Particle layer
What can I do with the particle layer?
With the particle layer you can render effects like fire, smoke, stars, sparkles and flares.
How do I add a particle layer?
Choose LAYER > Add layer > Add particle layer... to add a new particle layer.
Choose LAYER > Attach layer > Attach particle to active layer... to attach a new particle layer to the active layer.
The new particle layer can be selected from the layers dropdown to make it the active layer.
Examples
The installer comes with shows demonstrating the possibilities of the particle layer. Choose FILE > Open show... and select a show from the BluffTitler/Media/Shows/Particle folder.
To quickly switch between your own shows and the ones that came with the installer, click on the Personal and App buttons in the upper right corner of the file dialog.
Attached particles
When you create a particle layer by choosing LAYER > Attach layer > Attach particle to active layer..., the particles are emitted (launched) from the surface of the active layer.
In this example, the particles are attached to a text layer.
The NotLightened_Additive effect makes them blend into each other (choose MEDIA > Change effect...).
Independent particles
When you create a particle layer by choosing LAYER > Add layer > Add particle layer..., the particles are independent and the launch position is set with the Launch position property. Use the Launch area property to define a bigger area.
In this example the Launch area is set to (100,100,100).
Physics
With the Gravity property you can set the direction and size of the gravitational force. To make them fall downwards you set this property to something like (0,-100,0).
With the Floor level property you can set the vertical position of the plane the particles bounce off.
The Bouncing property controls the amount of bouncing.
Particles also bounce off a mirror layer.
Pointillism
By attaching your particles to a picture layer and setting the Chameleon property to 1, the particles take over the colour of the picture.
Pre-export simulation time
It can take a few simulation steps before the particles fill the screen. To prevent this initialization time to appear in your exported video when using a playlist or server rendering, you can use the Pre-export simulation time option int the FILE > Show properties... dialog.
Launch plane
When the Launch plane size property is bigger than 0, the particles are only emitted from this launch plane.
You set the position and rotation of the launch plane with the Launch plane position and Launch plane rotation properties.
When you apply the Special/Clip effect to the layer the particles are attached to and animate the FX Clip plane and Launch plane properties you can create nice dissolve effects.
To learn more, take a look at the particle shows that come with the installer.
Target layer
When the Target layer property is bigger than 0, the particles fly to this layer. Take a look at the Layers dropdown to find the index of the target layer. You can set the flight speed with the Launch speed property.
When you prevent new particles from being emitted (by setting both sliders of the Min/Max particles property to the same value) you can move them around by animating the Target layer property.
To learn more, take a look at the particle shows that come with the installer.
Sorting particles
Mark the Sort elements checkbox in the LAYER > Active layer properties... dialog to sort the particles by their distance to the camera.
This slows down the rendering, but is necessary when using textures with an alpha channel.
Sorting is not necessary when using additive or subtractive blending, textures without an alpha channel or no textures at all.
Particle layer style 1
2D rectangles
Particles are rendered as 2D rectangular billboards (facing the camera).
2D circles
Particles are rendered as 2D circle shaped billboards. This style is very effective when using the Special/Masked effect.
3D circles
Particles are rendered as extruded circles.
3D cubes
Particles are rendered as cubes.
3D spheres
Particles are rendered as spheres.
3D pipes
The path of the particles is rendered as a bended pipe. Use the Trail length property to set the pipe length.
3D blocks
Particles are rendered as blocks
3D blobs
The particles are rendered as 3D intermingling, blending blobs (metaballs).
The blobs are rendered with the marching cubes algorithm.
3D model
Every particle is a 3D model.
Select a 3D model by choosing MEDIA > Change model....
Particle layer style 2
Pointing upwards
In this style, the particle is not rotated
Pointing flight direction
In this style, the particle rotation depends on its flight direction.
Pointing randomly
In this style all particles have a random rotation.
Particle layer style 3
Vertical align top
The particles top aligned
Vertical align centre
The particles centre aligned
Vertical align bottom
The particles bottom aligned
Particle layer properties
Launch position
This is the position where the particles are being emitted.
