Particular 2.1.1. motion path + obscuration layer

Obscuration layer works fine when i use with particles that are coming from an animated emitter (light with animated path), but not when use the same path as motion path with a still emitter (which is at the same point as the starting point of the motion path). It looks good when i rotate the camera around. The 3d layer is in the middle of the particles, yet it wont obscure.
Am i doing something wrong, or is it just a bug?

Aaargh. *slams fist on the keyboard*
Seems like another one of those "set it to off, then turn it on again and it works fine" behavior Particular is known for.
Close it

Similar Messages

Using Light as Motion Path for Trapcode Particular

Hi,
I am trying to make an animation for a project, but I cannot figure out some things. I am trying to create the effect that a person is throwing money out the back of a car. I have the live shot of the person in the car, but I cannot get the money to behave how I want it to. I am trying to use the Trapcode Particular, but I can't get the particles to follow any motion path. When I set the settings to motion path, it prompts me to create a light. I create a light, but can't figure out how to make that light have an actual path rather than simply being a spot light. Please help! I'm sorry if I don't make any sense, please ask me to clarify if you need it.
Nicole

KWNWY wrote:
I am trying to use the Trapcode Particular, but I can't get the particles to follow any motion path. ...
Because you are doing it all wrong! If you wanted to use the Motion Path option in the Air physics model, your light would have to be exactly named like that - Motion Path 01. It's not what you want, though. I'm 100% certain of that. You are looking to create a conventional light emitter, which is a whole different thing. For that, your light should be named Emitter (or whatever other prefix you define in the plug-ins Options/ Settings panel). Then you must set the emitter type to Light. If you use spot lights and want your money to emit directionally, you need to set the emitter to Directional as well. Apart from that, Particular will use the light's color, cone angle and intensity to colorize and eject the particles. After that, you can animate the light in 3D space to whatever you need it to do.
Mylenium

Set Motion path to obscure a person's face in a clip

Hi all
Could someone tell me how to set a motion path to obscure a person's face so that they are unrecognizable? And, how do I obscure the face while leaving all else unaffected?
Please help with as much detail as you can.
Carl

F. Carl McIvor1 wrote:
.. Do I have to set and resent frame by frame? There's got to be an easier way.
depend on size of your blurr.. every 5th/10th/20th frame a new keyframe is probably enough..
or, you use a 3rd party app as
Magnet
http://www.creaceed.com/magnet/index.html
.. which offers some automatic 'tracking' ...

Particular 2 - orient particles to motion path?

I have a particle system set up using a Light Motion Path to dictate where particles should go. Is there a way to orient the particles to the motion path? (Like arrows following a path). I know Particular 1.5 couldn't do it... wasn't sure about v2.
Is there another way to go about this? (In example 1, I could duplicate a bunch of layers and offset them in time, but example 2 wouldn't be so easy)
Here's how it is now (which is not how I want it)

Excellent! Rock on!

Layer zooming and motion path

I have a very map of the USA (4000x3000)
1.) I cant get good output resolution on this image 1st of all???
I have a circle that is an emitter.
I have a motion on the emitter path that follows a highway.
the emitter, the map and the circle are all in the same layer.
the map is static, then zooms out.
the emitter starts off correctly, but as the map is zooming out, the emitter looses reference until the zoom out stops, then the emitter continues to follow the motion path correctly.
2. how can I get the emitter to stay on the motion path even as the layer is zooming out.

Well, that's a problem. Fixed Resolution was introduced in 2.0.
So, you have a big map (too big, really) and you have the map and the emitter following a path and they're all on a layer and you're playing with the size of the layer?
Patrick

With Knoll Light Factory how do you get rid of the pinpoint of light that overlap obscuration layer?

I have KLF 3.0 on AE CS6, I am trying to add a nice flare to some keyed footage of a rock star for music video...
I set it up so it looks like a light is behind him and I want him to obscure it a bit when he moves around... However, I can't get rid of the little pinpoint of light where I have the source! My obscuration layer works properly, as he crosses it it dims the light, but the light doesn't totally disappear when he's in front of the "Source"! There's still a little pinpoint that crosses over him ruining the effect I'm going for!
Does someone know how to get rid of that little artifact?
I've tried tweaking all the settings to no avail...
Thanks all!
Aza

Interesting. I have also experienced a similar problem involving a Knoll lens flare effect (v. 3.0) and obscuration, in this case some 3D text, backlit by a Knoll flare applied to a background layer. The flare moved across and behind the text and faded in and out either side of the text within the comp frame via keyframed opacity settings. The pinpoint of light appeared against the background at the end of the flare's path (beyond the text) on an opacity keyframe that was mistakenly adjusted to 1% instead of 0%. However after re-setting it to 0% and RAM previewing the pinpoint of light remained. Couldn't be eliminated. It was permanent and was also visible in the rendered output. The only quick way to eliminate it was to replace the background layer with a new one, add a new Knoll lens flare effect, copy and paste the keyframes from the original Knoll effect, check the opacity was indeed set to zero at the total fade-out frame and render/playback again. The pinpoint was gone. Puzzling. Not sure if this is what's happening in your case though.

