Partical generators and After effects

I am about to undertake using after effects and Trapcode particle generatores and was wondering if anybody out there is doing the same thing and can we exchange questions and answers. For me this is the most exciting thing and I would love to hear about experiences, sites, discussion boards - ANYTHING, Koz are you in the particle generation wourld? Do you use Combustion 3? What is better, After Effects 6.5 Pro or Combustion 3? I love the discreet interface but it only seems to works in small chunks. I'm new to this> it's brilliant...Phil

Hello, Phil.
I guess I can say I am pretty experienced with AE. So if you need any help, let me know.
Trapcode is a software brand with several tools on the market. I guess you mean their Particular plug-in. I am familiar with it, so any questions let me know.

Both After Effects and Combustion are excellent. Combustion (bitting my tongue, trying to be unbiased) is sometimes prefered by people doing compositing stuff, and AE has a drastic advantage in motion graphics. The good thing about AE is how versatile it is. It does almost everything, and it excells at several of those things (like text animation, second to none).

Before you get into Trapcode Particular, AE has a very sophisticated built-in particle system called Particle Playground. It's not very intituitive to discover all of its' functions by yourself, but it can do wonderful things. For example, you can make the particles be influenced by a luminance map to modify them in different areas of the screen, or set walls where the particles rebound. Particular does allow you to emit particles in 3D space, but I would recommend mastering 2D particles first, as in Particle Playground or, see below, Apple Motion.

The easier particles are in Apple Motion. I think it's a great point to start. Easy to use and very innovative. Really, really fun.



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

Het Adolfo, this is cool and I will need to chat with you. We have a couple of trapcodes one is called Zak something or other - but I will take your advice and go with it. We are trying to do motion/animated GFX, very Pop music like. I am pleased to speak with you and thanks for your response Phil in London

Really? I have family in London. Let's just skip football as a subject
Zak is not Trapcode. It's probably Zaxwerks 3D Invigorator, which comes bundled with AE Pro anyway. It's a fantastic tool to "model" 3D volumetrics objects that you can animate in After Effects.



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

Wow Zak is in AE 6.5 Pro, man that is cool. Do you ever make it to London? - yes - England play Argentina, I shall watch with interest. Thanks Adolfo, I will have to ask you questions as this is the place I want to be, particle generation amazes me. Thank you for your input...Phil UK

Yes, I go there every two or three years. My sister lives in Barnes, a nice but boring neigborhood. I really love Charing Cross Road's bookstores! There are a couple of design & visual arts bookstores around there. Completely amazing.

I really recommend starting with Motion. Powerful, fun an easy to use. Specially for particle animation. After Effects is a beautiful thing, but it does have its' learning curve. Besides, if you start using Motion, we have a nice Motion forum in this site. While After Effects doesn't have its' dedicated area, which is understandable since it's not an Apple application!

PS: Is Michael Owen playing this match? He's great, unfortunately



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

Trapcode has a forum on Creative Cow. Check it out. I love Particular! I used it on a project when I worked at Pixar last year. Created a killer dust storm!

Best,
Kevin Monahan
Author, "Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro"
Take my FCP Master's Seminar THIS WEEKEND in LA!

Hey, Kevin.

So... you used Particular at Pixar.
Particular only runs in After Effects.
Pixar... uses After Effects.

Combustion and Shake snobs (always downplaying AE as amateur stuff) will love this information
Just kidding.


Seriously, Particular is so so so amazing. That thing of using AE lights as particle emiiters that you can point in 3D space, or use the colors of an emitting layer as the RGB values for particles that happen to be born in that area... The way you freely draw a graphic representation of scale/color/opacity over life!

Obviously those things are easy to do in Cinema 4D and such, but having them on a motion graphics app (with render times of minutes instead of days!) is fantastic! BTW, Cinema 4D has this particle engine called Thinking Particles that's OUT OF THIS WORLD! Not the easiest to use, though. Completely driven by expressions.

As for FCP for compositing and motion graphics, I would love to meet you someday and tell you my opinion. I love it, but I feel at some point Apple shifted the strategy. It didn't go in the direction it looked it was going in 2000: compositing integrated into editing. It became more of "finishing" tool, right? I got your book last year. Excellent! But if FCP still won't let you copy and paste a single keyframe, looks like that area isn't the priority

And... everytime I have to demonstrate FCP masks to former Jaleo, SpeedRazor, Media Composer users and they see the 4 and 8 point garbage mattes, I am completely embarrased to admit it's so poor. Does Apple read this?

All the best.



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com

Hi Adolfo!
Yes, of course Pixar uses After Effects. They gave me a sweet G5 and a 23" flat panel for doing my work. I am not sure if Shake is ever used, but Combustion is definitely not used in the department I worked in, which is "Pre-Viz".

We get the original art in a Photoshop file and then animate them with direction from the post-production supe.

AE is certainly NOT an amateur tool, it is a strong utility for many different situations in post where Shake would not be a good fit. Something with a bunch of layers comes to mind.

I have a copy of C4DXL v.8. I have to upgrade it one of these days. I think the particle generator sounds way cool.

Your comment about FCP not advancing much in the area of FX is fairly spot on. I mean, we have the Speed Tool and some decent Color Correction, but not much new in the way of new filters or added functionality with keyframes. Good news for the shelf-life of my book, I guess is a side benefit. ;-)

I am not sure we'll ever see much new in FCP FX now with Motion being fully developed into a motion graphics powerhouse, but you never know....core video sounds very interesting and could easily be harnessed in Cocoa--should FCP become a pure Cocoa program.

Yes indeed, the mattes are kind of an embarrassment. But since FX Script is somewhat limited in this regard, only a totally new version of FCP would be our best hope of getting decent bezier mattes.

Best,
Kevin Monahan
Author, "Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro"
Last Chance to Sign Up for my FCP FX Seminar in LA THIS WEEKEND!



Kevin Monahan
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Thanks for your very interseting comments, Kevin.
I really enjoy talking (sort of) to you!



Adolfo Rozenfeld
Buenos Aires - Argentina
www.adolforozenfeld.com