[Aharon Rabinowitz]

It’s not that they’re taking time to get there.

It’s probably things like, life, size over life and the transparency gradient that are effecting it.

The longer something lives the longer it’s Over life properties take to do their thing – so if it grows over life, it will grow slower with a longer life.

Also, the longer it lives the longer the transparency (or color for that matter) takes to go through the gradient (in the particle Properties, color tab).

So try either shortening the life, playing with the size over life, or get the transparency gradient to have less black over the course of the life so your particles appear sooner.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

Do you mena have it “Cling” to the alpha? – You need to apply the Advanced lightning to the layer you want to have the lightning adhere to. Then turn up the value on the property called “Alpha Obstacle” in the effect. You might try changing the “lightning type” to something other than the default.

Also, you may want to composite on original (Checkbox at the bottom).

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

Thanks folks!

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

While it’s not universal, you get a lot of bang for your buck with DivX. I tend not to use it because not everyone has the codec on their PC or MAc.

Also, worth mentioning, if you plan on putting up a lot of stuff on the web, a great tool for compressing and keeping the quality up is Sorenson Squeeze – a program from the people who created the sorenson codec. It does a great job of compressing – there’s even an option to cap the file size, and Squeeze will do whatever it has to to make it stick to that.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

Thanks. It’s a real pleasure to be here! I look forward to putting my 2 cents in (even when you only need 1).

Take it easy,

Aharon

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

AE Pro (non-educational) comes with an effect called “CC page Turn”

It’s from the Cycore effects that install seperately off the AE CD.

Effect > Distort > CC Page Turn

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

I don’t know what CSV is, but as far as I know the only value that can be exported is the position data – as either an After Effects clipboard or a tab-delimited text file.

Sorry.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

This totally rocks. Nice work.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

“A 720×540 comp has the potential for containing more information than its 720×486 counterpart.”

By that token, why not work at 800×600, or larger?

What do you mean when you say “the potential for containing more data? Can you explain? What are you going to do with that extra data – doesn’t it get tossed out anyway?

“So using the principle that it’s better to toss away information than it is to invent new information, I chose 720×540. “

But I feel like more is less, in this case. You end up having to throw away pixels, instead of setting it up right and not having to lose any data at all.

I guess it’s a preference – I’m trying to understand how the whole thing got started, and if there is an advantage or disadvantage in doing it one way or another. I don’t mean to be confrontational, at all.

Thanks.

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com

[Aharon Rabinowitz]

Which is the same way I feel about using 720×540 as a resolution. It doesn’t make sense that it’s used, and yet most of the experts say use it. I have not heard a decent explanation as to why, though.

As far as the future goes, I’m looking forward to watching TV in square pixels while my robot drives my flying car for me…

—————————————-
Aharon Rabinowitz
aharon(AT)yahoo(DOT)com
http://www.allbetsareoff.com
—————————————-
Creative Cow Master Series DVD
particleIllusion Fusion Volume 1
available @ http://www.pIllusionFusion.com