Errors with interactive pdf containing motion paths

I have created an interactive pdf in indesign with simple motion paths. In the preview in indesign it works perfect, but the animations do not work in the exported pdf. This is created in CS6 and I have the creative suite standard installed.

I have tested with both Acrobat Pro X (10.1.1) and Acrobat Reader XI (11.0.0.). Due to IT restrictions I am unable to use such "transfer files" providers, so I am bit stuck. I have tried to put the different animations in layers and in one layer only, with same results. I am
beginning to think that there are internal restrictions that make this happen

Motion path handles disappeared

I've been working in After Effects for a little while now and am having some of my motion path handles not appear when they should. I'm working on a slideshow and they seem to appear for all of my other pictures. What I do is go in between the start and end point of a path and move my picture away from the main (straight) motion path I created which usually creates a new keyframe on my timeline and inserts a point on my motion path with two handles I can adjust to make the path curved. This time it just creates the point on the motion path and keyframe, but doesn't allow me to make the path curved. It's really strange and has happened to me before. The way I solved it earlier was to remove the point where it wasn't working and insert a new one, and it would magically turn on, but that doesn't seem to work now.
I've only been able to find one other person that had a similar problem online, which was solved by going to view---->view options and enabling 'view handles'. This didn't solve my problem so I figured I would ask on here. Thanks in advance for the help.

That worked, although it's a few extra steps that I shouldn't have to take (and haven't prior to this). I held down alt by mistake at first and it only gave me one handle, but if I just tap alt and then click--->drag away from the point, it does provide me with a handle in each direction, which is what I was ultimately needing. Here is a screenshot of that layer although it's pretty standard.
When I selected a keyframe that was in between the beginning and end of the motion path, pressed G, and then hit alt it does exactly what I want it to, but usually it adds the handles automatically, and want it to always. This extra step is very annoying because I'm dealing with a lot of motion paths and plan to in the future as well.

Flash CS4 - motion paths

Hi,
Im confounded to why this is happening and when it looks so much like a program error, it is sold on the shelves as a final product.
My frustration at CS4 is that the new motion paths are already on the object, identified by a dotted line which you can edit to change the direction of the motion. When I want an object to go from A to B and then on to C, trying to select the object and position it to B is impossible. I always seem to select a bezier point. After attempting to mvoe it to B and then C, zooming in to take a close look at the path its a mess, overlapping in many points and jsut a MESS.
Am i doing something wrong?
To get round the problem I've copied the object in it's location and made another layer and continued the object motion on to B or C.
I'm animating a mouse curser over my visuals and I've now got multiple layers of the cursor object because of this pathing issue.
Any advice would be gratefully received.
thanking you

