odd behaviour make particles

When I bring in external files for Apple Motion I have noticed
a strange behaviour of Motion 1.1 that I can't quite figure out.

Here's a detailed example...

I created an uncompressed alpha MOV file in another program
where it builds up the text over 120 frames as it sweeps from
left to right.


When I bring in this composite element and import it into Motion
it works fine-alpha is good; frame 0 of Motion equals frames 0 of the
bitmap; etc.

However, when I click on "Make Particles" the make particles seems to
create it about 150 frames into the MOV element; ignoring the "build from
nothing" part of the MOV file.

I looked through all the preferences and can not find one for particle build
nor is there anything about this on the tutorials either Apple or otherwise.



You'd think that frame 0 of the particles, starting on frame zero of the
timeline; would represent frame zero of the imported element.

But this is clearly not the case

""You'd think that frame 0 of the particles, starting on frame zero of the
timeline; would represent frame zero of the imported element.""

That would be an example of the Replicator function in Motion 2 but particles are different. I can't explain how it works cause I don't know. It is some mathematical equation that works beneath the surface.

Maybe its time to upgrade to Motion 2.01; but I don't know the procedure.
As a PC user (mostly) all I know is we bought the FCP 4.5HD, the G5, the
Motion and everything else as one package from a vendor...must ask the
boss


John Foley wrote:

> ""You'd think that frame 0 of the particles, starting on frame
> zero of the
> timeline; would represent frame zero of the imported
> element.""
>
> That would be an example of the Replicator function in Motion 2
> but particles are different. I can't explain how it works cause
> I don't know. It is some mathematical equation that works
> beneath the surface.

Can you post the project file?

do i have to ftp on our site or is there a "upload file" function on this board?markspencer wrote:

> Can you post the project file?

You need to post it somewhere, plenty of free sites to do that

I did some debug R&D and this is what I found.

If you created text in motion, and made particles
Motion works flawlessly; however; if you take an avi
or mov file and make particles; it does not honour
frame zero of the imported sequence
(at least with Motion 1.01)

As I can't spend the rest of my life debugging software
(lots of my time is spent getting 3ds Max working well)

I will basically have to upgrade Motion; and hope this
severe shortcoming is fixed

Particles created from movies by default pick a random frame to start from for each particle born, instead of starting all particles from frame 1. This is because if they didn't, movie-based particles would tend to look very un-natural because every single particle would be doing exactly the same thing at exactly the same time, which in most cases is what you don't want.

However, in those cases where you do want this behavior, it's very easy to control this behavior, just go into the inspector for the particle emitter, look for the "Random Start Frame" parameter and uncheck that. Now, every particle using a movie as a source will obey the "Source Start Frame" parameter right below it, which is set to frame 1 by default.

-- Greg

Thanks Greg,

I learn something new, every day! Like I said; "mathematical equations"

very cool! thanks!

Greg Niles wrote:

> Particles created from movies by default pick a random frame to
> start from for each particle born, instead of starting all
> particles from frame 1. This is because if they didn't,
> movie-based particles would tend to look very un-natural
> because every single particle would be doing exactly the same
> thing at exactly the same time, which in most cases is what you
> don't want.
>
> However, in those cases where you do want this behavior, it's
> very easy to control this behavior, just go into the inspector
> for the particle emitter, look for the "Random Start Frame"
> parameter and uncheck that. Now, every particle using a movie
> as a source will obey the "Source Start Frame" parameter right
> below it, which is set to frame 1 by default.
>
> -- Greg