Alan Lorence
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COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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You mean on top of the words, right?
You can’t make particles interact with each other, but you can probably do it with a deflector (animate it’s position so it slowly moves up).
I’ll have to play around with this. I’ll see if I can at least put together a project file. If it works out, maybe a full tutorial.
Alan.
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Trace — email support at wondertouch dot com. I’m checking into this, but I may need more details.
I’ll post the results of what I find out here, but I’d rather do the intermediate communication directly with you.
Alan.
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What exactly do you mean by “searchlight”? The beam of light seen from the side? The circle of light? Both? How will it move?
Alan.
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This will change the layering of the effects — the one on top in the hierarchy is the one on top in the stage window.
For some emitters this will make no difference, as the particles will be blending together (“intense” particles are additive).
Alan.
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Make sure the framerate of the project (set it Project Settings dialog) matches the framerate of your clip.
Alan.
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Ok, in Photoshop this is really simple — much easier than in Paintshop Pro for the most part.
In this example I’m starting with an image of a snowflake (or whatever) that I’ve selected (with magic wand or manually) and “Copy” it to clipboard.
1) Select “New” image in PS. It should use the image size from the clipboard. Make sure the background is “transparent”.
2) Paste into the new image as a new layer. You should now see a snowflake (or whatever you have) on a transparent background (shown by the checkerboard in PS)
3) Use “canvas size” to make the image square by increasing the smaller of width or height to match the larger value. (For instance if it’s 400w x 430h, make it 430w x 430h)
4) Now “image size” to resize to a power of 2: 128, 256, 512. Always resize down for best quality.
5) Now we just need to make the shadow. Duplicate the layer. Select the bottom layer, and select “image – adjustments – exposure”. Slide the exposure slider left to blacken the layer. Now use Gaussian blur on the layer to soften it up. Maybe a radius of 13 or so.
That’s it for creating the shadow, although you may want to reduce the opacity of the shadow layer a little, or offset the position of the shadow layer a little (but only if all of the particles will be in the same orientation)
6) Save as PNG.
Importing into particleIllusion
A) Once you select the image file and you get the shape import options dialog, don’t change any options except click “full-color”, then OK to import.
That’s it. Maybe there’s an easier way to make a drop shadow, but I’m not a PS expert.
Alan.
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All of the existing shadow images I created in Paintshop Pro. Every time I try to duplicate this technique (I’m trying for the Nov. library) it takes a lot of trial and error for me to remember the one step that makes it all work. So far I haven’t remembered. =\
I haven’t given up though — am trying in Photoshop too. Once I figure it out I’ll be sure to write down the steps. Hope to have it done today so I can finish up a few emitters and release the Nov. library this weekend.
Alan.
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Search these forums (use the “search” function) for “looping” or “loopable” and you’ll see this discussed many times.
Alan.
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Try a simple test:
1) Create a 320 x 240 output (make that the stage size in the Project Settings dialog)
2) Add any particle emitter
3) Render as QuickTime, and choose “Animation” compressor.
4) In Output Options dialog, use the default settings (don’t check “save alpha”)
Alan.