The above advice is good. It sounds like you have created some kind of motion path, and you are wanting to further edit it. There are many ways to edit, and some will work out better than others. Editing a motion path differs greatly depending on what kind of path you have.
1) If you started with a path where you have pasted, say, a stroke as your path (you drew something with the pencil or pen, and pasted it onto your tween), you will be dealing with a lot of auto-generated keyframes -- especially if you used a pencil line instead of a pen line. If you drag your object around, where those keyframes are will affect the resulting path. What to do: Try to modify the path using the Pen tools, or start with a pen drawn path. This way you have fewer keyframes to accomodate for. If you have a pencil-drawn path, try removing keyframes and then adjust the path using beziers. Alternatively, paste the motion path as a raw path on a new layer, adjust it by bending, and then repaste it onto the tween.
When you ask Flash to auto-keyframe a pasted path, there's really no way around this. Flash has to create keyframes for you, and isn't able to know how you may want to further edit it. So the above ways are necessary, and unfortunately it's a bit of work whatever way you go.
2) You may have a path that you have curved, but you want a linear path "down the road" (later on the tween). In this case, the motion tween is inserting curve property keyframes, because you have curved the path. To make the line straight, you need to convert the points to linear points. You can do this on the path or in the motion editor using the Convert Anchor point tool. Or, you can go in the motion editor, right-click the keyframes and choose "Corner point" or Linear Left/right as needed.
3) You applied an ease and you're dragging the instance on the Stage. This can be tricky. What you've asked Flash to do when applying an ease is for motion math to take over an animate the position of the instance in relation to values (the original path). The instance is controlled by the ease, and Flash accomodates each time you move it. Oftentimes you can't really tell what's going to happen, especially on the Stage (Flash is doing what's mathematically correct and necessary, but it might not be what you actually want!). In this case you probably want to turn off the ease, create your motion path, and then re-enable the ease and see how that affects the path. Adjusting your work in the motion editor might be easier, as you can see the dotted eased values in the graph, which tell you what's actually going to happen to the motion (the "real" value post-ease).
4) You used the transform panel or Free transform tool on the motion path, which gave wacky results and then you're moving the instance and things are getting worse. This is one area where motion paths can have less desirable results, as it's using a traditional tool not really designed for the new feature on a new feature. My recommendation is to avoid the transform panel, and use the Free Transform tool instead. In a nutshell, the Transform panel traditionally deals with shapes, and the motion path is not a traditional shape - so there are a lot of calculations swapping back and forth behind the scenes to try and give you what you want. Things can get wacky here, so if you already have something very complex (such as a pasted path with tons of keyframes), your transformations may not be what you actually wanted. Free Transform is better, or even better, manually adjust the beziers. Another alternative is to, again, copy the motion path as a static raw path, transform it and make your adjustments, and repaste it onto your tween.
Let me know if you need additional help, or are running into something else entirely.
Thanks,
Jen.

Motion path on rotated ellipse?

Hi, I'm an experienced animator (with Flash) but relative newbie to Motion, and so finding some things very frustrating but also empowering. I've got a series of ellipses kind of like an atomic symbol which I'm trying to rotate small objects (spheres) around in 2D - pretty basic - just three orbits. At first I tried drawing a path and then attaching to the sphere graphic (as in Flash) but then found Add Behaviour > Basic Motion > Motion path which was actually much easier and powerful than Flash. But now I have an 'angled' ellipse (45 degrees) but I can find no way to rotate the motion path to match the angle. I can adjust each of the circular path's axis, but no way to rotate about a central point. All I want is an angled elliptical path! Is there any easy (or difficult) way to do this? Thanks for any help.
Chris

You're going to love how easy this is:
Add Behavior/Basic Motion/Motion Path to your sphere. In the behaviors tab, change the path shape to Geometry. Drag the elipse layer into the Shape Source well and make sure the Attach to Shape button is checked.
Now the sphere will follow around the elipse no matter how it's positioned. And if you change the shape of the elipse, it'll update in the motion of the sphere.
Also, in the behavior you'll see areas to change the interpolation of the motion, as well as a Looping parameter for multiple orbits.
Hope this helps.
Andy

Motion path changes gets larger when copied to Shape Position parameter

Hello There,
Richard Gerard has been helpful, and well as other people.
I have sorta figured out how get a stroke to follow a motion path.
I (so far) am unable to get a shape to follow the same motion path.
My shape is a small ellipse commonly known as a circle!
I have seen this post - http://forums.creativecow.net/thread/2/959085, which is interesting,
but does not work. My shape layer consists of name, "Blue Circle", and two properties below that:
Contents and Transform. If i copy the path into the Transform-Position property the path is about 2
times bigger than the path I want to use, and does not start at the correct spot.
After reviewing the post above - I added a "path" to the ellipse in the "Contents" area, I can see the path, it is the correct size,
but the circle does not follow this path. If I try to copy this path to one of the position properties, no dice,
the path completely displaces the shape to the wrong coordinates.
I must be missing something basic here, but have yet to find out.
Any tips will help.
Thanks,
eholz1

The position path is offset because your Black Solid with the mask isn't in the default position. Both Anchor Point and Position must be reset. Parenting can also foul this up. Here's how to fix it.
First of all, before you copy and paste the path remove parenting and return the solid with the mask to it's default position by resetting Anchoe Point and Position. Now when you paste the path to your Blue Ball it will exactly match the path on the solid layer. Once the path is set you can redo the parenting and reposition the layers but you must include the blue ball. If it were me I'd create a null and make that the parent of the Black Solid, the Blue Ball, and the Map. Now you can animate the position of the null to scroll across the map and the blue ball will follow.
To match the timing of the stroke to the blue ball you simply drag out the right most diamond keyframe on the blue ball position until it matches the last position of the stroke.. That's all there is it. Your timeline should look something like this:
One last question. You have a non-standard composition size. It may not render correctly. What is the reason for the odd size. NTSC D1 Widescreen should be 872 X 486, It's acceptable to also have a comp that's 872 X 480. MPEG compression requires an even number of pixels so your 853 dimension is very likely to cause problems or be automatically resized to a standard frame size.

