PARTICULAR PROJECTS VOL 2 LIGHT SHOW TUTORIAL

105 Particular Projects VOL 2 Light Shows(For After Effects 7.0 and higher- Mac and Win.Trapcode Particle 1.5 or higher)

This collection of 105 projects and 44 original particle graphics (notpresets) is an array of flamboyant light displays. Will deliver impactfor your presentation or broadcast design project that will getnoticed. And with all our collections they're adjustable so you canmake each one your own with minor alterations.

In addition, the collection includes 20 projects that uses a movie as aparticle creating unique configurations of dozens to hundreds ofscreen using only one short Quicktime file. (This tutorial explains fur-ther)

The other graphic elements include special glow balls, snowflakes,circles medallions, bubbles, spindles, light sprites, and 16 variationson a light twinkle that can be used to create dozens of glowing parti-cles flourishes that will give the needed punch to backgrounds, titleand graphic reveals.

This collection also includes the 3 Special Holiday Trapcode ParticleEffects that were given away by Toolfarm in December '07.

To view an animated gallery for each of our collections go to GALLERIES.www.little–men.com/GALLERIES_GENERIC.html)

The numbering of the Quicktime animations correspond to the numbering of the comps in the master comp for each collection.)

LME COLLECTIONS

Before using or isolating any of the projects/comps inthe collection make sure you have a back-up of theentire collection folder and all the elements.

Open up the master comp. You will see 14 folders ofvarious categories. Inside each folder there arecomps.

You can see what all the different comps look like bylooking at the Quicktime animation gallery associatedwith the collection. The numbering of the Quicktimefiles correspond to the numbers of the comps in themaster project.

BACKING UP AND ISOLATING A SPECIFIC COMP 1

To create multiple effects in the same project sometimes weused light emitters and other times duplicated the solid theParticular effect was applied to and adjusted each one differ-ently.

The light emitters only give you a couple of parameters thatyou can adjust. Using a black solid with the effect applied to itgives you a lot more options.

2USING A LIGHT AS AN EMITTER

USING A LIGHT AS AN EMITTER

1. Go to LAYER in the AEmenu, then NEW and cre-ate a LIGHT. Call it Emitter.

2. Open up the EMITTERcontrols in the Particularcontrol panel and underEMITTER TYPE select LIGHT.

If you want more than oneLIGHT emitter duplicate theLIGHT and then change it’sposition if you want andother parameters: Intensityand type of light: Spot orPoint.

3CREATING A MOTION PATH FROM A LIGHT

1. Create a light underLAYERS in the AE menuand name the lightmotion path 1. (If you use more thanone motion path num-ber them consecutively.

2. Open up PHYSICS inthe control panel andselect AIR. Below thatto the left toggle AIRcontrols. To the left ofMOTION PATH select alight. In this case itwould be #1. You canhave 10 in total.

USING SEVERAL 3D PRECOMPS TO CREATE VARIATION

To create a stylistic snow scene we used 3 differentsnowflakes that we put into individual 3D comps andthen dropped them into the final comp as precomps.

To use a custom graphic as a particle, follow the directions on page 8.

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HOW TO FIND A PRECOMP THAT IS USED IN A COMP

A. Select the pre-comp layer youwant to find.

B. Hit return on thekeyboard.

C. Copy.

D. Click on thebinoculars at thebottom of the proj-ect bin.

E. The find it func-tion opens. Paste in the name of theprecomp and toggle OK.

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ADJUSTING THE PRECOMP

In each different 3D precomp we gave thesnowflake a different rotation setting.

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We created 21 comps using a Quicktime movieas a particle. The Particular guide says not usecustom art that is bigger than 100 by 100 pix-els. We used Quicktime files that were 360 x240 and it worked find for us even when there

7USING A QUICKTIME FILE AS CUSTOM ART PART 1

were there were hun-dreds of particles in theconfiguration.

How well this will workfor you will depend alot on the power ofyour computer and howmuch ram you have. Weuse a G5 with a duel900 mhz processor and1.5 gigs of ram.

If you are applying a Footage B preset to Footage B move the keyframes so the first ones in thetimeline line up with the beginning of Footage B.

Easily customize the transition by adjusting thekeyframes or addingnew ones to different parameters.

8THE 2 PRESET TRANSITION

In this comp we used a light as a motion path as describedpreviously. The frequency of the changing frames is going todepend a lot on the Quicktime file that you use. To keep thefile small and easy to manipulate it was compressed usingMpeg4 with a quality of low.

8USING A QUICKTIME FILE AS CUSTOM ART PART 2

We used a 320 x 240 sizeQuicktime file so we coulddo some relative closeupswithout loosing to much resolution.

USING A CUSTOM GRAPHICAS A PARTICLE

Go to PARTICLE type in thethe PARTICLE parameters andselect CUSTOM.

Below that and to the left isa switch for CUSTOM param-eters. Open that and selectthe layer the custom graphicis on.

Below that select which timesampling you want.Experiment to see whichbest works for you. Most ofthe time we used RANDOMSTILL FRAME or RANDOMPLAY ONCE.