[Avrohom Kohn]

This last thing you mentioned (seedRandom(1,true); ) works much better. I didn’t see it before. Sorry.

I was playing around with different numbers instead of 1. 10 gives me better results. Could you just explain what it’s doing (what’s the random index of the layer, and what’s this number telling it)?

Thanks.

Avrohom

[Avrohom Kohn]

Ok. I was playing around with it. The problem is, the layers seem to be staying close to each other. I have 2 layers, they’re nicely spaced. When I duplicate layer 2, both layer 3 and layer 2 are rerandomized, and mose times they stick dangerously close to each other and sometimes close to the first layer as well. Is there a way to control the amount of randomness?

Avrohom

[Avrohom Kohn]

And one more thing:

Every time I duplicate the layer, even the original randomizes again. Why doesn’t it stay at the position it already chose.

thanks.

Avrohom

[Avrohom Kohn]

Thanks. That works. Could you just explain what this is for:

seedRandom(index,true);

Why couldn’t I just put in everything after that? I’m just trying to learn expressions and not just copy and paste every time.

Thanks.

Avrohom

[Avrohom Kohn]

I’m trying to produce something that can be edited with stuff that come with AE, so while I have Particular, I’m trying to refrain from using it. I’m actually trying to create an editable AE project for sale on RevoStock. You can actually see my stuff on Revo: https://www.revostock.com/TAMotion

About using Particle Playground, I guess I can try, though I don’t have ANY experience with it, and I found it to be a bit complicated. But I guess I can play around in the playground and see what happens.

Thanks for your help.

Avrohom

[Avrohom Kohn]

I know shatter just blows things ‘outward’, what I’m trying to describe is with the default camera angle, you can only blow things towards or away from the camera. The gravity settings only affect the pieces AFTER they’re blown away, so it really works like a magnet, pulling the pieces in the direction you want, but doesn’t let you set physics to affect individual pieces.

Here’s what I’m talking about:
https://tamotion.com/cow_samples/Cow%204%20Views%20Sample.mov

Right now the active camera is the default view. I would like to get the bottom view as the default view, so I have the camera moving towards the scene with a bit of rotation. But the problem is, after rotating the camera to the bottom view, when trying to move the camera towards the scene–say from the top view (which would now be the active camera, or front view, in the view above) the camera just rotates on the on the Z axis, instead of giving me the parallax effect which I want.

I hope I explained myself clearly.

Avrohom

[Avrohom Kohn]

Thanks David, I’m already only projecting the pieces, and its got nothing to do with the motion I’m trying to achieve. I know it’s a 3D world projected on a 2D layer, that’s why it’s kind of difficult to change things the way I would with a normal 3D layer.

Roland, I’m going to try and upload some screenshots (maybe a video too) of what I have going on to help you better understand my dilemma.

Thanks.

Avrohom

[Avrohom Kohn]

What you’re experiencing is nothing new. It’s called ‘banding’. Search the forums and I’m sure you’ll find many solutions. But real quick, here are a couple of tips:

1. Try adding the noise plug in to the gradient layer (don’t use color noise just monochrome)

2. Change your project setting to a higher bit rate. Try 16 or 32 bit. In CS3 it’s on the bottom of the project panel, I think if you option-click (alt-click on PC) you can cycle through the settings.

Again, you can always search the forums to find more or better solutions.

Avrohom

[Avrohom Kohn]

I’m still on CS3, but I do know some people who have upgraded and had nothing but problems. I’m holding off until they fix these bugs.

Dynamic Link in CS3 works ok.

[Avrohom Kohn]

why don’t you view from the ‘top’ view, and adjust the handles of the motion path (visually keeping the same distance)?