[Philip Knight]

OK, thanks. But won’t that somewhat drastically affect the overall behavior of the emitter/particles, some more so than others? I spend a lot of time fine-tuning these babies 🙂

That said, I can always do a “Save As” backup copy of a project and try the conversion and see what happens to them…

[Philip Knight]

Thanks for response, Alan. I did consider the Area Mask, but… what if the emitter one is using is not and area emitter? This is where I got stuck for the one I wish to use wasn’t — and hence did not give me the options for an area mask.

Ergo why I tried the PNG which didn’t work for some reason as explained in the opening post of this thread and which is its subject. Any fixes on why PNG just isn’t acting right?

At your convenience.
Thanks.

[Philip Knight]

P.S. to Alan:

While do wish to get this solved for I could use stencils in the future for other stuff, I was wondering if there was an alternative using blockers and/or blockers.

Here is the general idea I have that I wish to pull off:

Remember the Genesis Project scene in one of the Star Trek movies whereby the planet is getting populated? It starts at the curve of the horizon line and progressively fills the entire globe (going from slim crescent to circle, in essence).

I wish to do the same with some of my NASA and other Earth sequences I have, but instead of ecosystems, I’d be “populating” the globe with particles. Hence the need for something to keep the particle action within the circle of the planet starting with the crescent/horizon line area.

This will also require some fine tuning because of a) curvature of the Earth and b) perspective (horizon line particles will have to be smallest). So the stencil idea may not work best.

Maybe using blockers or deflectors set up in a garland parallel to the horizon line might do the job as “stencil” in a more realistic way. Which brings me to…

Is there a way to curve a deflector line? From what I can tell, their mass is like blockers:straight-edged. The only thing one can curve is its action path.

The only problem with this garland of blockers or deflectors is that I’d have to create quite a few of them to simulate a curved barrier. But still feasible.

Your thoughts/suggestions appreciated.
At your convenience.

[Philip Knight]

OK, thanks 🙂

[Philip Knight]

OK, thanks. Part of all this is also just learning to get a sense of cursor sensitivity and so on. As well as using stage zoom.

Practice makes, well… better 🙂

[Philip Knight]

You’re welcome.

As to when new ones will come out, hey, we’ll all just have to keep our creative withdrawal symptoms in check and be patient – lol.

On submitting originals:

I’m toying around with one emitter that I may submit as a possible candidate, though having renamed it, at some point I have to go hunt for its original PI version and name as original reference.

[Philip Knight]

OK, thanks.

For those who didn’t catch those threads as I didn’t — since “Hmmmmmm….” as subject was too vague to garner my attention or point to the issue — I’m including below what I feel is the crux of Alan’s response from those links (saves clicking around).
___________________

Re: Hmmmmmm….
by Alan Lorence on Feb 18, 2010 at 5:16:14 pm

Kurt and all — unfortunately I’ve not been able to generate any emitters for January. We’re putting the finishing touches on the Mac version of particleIllusion for After Effects and I just haven’t had time.

There will be a February library though — this was just a one-month hiatus. =)

Somebody mentioned user-created emitters. I’m definitely for that! If everybody sent me their one best emitter, I’d hopefully have dozens of great emitters to choose from. There are a few “rules” that have to be followed though, which makes it more difficult:

1) The emitter has to be different enough from existing emitters, or a major improvement over existing emitters. Subtle variations on old emitters are not good enough.

2) The emitter can’t be based on a Pro Emitter, or if it is it needs to be drastically different and use different particle images.

3) The emitter must be yours to give.

4) You must be willing to share it with *everybody*

5) I have to approve the emitter (it has to be good).

If you have emitters that meet 1-4, please send them along (zipped) to support at wondertouch.com!

(reviewing emitters takes time too, but not as much as creating them)

Alan.

https://www.wondertouch.com

[Philip Knight]

Not sure what you mean (looks like English is not your first language 🙂 but maybe this can help:

Speed of an object is determined by two things: actual position in image and the time it takes to get from point A to point B which are both determined by keyframes.

The longer the time (the larger the distance between keyframes), the slower the movement, and vice-versa. In the illustration below the symbol “]” means one key frame: there are 30 keyframes between A and B in the Slower example, and 5 in the Faster one.

Slower: Keyframe A ]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] Keyframe B
Faster: Keyframe A ]]]]] Keyframe B

So look in you key-frames below the image area, click on your “B” keyframe (destination) and drag it back a bit to be closer to your “A” (departure) point. That will make travel faster.

There are many other factors that affect the speed of particle that are in its properties such as Life and so on, but the above is the general video editing way to control speed over distance.

[Philip Knight]

I only know about Second Life indirectly but since it’s a 3D visual platform most of what one sees if one Googles “video upload Second Life” is 3D editor tutorials, tips, etc.

Particleillusion/PI is NOT 3D, it’s 2D — though it can give an illusion of 3D within film or video (which is maybe one reason “illusion” is part of its name 🙂

So to clarify, 2D and 3D = apples and oranges:

— 2D = any film or video or still/photo, and so any PI effects used in any of these is also 2D. In all these cases you’re dealing with a 2 dimensional = flat surface of pixels/bitmaps.

— 3D is built with polygons and the like, not pixels. Anything that is a 3D platform such as Second Life needs 3D content for the content to work in 3D.

Of course on can render 3D work into 2D video/film/stills (i.e. I do it with my 3D program Vue). But one can’t turn 2D into 3D — at least not unless one is a major film or animation studio with very specialized, high-end tweaking software.

That said…

Maybe one can convert, tweak or integrate 2D video (i.e. in which PI effects are added) in at Second Life as a non-pro user, I simply do not know. The best way to find out is go to a Second Life forum and ask, check out their FAQ, send a Help/Customer Service question, Google around, etc.

[Philip Knight]

While I don’t use AE (I use Sony Vegas Pro as an NLE) and thus don’t know what is possible in yours only that it is a bit different than in Vegas, the rule of thumb would be that you can simulate 3D by warping the 2D frames in space.

I.e. giving them perspective, etc. Depending on your effects, you can also layer them to give a 3D illusion like stacking cards in different positions and distances. Such as making three different PI particles and that together make up the total effect by exporting each separately and putting each on a track in AE and tweaking them in space.

In Vegas one would use 3D Alpha Track Motion on such tracks. But you’re still dealing with a 2D – flat plane with PI files; only true 3D programs can create real 3D for they use polygons and such not two dimensional pixels such as NLE).

Bottom line, this is where creativity comes in. One can fool the eye to make it look as if it was done in 3D, but it also takes some extra work and tracks.
__________

The above or may not be what you were asking but that’s all I can suggest.
Others may have better ideas.