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Courtesy Note:

At the time of this posting, my webhosting co. is having some server problems, so one cannot use the link — I can’t get email either. But it may be up by the time you are reading this.

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While no seasoned pro at PI yet but deep enough into it to know something about what one can do in tweaking emitters, I feel it would be very possible to do so.

The clip you showed is too far-field to get a sense of the birds, and I don’t know how detailed and/or near-field you want your flocking to be, but here is what I would do:

— Choose an emitter that approximates a moving-veil or flame type movement, that is a general feel of flocking.

— Depending on the emitter type (point, area, etc.) replace the particle type or types with a custom made “particle type”, i.e. a bird or various shots of birds.

— You may wish to check out Paul Hansen’s third particle library* with the birds in it and maybe use that as a starting point for creating this, creating and using smaller sized images of these individually. Or creating your own).

— Then start crafting the effect you wish as a project file and save often. Once satisfied, you can then import it as an emitter into the libraries. I often have various versions of the same, so I can go back and use them if I over-tweak something 🙂

Bottom line: With some patience, ingenuity and creativity, PI is very versatile for creating a wide-range of effects.

But Gentle Warning:

— Using images as particles that are more than 8-bit, sequences and/or large will use alot of preview rendering and CPU juice. If your system can’t handle it well, you’re going to have to do this slowly and carefully.

So check with PI sales or support for such requirements.
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* >>> Here is the mentioned particle library by Paul Hanson — the bird one is the third on first row:

https://phansen.ca/ParticleIllusion.html

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Thanks. I also understood that the first part of your responses was what you said it was (to-be considered enhancement of PI 🙂

As to corruption issue, since it’s Friday, I’ll probably send that email with screen-shots and log file over the weekend to be dealt with next week.

Have a nice weekend. NRN.

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Hi,

As stated earlier, I don’t want to mess with the particle shapes part of PI unless I know what I am doing. Especially now, since I just had an emitter library corruption again, the details of which I will email to support, incl. error log file. Luckily I have backup of the library, albeit a bit out of date.

For now, below is the Q in my last post that I would like to have answered. I may have answered my own question through the question itself, but I can’t know unless it is confirmed.

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(Alan wrote) “I forgot to add that my quick solution would be to designate the original shape somehow.”

— Not sure what you mean: save the particle shape as a copy/other name upon opening Change Shape — so that one can know what and where it is the next time around — i.e. give it a name related to the emitter/s it is part of?

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Thanks, Alan. I’ve combine-replied to both of your responses here.
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“That’s a good point, and something that I’ve noticed myself. Perhaps I’ll be able to do something about this soon (rather than waiting until 3.5 is released).”

— Cool 🙂
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“….if you’re doing a lot of editing of the emitter libraries, you’ve a greater chance of “messing up” the original emitters. I always add an emitter to the stage, then edit it there and “add to library” if I’m happy with the results. That way I never kill the original emitters.”

— Yup, learned that the hard way early on. Had to reload everything to make sure I had all the originals. Fortunately that was BEFORE I spent hours re-organizing my libraries. Phew 🙂 Though I did make that boo-boo recently again, but it was minor tweak, so no biggie.
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“I forgot to add that my quick solution would be to designate the original shape somehow.”

— Not sure what you mean: save the particle shape as a copy/other name upon opening Change Shape — so that one can know what and where it is the next time around — i.e. give it a name related to the emitter/s it is part of?

…………………………………………………

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Thanks, that sounds like another good option and I will experiment with that one too. The more options, the better 🙂

“Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines – these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm.” ~ Henry Miller.

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Thanks, Elvis.

I’ll go and try using those two parameters in tandem. From what I understand from your suggestion, one has to balance upping one and lowering the other in order to get the right middle ground (desired overall output speed).

(Your name sounds familiar… Haven’t I seen it in emitter libraries? If so, hey, I’m dealing with high-tech celebrity here 🙂

“Moralities, ethics, laws, customs, beliefs, doctrines – these are of trifling import. All that matters is that the miraculous become the norm.” ~ Henry Miller

“Yeah, baby. That’s groovy, baby.” ~ Austin Powers