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!

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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

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

Tween or Motion path for blank keynote with animated stars?

I create star particle effect from this tutorial: http://www.schoolofflash.com/2008/03/flash-cs3-particle-effect/ and got help from this discussion: http://forums.adobe.com/message/5518425 in order to get what I wanted. My code is:
var starsArray:Array = new Array();
var myTimer:Timer = new Timer(50);
myTimer.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, addStars);
myTimer.start();
addEventListener(Event.ENTER_FRAME, moveStars);
function addStars(e:TimerEvent):void
          var star:Stars = new Stars();
          star.x = stage.stageWidth / 2;
          star.y = stage.stageHeight / 2;
          star.alpha = Math.random() * .8 + .2;
          star.scaleX = star.scaleY = Math.random() * .8 + .2;
          star.xMovement = Math.random() * 10 - 5;
          star.yMovement = Math.random() * 10 - 5;
          starsArray.push(star);
          addChild(star);
          star.cacheAsBitmap = true;
function moveStars(e:Event):void
          for each (var star:MovieClip in starsArray)
                    star.x += star.xMovement;
                    star.y += star.yMovement;
                    star.alpha -= .01;
                    star.scaleX = star.scaleY -= .01;
                    if (star.scaleX <= 0)
                              kill(star);
function kill(star:MovieClip):void
          starsArray.splice(starsArray.indexOf(star), 1);
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However, I wanted to move the star particles around. The problem is that the star isn't on the screen, but is called in the actions in the blank keynote. I don't know what I should do next to get the result. I looked up online for tweens and motion paths but all i see is that they required the star to be right on the screen, I think? I also heard something about the compiled clip but I don't know how I should go about creating one and using it to move around the stars while it's animated with all the actionscript. All I wanted is for the star particles to float around the screen (on a path that I can draw out if possible).....

Each star is created in the addStars function. Its position is set in the first two lines:
     star.x = stage.stageWidth / 2;
     star.y = stage.stageHeight / 2;
So, to move each star to a new location when it appears on the stage, you'll need to change the x and y property values for each star. One simple way to do that is to use that same Math.random() function.
Try changing those first two line to:
          star.x = Math.random() * stage.stageWidth;
          star.y = Math.random() * stage.stageHeight;

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

Light as motion path

hurt my hand -- no caps. anyway, i've searched the forums, searched the knowledge base even searched the manual . can't find a how-to on this. it seems to be something everybody takes for granted. is there a tutorial or something...

Actually, "Motion Paths" and light emitters are two completely different things in Particular, so it all depends on what you are trying to achieve. For a classical trail, that fades off after a while, you'd indeed use an emitter (Velocity at zero, Opacity over Life and Color over Life). In that case it is important to match the names. Either make your light's name start with "Emitter" or change whatever is the name match string in the "Options" panel of Particular. Motion Paths on the other hand are available in the Physics section of the plugin under the Air model and require the light to be named "Motion Path", followed by a number. There is no option to change the match string for this.
Mylenium

How to animate a sequence of shapes on a motion path

Hi All.
I am trying to animate a moving line of dots on a curved motion path but can only do one at a time. What I need is a stream of dots moving along the line as I need to show something 'coming from here and going to there'. I've tried to get a particle emmitter to spit out dots that follow the path but no joy there. I can't do it with a replicator either. Will I just have to laboriously animate one dot then dupe it and offset tons of copies to get the effect? Seems a bit long-winded.
Any ideas would be very greatfully received.
Many thanks
Roger Harris
Quad G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Refer to specialcase's tutorial on drawing lines with the replicator, and you'll have the basics. It's a stellar explanaexplanation of the Sequence Replicator behavior and how it can be used to animate things. Ms. or Mr. Case rules.
http://www.motionsmarts.com/tutorials/drawinglines/drawinglines1.html
Beyond that:
- draw a dot
- draw a wavy line with the Bezier tool
- replicate the dot
- in the inspector under the replicator tab, change the shape to geometry, then drag your wavy line into the shape source well
- increase the number of points 'til they fill your line
- go to the behavior button and add the Sequence Replicator behavior to the replicator
- add opacity as the parameter and start mucking about
Here's the project -- 'dots.motn'
http://homepage.mac.com/longstrider/FileSharing7.html
Cheers

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Hi All, I was trying to use a motion path behavior with a particle emitter as seen at the Motion Smarts web site. So I've added points to the path, turned those points into smooth points (you know with Bezier handles). But when I run it in the timeline the smooth path seems to become a series of flat small connected lines. Like if you were to adjust the "flatness" setting of an Illustrator path to get a series of connected flat lines. Does anyone know of a way to adjust the flatness of a motion path behavior?
Thanks in advance.
PS. If I could convert the behavior into a spline path I think that would work, but how.

Never mind I used a b-spline instead of the motion path behavior. Which lead me toward the right direction of what I was trying to achieve anyway.