1st slider: horizontal (x) position
2nd slider: vertical (y) position
3rd slider: depth (z) position
Press <F2> to render the coordinate system.
Launch area
The shape and size of the launch platform.
Examples:
(0, 0, 0) All particles are emitted from the same point
(100, 0, 0): The particles are emitted from a random point on a horizontal line.
(0, 100, 0): The particles are emitted from a random point on a vertical line.
(100, 100, 0): The particles are emitted from a random point on a plane.
(100, 100, 100): They are emitted from a random point in a box.
Press <F2> to visualise this property.
Launch direction
The launch direction in angles.
1st slider: heading
2nd slider: pitch
3rd slider: roll
Press <F2> to render the coordinate system.
Examples:
(90, 0, 0): To the right
(90, 0, 90): Upwards
(90, 0, 180): To the left
(90, 0, -90): Downwards
(0, 0, 0): Away from the camera
(180, 0, 0): Towards the camera
Launch speed
The initial speed. Note that you can reverse the launch direction by using a negative speed.
Time dilation
The speed of time.
The neutral value is 1. A value higher than 1 makes the time run faster. A value lower than 1 makes the time run slower. 0 makes the time stand still.
Spread
This is the maximum deviation from the launch direction.
1st slider: heading
2nd slider: pitch
3rd slider: roll
Press <F2> to render the coordinate system.
Examples:
(0, 0, 0): The launch direction is always the same.
(10, 0, 0): The heading of the launch direction has a maximum deviation of 10 degrees.
(0, 180, 0): The pitch of the launch direction has a maximum deviation of 180 degrees.
(180, 180, 180): The launch direction is completely random.
Emission
The number of particles emitted per second.
Min/max particles
The number of particles.
1st slider: the minimum number of particles
2nd slider: the maximum number of particles
When they are set to the same value and you set the Maximum age property to a very high value, the number of particles is constant and no new particles are emitted.
Gravity
The direction and size of the gravity field.
1st slider: horizontal (x) direction
2nd slider: vertical (y) direction
3rd slider: depth (z) direction
Examples:
(0, 0, 0): There is no gravity, the particles maintain their launch speed and direction.
(0, -30, 0): The particles fall to the ground.
(10, 0, 0): There's a soft wind to the right.
(60, 0, 0): There's a strong wind to the right.
Press <F2> to visualise this property.
Lifetime
The maximum age of the particles in seconds.
Particle size
Just like humans, particles grow and shrink during their life.
1st slider: the size at midlife
2nd slider: the size at birth
3rd sliders: the size at death
Effect size
This property scales the whole effect.
Colour 1
All particles have a random colour in between 2 colours. This sets the 1st colour.
1st slider: red
2nd slider: green
3rd slider: blue
When you press <F3> and the mouse is inside the tool window, the standard Windows colour dialog is presented. When the mouse is outside the tool window, the colour of the current mouse position is copied: it's a colour picker!
Colour 2
All particles have a random colour in between 2 colours. This sets the 2nd colour.
1st slider: red
2nd slider: green
3rd slider: blue
When you press <F3> and the mouse is inside the tool window, the standard Windows colour dialog is presented. When the mouse is outside the tool window, the colour of the current mouse position is copied: it's a colour picker!
Specular colour
The colour used for specular highlights.
1st slider: red
2nd slider: green
3rd slider: blue
When you press <F3> and the mouse is inside the tool window, the standard Windows colour dialog is presented. When the mouse is outside the tool window, the colour of the current mouse position is copied: it's a colour picker!
When this property is (0, 0, 0), the specular light colour is used.
Specularity
The size of the specular highlights.
Set the specular colour with the Specular colour property.
Glow
When the model defines glowing (emissive) parts, their brightness can be set with this property.
When the Glow checkbox is marked in the LAYER > Active layer properties... dialog, the whole model glows.
Use the Glow properties of the camera layer to control the global glow.
Transparency
This determines the transparency level of the particles.
0 means fully opaque
1 means fully transparent (invisible)
When the particle layer is attached to another layer, the transparency of this layer is added to the transparency of the particle layer.
