[Max Jackson]

Cool, it helps knowing what you don’t know.

Sounds like I need to understand the scale of my project, composition and THEN get my objects set-up and just get more familiar with control ratios and how they directly or inversely affect each other in the emission.

I wish I could draw out a diagram of some kind to remind myself the relationships of Emitter, Particle, and Physics controls. I’ve already printed out the manual. Now I need to figure out how these controls pair up.

Starting out it’s a little difficult understanding the difference between emitter velocity, physics, and wind velocity, but it’s in the manual. Now I just need to cross reference.

Thanks Kevin!

[Max Jackson]

I see, so it’s just something that needs serious consideration early on in the development of the overall effect, right?

Like similar in figuring out how many people are going to be on stage, you need to figure out how big the stage is going to be. If you change the shape or size of the stage not only does this affect blocking, the art department is going to be really upset. That’s the theory, correct?

[Max Jackson]

Actually I think I figured out the answer. In order to create more particle mass or thickness at the root or point of emission I have to increase the Physics Time Factor. Simply increase Particle count or changing opacity over life helped but that’s the direction I believe I’m looking for.

Thanks for responding though! 🙂

[Max Jackson]

Attached are two images, one of the effect I’m working on, the second a primitive shape to more plainly point out the area I’m trying to increase thickness.

I have a smoke effect on the shadowy cut-out. However, I’m looking to tighten this effect and thicken it at the point of emission.

In the red primitive I’ve circled where I’m trying to create a thicker softer edge. Right now it’s just a hard edge with pixels emitting.

Was wondering with controls I should alter to move in the direction.

[Max Jackson]

Aha! I figured out the answer and thought I’d post it.

The reason why the imported comp versus the imported layers is different is because Form settings adhere to the actual size of the composition in which that it is contained.

The pre-comp that I imported was a smaller scale in size than the composition I was importing the raw layers into. Had I pre-composed those layers and changed the composition height and width to match the results would be identical.

So when using Trapcode Form, composition size matters!

Anyway, thanks for reading!

[Max Jackson]

Actually you’re right. I get what you were saying now with the black on black. Silly me, that’s exactly what the problem was.

Thanks John!

[Max Jackson]

I’m painting black on a JPG. I thought I hit the same on/off switch and it masked out what I painted, but i hit it again and from here on out it just turns the whole comp black. Heh, not sure what I did.

Thanks John. 🙂

[Max Jackson]

When I click the Paint on Transparent ‘on’ the whole frame goes black. I got it to show transparent through the image, but then now all it does is show a black canvas.

Know what I did wrong at all?

Thanks for your help, it’s really encouraging. I’ll have to see if I can’t find some more tutorials on using the paint tool.

[Max Jackson]

My character emitting the particles is standing still for the most part so this should work well I think.

Thanks for the tip!

[Max Jackson]

Right, mask is probably bad terminology. Also, my bad, the paint isn’t flattened to the image in layer mode. it’s a wire on top that you can move around. That’s way comforting.

One thing though, I’m still in layer mode. How do I get this paint on the image in layer mode to it’s own solid or layer to use as a matte or blend mode layer effect?

Thanks John.