Motion Path jitters

Hi guys,
I have a particle emitter running along a motion path to create a 3D stroke. It looks fine over a period of around 4 seconds, but when I shorten the behaviour the motion path becomes jittery and the smooth path becomes jagged. At first I thought this was due to the speed interpolation - I had it set to natural so it slowed on curves, but then I set the speed to constant and the jitters continued. Maybe I'm producing too many particles?
Have a look and tell me what you think.
[IMG]http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr211/mediababy/Picture2-2.png[/IMG]
Dan

Hi,
I've tried this and yes it does get smoother, but I don't want it to take longer. I want it to shoot across the screen in about a second, I have to bump it up to four seconds to get it to play smoothly. As mentioned I've tried changing the way it speeds up, but still no joy. I'll have another mess around with it today and see if I can fix it.
Dan

Motion Paths moving behind and then in front of text - PROBLEMS

I'm working on a motion project where I have 2 lines of text and am using a particle emitter on a motion path. I've got the emitter moving along the motion path behind my text and then I want the emitter to move in front of my text and cover the fade out of my text. Giving me the swipe look. I've set the motion path in the TOP and LEFT view to properly move from the background to the foreground. Yet when I export the emitter is still in front of all the text. I've tried placing the emitter below all the text in the same 3D group and still no luck, the emitter stays behind the text the whole time.
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks,
Matt

maybe your depth ordered box is unchecked. Its below the emission sliders...

Wind on a motion path

I am trying to illustrate how planes fly
I am tryin to show air particles over and under a wing
I have an emitter with 0 speed
wind blows the partilces across the screen
I need for the wind to follow a motion path so the particles follow the same path and thus showing how they move across the wing. I guess you cant apply a motion path to wind. Cant seem to get the particles to move as fast or as slow as I want while moving on the curve that I want.
I have v1, maybe in v2 you can do this?? any ideas.
these forums always help me but this one might be a challenge.

Heya,
As far as I know, you can't shoot particles along a path...but you can move replicator cells along a path. If you use the line-drawing technique found here and apply a Rate parameter behavior to the replicator's Offset value, you might be able to get something you'd like.
I knocked together a quick example movie with two replicators with different rates.
Good luck with your project!

Keeping object perpendicular on motion path?

Hello:
I was wanting to see how to keep an object perpendicular to the motion path. I applied a curved motion path to a small photo and of course the photo travels on the path but always in the upright position. I would like the rotation to adjust to stay perpendicular to the path.
Suggestions are greatly appreciated.
Jeff in Palmetto, FL

You can use the Orient Along Path option.

I am trying to use motion tracking to have text follow a section of the background.The text box follows the motion path, but the text just sits there. What am I doing wrong?

I am trying to use motion tracking to have text follow a section of the background.The text box follows the motion path, but the text just sits there. What am I doing wrong?

Motion basically looks at the the source footage and it's timing (in the timing section of the Inspector) when analyzing for tracking. Filters are basically ignored by the tracker. Retiming actions, like time re-mapping, or retiming behaviors that are applied before the tracker should be used by the tracker. Did you change the timing after doing the tracking? If so this would also require you to re-track the shot. Understanding that you found a workaround, describing the effects you applied would help to explain why you ran into problems.
Cheers!

How can I mass move symbols with their motion paths without creating new keyframes?

I want to move a lot of symbols all at once if they are off centered or just need to be moved around to see differenr styles across the document, but I can't seem to move a lot of the symbols at once, only one at a time slexting their motion paths. It's rather annoying when I have items coming in at different times and have to re line everything up one by one if I want to move things even over by 1 px. Every time I slecect all my symbols and try to move them it just creates a new keyframe that they follow. Is there any tool or certian way to select the symbols and/or thier motion paths and move them without creating new key frames?

Hi,
There's no direct way of moving all the symbols/ motion tweens begining at different frames altogether, but the following steps should help you do it -
1. Select a motion path on stage, goto Properties panel > Options menu (top left corner) and enable - Always show Motion Paths.
2. Enable - Edit Multiple Frames option in the Timeline.
3. Adjust the frame-markers in Timeline to show all your symbols, motion paths etc.
4. Now that you see all your symbols and motion paths together, Select-all and Move them together. Or, use Shift + click to selectively select the Motion paths/objects and move them.
Let me know if you have any doubts..
Regards,
Nipun

FCE HD, confused by Motion Path (I want to change the speed of movement)

I am a huge FCE noob, let's get that out of the way. I have also been a member here since May of last year, but for some reason it now shows that this is my first post. (????) Anyway, I have figured out how to use a motion path, including curving the path, but I can't figure out how to alter the speed that a "motion path" video enters, or leaves, the screen.
While I'm here, I also want to learn how to use shapes (as in a circle/triangle/custom shaped border to a video clip) and I have not been able to find that info. I have Lisa Brenneis's "Final Cut Express HD for Mac OS X" book and have not been able to find the answers to these two questions there.
Thanks in advance for your useful help!!
BILL

The first and last keframes can have Ease In/Ease Out applied to smooth the start or stop action.
Clicking between two keframes on a a motion path should give you Bezier Handles. There a four blue dots on them, the inner two will control speed. Dragging an inner dot along the handle either slows or speeds the action.
Al

Particular 2 - orient particles to motion path?

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