Chameleon
This property allows you to mix the colours of the particles (as set with the Colour 1 property and Colour 2 property) with the colours of the parent or target layer.
When using a positive value, the colours are mixed with those of the parent layer.
When using a negative value, the colours are mixed with those of the target layer, as set with the Target layer property.
Launch colour
The colour used by the Launch colour tolerance property.
1st slider: red
2nd slider: green
3rd slider: blue
When you press <F3> and the mouse is inside the tool window, the standard Windows colour dialog is presented. When the mouse is outside the tool window, the colour of the current mouse position is copied: it's a colour picker!
Launch colour tolerance
When the Launch colour tolerance property is less than 1, particles are only launched from points that match the Launch colour property.
When the tolerance is less than zero, particles are only launched from points that do NOT match the Launch colour property.
If a target layer is used, as set with the Target layer property, this is also used for the target points.
Launch normal
The normal used by the Launch normal tolerance property.
Launch normal tolerance
When the Launch normal tolerance property is less than 1, particles are only launched from points that match the normal, as set with the Launch normal property.
When the tolerance is less than zero, particles are only launched from points that do NOT match the launch normal.
Examples:
(0, 1, 0): upsides, for example to create snow
(0, -1, 0): undersides, for example to make your layer drip
When a target layer is used, as set with the Target layer property, this is also used for the target points.
Rotation
The rotation of the particle.
1st slider: heading
2nd slider: pitch
3rd slider: roll
Press <F2> to render the coordinate system.
Rotation speed
The rotation speed of the particles. For the 2D particles you might only want to use the roll (3rd slider).
Trail length
The length of the trail in particles. Note that a big trail slows down the frame rate considerably.
Trail density
This value determines the distance between the particles in the trail. A higher density means a smaller distance.
Grid
When this property is not zero, the particles are placed on a grid.
1st slider: width (x)
2nd slider: height (y)
3rd slider: depth (z)
Min distance
New particles must have this minimum distance to all existing particles. This prevents collisions.
Variation
The variation in particle size, trail length and maximum age. When this property is set to 0 all particles have the exact same size, trail length and maximum age.
Turbulence
This property adds some chaos to the flight path of the particles.
Launch plane position
This property is used when the Launch plane size property is greater than 0. The particles are only emitted from this plane.
Press <F2> to visualise this property.
Launch plane rotation
The launch plane rotation in angles (heading, pitch, roll).
Examples:
(90, 0, 0): Vertical plane
(90, 0, 90): Horizontal plane
Press <F2> to visualise this property.
Launch plane size
This controls the thickness of the launch plane. Set this property to -1 to turn off the launch plane.
Press <F2> to visualise this property.
Floor level
The vertical position of the floor. Particles are bounced off this floor. The particles also bounce off mirror layers.
Bouncing
This property controls what happens if a particle hits a mirror layer or the floor as set with the Floor level property.
Examples:
-1: The particle ignores the mirror/floor and continues its path
0: The particle does not bounce
0.5: The particle bounces a little
1: The particle bounces normally
2: The particle bounces heavily
Target layer
When this property is bigger than 0, the particles fly to this layer. Take a look at the Layers dropdown to find the index of the target layer. Set the flight speed with the Launch speed property.
Animation
1st slider: the active animation. Models can contain multiple animations. 0 turns all animation off.
2nd slider: play mode
0: looping
1: ping pong
3rd slider: the number of loops after which the model returns to its start position. This is typically used for making a walk cycle continue to walk without jumping back to the start position. When this value is -1, the model moves in place, which can be useful when you want to move the model yourself.
Animation speed
1st slider: the animation speed.
0: no animation
1: normal speed
2nd slider: the animation position. This is only used when the 1st slider is 0.
0: first frame
1: last frame
When you want to animate the animation speed, keep the 1st slider fixed at 0 and only animate the 2nd slider. This gives you full control.
Depth bias
With the Depth bias property you can move the particles a bit closer to or further away from the camera. For example when attaching sparkles to a text layer, you want all the particles to be rendered in front of the text. You can do this with a negative value. But when attaching a glow effect you want all the particles to be rendered behind the text. You can achieve this by using a positive value.