Motion paths not wholly visible

I'm trying to simply move a solid with a motion path. I copy/pasted a mask path into the Position property of the solid layer.
Initially everything looks right after I paste the path -- however if I move the position keyframes apart (to make the motion slower) the motion path is no longer visible from beginning to end. As I scrub the time slider the solid is sliding along the path correctly, however I only see about 20% of the path at any one time. It's almost like the anchor point is providing 'light' and I can only see about 10% of the path in front and behind of my current location.
I don't get it.

> It certainly doesn't help that After Effects help file makes NO mention of it on the motion path pages.
"Show motion path controls"

Motion Paths

when I create a motion path, Motion has this annoying habit of creating a default path that starts in the middle of the canvas and ends one canvas length away from its origin.
I'd like to have it so my path originates in the middle of the affected layer. How can I make this happen? Also, how can I add points to my motion path's bezier curve?

The motion path behavior's default path always begins at the layer's current position. That is typically the center of the layer (unless the layer is text or you've moved the layers anchor point).
You can always draw a bezier shape and then assign that as your "motion path" in the behavior parameters. When you create a bezier shape, you can right-click any point in the shape and assign it as your "start point"
Andy

Multiple motion paths for my 3 photos

I’ve been trying to use key frames and motion paths to create a particular effect, but am not really getting anywhere.
This is what I’m TRYING to achieve using 3 different photos.
(Step1) Photo 1 appears full screen, zooms out as it reduces in size. Ends up at a position occupying left third of screen.
(Step2) Cut to Photo 2 full screen, does the same thing – zooms out – reduces in size (in the process revealing small Photo 1 on left). Ends up in middle third of screen.
(Step3) Cut to Photo 3 full screen – does the same thing – zooms out – reduces in size (in the process revealing small Photo1 on left and small Photo 2 in middle). Ends up on right hand third of screen.
However, although I have been able to complete these as individual moves on each of the 3 photos, they remain as 3 separate clips in the timeline.
I can never get the small Photo 1 to be revealed under Photo 2 as it zooms out, or in turn the small Photos 1 & 2 to be revealed under Photo 3 as it zooms out. After a day on this, I’m obviously doing it quite wrong. Maybe it can’t be done in FCP5.
Any advice appreciated.
Robert

Are you putting them on three different tracks?
Yes, on V1, V2, V3 – but no matter where I put them or how I staggered them in relation to each other, it doesn’t work. Each track totally covers the others up – no “transparency”.
Before I possibly went crazy I decided to start fresh.
First, I trashed all my FCP preferences, double checked everything in FCP, and repaired permissions. In FCP I created a new clean “test” project with just the 3 video tracks as before. I also got a friend a little bit familiar with FCP to watch exactly what I was doing. I re-did the three motion paths. Same 3 photos, same moves in each.
It worked perfectly!
I don’t know what’s happened. My first attempt was obviously quite wrong somewhere. My old G4 has been a bit cantankerous lately with FCP. It's all very weird.
Andy - I’m giving you the points, because you forced me to seriously forget about trying to do a fix - instead, redo the whole thing. I’ve lost a day, but it’s been worth it.
Regards
Robert

Motion Paths In After Effects CS6?

Hello,
I was wondering if you could draw a motion path for objects to follow. I have multiple objects(12) that all need to follow on the same path. Do I have to animate all of them individually, or can I draw a path? These objects are NOT masks. They are text imported from Illustrator(CS6).
If Microsoft Powerpoint can do it, then surely Adobe can...
Thanks,
Jack Reynolds
Reynolds Films 2014

You can do this in several ways. The easiest is with Parenting. Next would be to tie position of one layer to position of another layer with an expression. You can also draw a mask path on a layer, select the mask in the timeline, reveal the position property of another layer, set a new keyframe for position to guarantee the mask path will be used as a motion path, and paste.
See this thread for details and a screenshot.
http://forums.adobe.com/message/6084453#6084453
These are AE basics. You can also find more information by using the Search Help field at the top right corner of AE.

Particular 2.1.1. motion path + obscuration layer

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for