Alan Lorence
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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Here’s how Aharon (our aspect ratio and format expert) answered a similar (if not exact) question in an email a couple weeks ago. Hope it helps.
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Since particleIllusion can only read in sqaure pixels, your going to experience a problem with standard Definition widescreen footage because it’s output in non square pixels at 720×486.So you need to force Final cut tor render in square pixels at the square pixel equivilent size for SD widescreen – and that’s at 864×486.
So, again force Final cut to output as square pixels with a resolution of 864×486.
When you bring that into particleIllusion it will come in correctly. Once you output from pIllusion into Final Cut, then you have to make sure to let final cut know that it’s at square pixels – not sure how to do that since I don’t use final cut, but that’s the solution.
—Alan.
wondertouch -
I don’t know what you mean. You’ll have to describe which part of this scene you want to do with particles. The earth? The satellite? The radio waves? It’s not clear. An image would help.
Alan.
wondertouch -
[Mike] “slowly floating on my stage”
Easy: just set the emitter velocity to 5% or something low like this.
[Mike] “without leaving the confines of the stage”
Not easy — there is no way to control this. I’m also not sure why you need this restriction. Just create an area emitter that covers the entire stage, set the velocity very low, and adjust the number so you have the particle density you want.
Alan.
wondertouch -
It really depends on what your application is. If you want it to look like the bolts are half-buried in a cloud, then starting it “off the edge” is probably best. This would limit the usefulness of this shape though, since it would only look good in this type of effect.
If you want a more “general purpose” bolt shape, then make sure that the bolts start and end inside the image area (surrounded by black on all sides).
For “electric” effects (like a ball of lightning) and to make the source of the bolt more predictable, make each frame of the sequence start at the exact same point in the frame.
The size of the shape used and the “size” properties are not related. If you take an emitter that uses 512×512 shapes and swap out a 128×128 shape (if I remember correctly) you don’t have to adjust the “size” property. You may need to adjust the “reference point” location though.
Scaling a large shape image very small results in poor quality, just as scaling a small shape very large does.
Finally, you don’t need to use a square shape image — you can make it 128 x 512 for instance.
Alan.
wondertouch -
One more thing to remember whenever you are making particle shapes:
Don’t let the “important” parts of the image reach the edge of the image. For example, in some of your frames the “glow” around the bolts reaches the edge of the image. This results in a sharp edge in the particles (maybe not visible until you zoom out, or use the emitter in a larger project), that completely kills the effect.
So, make sure that you have an area of complete (0,0,0) black all around the edge of your images.
There are a few old “blurred star” shapes in libraries that go to a near-black like (5,5,5) or something like that, and in some cases this creates a sharp edge that is visible. Quite ugly.
Alan.
wondertouch -
Bill,
Very nice, and will be quite useful. A few questions…
– How did you create the images? I need to be sure that they’re not copyrighted, since they will eventually make it into the general emitter library collections I’m sure. Plus, I’d like to be able to create this type of image sequence myself (and others would too I’m sure).
– Would you mind if I included this in the Aug. Emitter library? If you don’t mind, then please let me know how you want me to attribute it. It would be something like “Lightning 01 (Bill ___ )”
– Keep in mind: Only use 512×512 shape images if you really need to (if one particle is approximately that size when rendered). If you don’t need it that big, making it 256×256 will save a lot of memory, especially with an animated shape like this.
Alan.
wondertouch -
This is a sample from an older demo reel intro that may be what you’re looking for. It’s actually 2 sample files — in one the particles fly up, and in one they fly down. Use the fly up example, then reverse the frames in your video editing proram to make it seem like the particles are forming the words.
If you change the bg image, you’ll have to resize the emitters.
https://www.wondertouch.com/downloads/temp/cow/pI3_Sig05_reel_into.zip
Only works in 3.0, not SE.
Alan.
wondertouch -
Yes, that’s the only way to do it. Drawing the background image effectively erases what was on the stage in the previous frame, so it counteracts “don’t erase”.
Alan.
wondertouch -
In the near future (next 4 months or so), no — no new Pro Emitter Libraries. After that, probably, but no release schedule. It’s quite difficult.
Alan.
wondertouch -
R-click the link and “save target as”.
Alan.
wondertouch