michiel | 9 years ago | 10 comments | 10 likes | 3.9K views
persiana, snafu, Dani and 7 others like this!
Here's a tutorial about particles, how they cooperate with other layers and what the mysterious CHAMELEON property is all about.
On all 5 screenshots you can see 2 picture layers and 1 particle layer.
On the 1st screenshot, the particle layer has been created by clicking on the ADD PARTCLE LAYER... button (SPHERES preset). This way the particles are autonomous: they have no relationship with any other layer.
On the 2nd screenshot, the particles have been created by making the left picture the active layer, followed by clicking on the ATTACH PARTCLES TO ACTIVE LAYER... button (SPHERES CHILD preset). This way the picture layer is the parent layer of the particle layer: it is used as the launching platform. Notice that the particles are not launched from the transparent parts of the picture.
On the 3rd screenshot the CHAMELEON property of the particle layer is set to 1. This way they take over the colours of the parent layer.
On the 4th screenshot, the TARGET LAYER property of the particle layer is used to make the particles fly towards the picture on the right. The particle layer now has a parent layer and a target layer. The LAUNCH SPEED property controls the fly speed.
On the 5th screenshot, the CHAMELEON property is set to -1. Now the colours are not taken from the parent layer, but from the target layer. This is a new feature of version 12.1.0.6.
The particle layer has many properties. Most of them speak for themselves, but the CHAMELEON property is a cryptic one. I hope this article has explained its use.
Download media files (38.9 KB)outerspace-software.com...
Dani, I have added the show files: click on the DOWNLOAD MEDIA FILES button to download them.
michiel, 9 years ago
Michiel Thank you!
Stephen
maxste, 9 years ago
Excellent tutorial. yet another thing I learned from these excellent tutorials which has an immediate use in a show I am doing.
Thank you.
stbo, 9 years ago
Hi Michiel thanks for the great tutorial,
Can it is possible Parent Chameleon particles to became target layer Chameleon particles( 4 th show)
Dani, 9 years ago
Dani, if the target layer is also the parent layer the particles do not fly from a random point on the layer to another random point on the same layer, but immediately reach their target. This way the particles don't move until you animate the TARGET LAYER property.
Take a look at this show for an example:
Media\Shows\Particle\MorphTextToText1.bt
This show sets the MIN/MAX PARTCILES property to (2000,2000) to prevent new particles are emitted. When the minimum number of particles equals the maximum number of particles: no new particles are being emitted.
michiel, 9 years ago
Nice. Thank you, Michiel
eugene57, 9 years ago
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About michiel
Michiel den Outer is the founder and lead coder of Outerspace Software. He lives in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
If he isn't busy improving BluffTitler, he is playing the piano or rides the Dutch dikes on his bikes.
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