go get all the emitters so far (“all_emmiters Part 1” and 2) on the Wondertouch page.

Then go cruise through them and look for the emitters mentioned (probably in explosions and clouds type sets — which are in several emmitter libraries).

If/when you find the two types I stated, put the cloud one on the top layer and the firey swirl un the second (beneath it). Then use the tutorial, etc. to learn how to tweak them to make them work together.

Hope this helps to some extent.

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I’m going through all of my emitter back to the first ones of 2003 and am finding some usable stuff in there. Also downloaded the “Abstracts” stills and .mov.

Q: I like some the fluidity in several of these but for my style of work, is there a way for me to create and replace the strictly linear particles used with somewhat more organic variations?

I’ve already created some of my own particles, but only a few.

What I’m shooting at here is that the motions and effects are nice, but for my work I need the lines to be less graphic, more, well, ethereal.

Got any suggestions on how to do that?

Once I know, I most likely will purchase that one once I’ve scoured through the ones I have for superemitters are more sophisticated.
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P.S./FYI on Abstract .mov — Possible render or upload glitch?

I’ve downloaded it twice using two different modalities to make sure it wasn’t some in-transit file corruption. It may be the way as you intended, but here is what I saw:

— The blue vertical ribbons emitter at 00.39 (as per QuickTime) is only a brief still image. Unlike all the others.

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Alan,

Just wanted you to know that you’ve given me some hope in this with both your recommendations. Due to the at times complex stuff I tend to do, I’m aware that I may have to make more than one project with layers due to the drawing requirements of such particles.

Then composite them in Vegas for the final assembly.

A couple of thread participants over there mentioned some alternative background image type apps, and also something at Digital Juice. But none came close to what you suggested. So I passed on the recommendations to others at the Sony board at which I had posted a similar thread.

Fact is, PI has been mentioned on a fairly regular basis over there recently — with and without my doing so rather often since PI is central to my developing my visual style.

Hopefully the more Vegas people know about Wondertouch, the more sales 🙂

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Thanks, Alan. Too tired to do so right away, but I’ll look into all the above stated.