Elvis Deane
Forum Replies Created
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I found it very difficult to get a nice Stargate effect made in pI, because of the way the event horizon ripples. It’s a very 3D effect, though some of the filters in After Effects can probably replicate it pretty easily.
You can try creating a circular emitter that only shoots particles inward. Start them out a dark blue, and make them turn light blue as they reach the center of the circle. Turn on intense so they glow as they overlap, to create that bright spot in the center of the ring.
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
Most of the effects in Flash were done in pI, the lightning stuff was from one of the electricity emitters, and I think the clouds were either modified versions of the Time Lapse Clouds emitter, or my own emitter that used the same shape. There’s a slightly revised version of the short on Google Video where I redid the cloud forming into the face in Softimage, mostly because I was learning XSI’s particle system and wanted to test how particle goals worked.
As for the 3D stuff, it took a lot of time. The Astounding Adventures comics were done at a rate of about a page a day, but that was about a year after I started to learn 3D. Five years later, I can pose a lot more panels in the span of a day, though building sets, props and characters can take a lot more time. I have a few other comics that I’m working on now, but I’m waiting for Comic Life to be released for Windows before I put them together.
I suggest Wings3D to learn modeling. It’s free and simple to learn, I use it every day. For the animation part, Carrara might be an easy one to pick up, though I don’t know how good it is for character animation. Cinema4D and XSI are in a similar price rance for the base versions, but they are probably harder to learn when starting out. A lot of people use Poser to make comics as well, which is probably the simplest way to go because your characters are already made for you.
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
That’s not normal performance. I’m on a 3 year old computer with a 4 year old video card, and it’s only when I have a lot of particles on stage that I start to get slowdown.
It’s most likely that your drivers are the problem. Download the latest “certified” drivers from the ATI website.
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
Some of those are prettty wild!
You can get a pretty neat 3D sort of effect on the first couple of Light Waves if you increase the Size Variation.—
Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
I only have the Cineform and XVID from that list, though I’ve had the DIVX ones before I upgraded to divx 5.2.
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
Set a couple of keyframes on the Number graph. By setting a key at 0, you’ll stop the creation of new particles from that frame onward, but the particles already born will continue to live out their lives.
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
The more you increase the Life graph, the longer the particles will stay on the stage. So just push that past 200, until you get the length you need.
You’ll have to make two more changes if you push it much more than 200%. In the duplicate emitter you made, reset the Size over Life graph, and increase the topmost Size graph to 200%.
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
I’m not too sure what it could be, other than perhaps a driver issue. Try this:
Under View>Preferences, click the OpenGL tab and uncheck ‘Use hardware acceleration’. Restart pI, and try rendering an AVI again.If AVIs no longer crash, then its a driver issue so you’ll need to grab the latest certified ATI driver.
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
The simplest way to do it is to copy and paste a new version of the logo at frame 1. Right-click on it in the stage and convert it to a point emitter. Now the particles will just fly up instead of coming in from all sides. Reduce the Velocity graph to 0, and crank up the Life to about 200%.
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures -
There’s also one specifically how to change text
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Elvis Deane!
The particleIllusion FAQ
particleIllusion Resources and tutorial CD
Astounding Adventures