[Danny Winn]

Ok, I think I figured it out!

What I had to do was create the mask in an adjustment layer, but my hang up was that since I was using Particle World, I had to go to Options then Rendering and select the “Blend with original 2D” button.

That seemed to do the trick well.

Thanks guys.

[Danny Winn]

I must be missing something here. Still no success.

1st off though, thanks for responding guys.

I have tried both methods above but I must be missing one little thing or something.

I have tried creating a new solid, lowering opacity and drawing my mask around the actor, then adding the particles, but the particles still fill the whole frame not just the mask (with track matte on or off, doesn’t seem to matter).

I tried the same thing with an adjustment layer with the same results.

Can you tell me where I’m messing up here or what important step I’m missing? The Adobe help does not seem to have a section on keeping effects contained within a mask.

Thanks again;)

[Danny Winn]

Wow you are good Kevin.

Yeah the one that appeared slo mo played fine back in AE, I had tried to play it in Windows media player originally but it did look slo mo in that.

I don’t really get that cause I have 6g of ram and a 2.6 Pentium duel core processer, all brand new for this HD cam.

I always use avi to edit and output to final.

Most of my HD stuff will be used for TV ads and some online.

Thanks so much again Kevin, it’s nice to get good info without being talked down to. Like I said, I never had problems working with SD, but HD will take some learning.

Hope to get advise from you in the future.

-Danny

[Danny Winn]

Hey Kevin,

One more problem. It appears to play in slo mo now even though the size is right now and I do have sound. any idea why it apears slo mo?

Thanks Again

[Danny Winn]

Oh my gosh Kevin that helps so much, and yes I was using the render queue, I guess I was thinking of the term used in Premiere Pro, but of course I did mean render queue.

I will try again tonight and thanks to both of you for responding.

I’m a wiz at SD but HD is a different monster. I’ll get it…

[Danny Winn]

Hey Todd,

I found out last night after some digging that if you turn the “AE_openGL” preference Off, that it would stop the crashing, and it did (for now).

Which begs the question, why does OpenGL even exist since most peoples Computers crash with it set to on.

I’m not real sure what the setting even does because everything looked great once it was off. Maybe you know.

Thanks for responding

Danny

[Danny Winn]

Thanks to both of you for responding, I will look into all your suggestions.

[Danny Winn]

Oh yeah, I didn’t write it quite right. Under effects go to generate, choose “Cell Pattern”. Then in the Cell Pattern effects settings there is a default setting called “Bubbles”, drop that menu down and you’ll have the crystals and crystalize option as well as a few more.

You can tweek about all of that effect from size to movement. You can also go to the color correction effects to change the crystal colors.

As far as creating the circle mask around the ball, the easiest way is probably to just change the rectangle tool (next to the pen tool)to the ellipse tool and then press shift when masking the ball to keep the circle perfectly round.

It might be a good idea to set your crystal layer to overlay (in the blending mode options), try a few to see what works best.

[Danny Winn]

Without getting too complicated, I would start with a white solid and bring down the opacity almost to 0. Then mask the ball out with the pen tool or shape tool.

Under generate, there is an option for crystals and crstalize in which you can change the size of the crystals smaller or larger, and adjust the crystal color.

With fractal noise and blur effects added I’m sure you can get really good results with some trial and error. Of course all of this will have to be keframed as far as the progressive generation of the ice. Adjust your opacity level to suite the best look.

Oh, you could also make your round mask slightly larger than the ball to make it appear to have some thickness to it if needed.

[Danny Winn]

I would use a layer mask around the mirror and then keyframe in which ever blur effect works best for you. You could also keyframe some motion to the mask having it slowly move up the mirror (or whatever direction you want).

You can use the feather option on your mask so you don’t have an obvious line across the mirror and you can also draw the mask as an odd shape like steam tends to be.

If you want the whole mirror to go steamed over a time, then you can do that by keyframing the effects opacity from 0 to whatever percent looks best.

I would start with all those options, I’m sure you can get it with a little work.