controlled Sprites

[Walter Baker]

Greetings again everyone

Well now I have been trying to do something I asked about a while back http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...mp;#entry297368

Any way I was looking at one of the archives about sprites and so on and saw some posts by Paul Forwood, Johnl3d, and heyvern that I think will work. I don't know how they did it but I LIKE IT!!!

Now my question here is, is it possible to control sprites like the attached image?

I have attached my sprite emitter to a path, that worked but they still seem to fly all over the place.

I also have figured out the 'transparency' to make one fade and the other appear.

I have played with the collision thing and it doesn't seem to work except on a 'ground' like snow fall and laying on the ground.

 

I need to have an object on the left transport into a different object on the right.

 

Can sprites be controlled to end in a specific area??

[robcat2075]

the only way i can think of to get particles to look like they are landing in a certain formation would be to render them being emitted from that formation and then reversing the footage.

[Walter Baker]

Hi Rob

I saw several references to reversing the footage , so how do you do that?

( Ive had a dickens of a time going forward )

[robcat2075]

I saw several references to reversing the footage , so how do you do that?

 

Worst case... renumber the frames.

 

image sequences on layers and as decals have a "frame" property that lets you show any frame on any frame. You'll need to enable Show More THen Drivers to key it in a chor.

 

Seems to me you could key the end at teh beginning and the beginning at the end to make a sequence play backward.

[johnl3d]

possible solution

 

 

form.mov

 

 

form.zip

 

 

ask if you have questions ...sprite in data with v15

[Walter Baker]

Goodmorning All

 

John I have been looking over your 'form' file and I do have a few more questions but I have to wake up first. I found 2 of the movies I think I could use;

1st one is yours with Thom and blobbies, you controlled them and they formed another model

the second is by Vern where the model is created by reversing the animation to form the model

Robcat (above) said to reverse an animation but at 5am don't quite understand what he said.

yours"

 

Attached File drip.mov ( 443k ) Number of downloads: 52

 

 

Attached File drip.zip ( 38.38k ) Number of downloads: 2

-------------------

this from Vern

 

 

Attached File drip.mov ( 443k ) Number of downloads: 52

 

 

Attached File drip.zip ( 38.38k ) Number of downloads: 2

 

Will get on with the business once my brain wakes up.

Thanks guys

[Paul Forwood]

There are no particle attractors in A:M so you would have to fake it by creating the effect in two or three parts and then compositing them together. Much depends on how much detail is required in the shot.

 

If you have an apple that you want to disintegrate into particles and blow across to a new location and then condense into an orange the effect could be achieved by obscuring the emitting object with particles as you fade the object out. Do the same thing for the apple and the orange, reverse the footage for the orange and composit with another particle cloud in the middle to blend the two parts together.

[Walter Baker]

How do you reverse the footage, been clicking on this for 4 hrs. found all kinds of new things but nothing to reverse.

[largento]

I think what rob is suggesting is to have the particles emit from where you want them to land, render it out and then reorder the frames so that the render plays backwards.

[robcat2075]

You're going to have one animation with sprites emitted from the left-side object and fading out as they pass the middle

 

 

You're going to have another animation of sprites emitted from the right-side object and fading out as they pass the center

 

 

 

the second one is the one you will need to run backwards so it looks like sprites are going TO the right-side object

 

 

SOMEHOW (not hard but godawful to try to explain in one sentence) you composite both animations to show simultaneously so sprites appear to be emitting from left and landing on right. And you hope the fade-in/fade-out in the middle fools people.

 

 

You will not get this right on your first try. It would take me about a day of experimenting to discover small details and get it all working together.

 

 

How do you reverse the footage, been clicking on this for 4 hrs. found all kinds of new things but nothing to reverse.

 

[Walter Baker]

Well I got something

I did the left side, rendered as a tga sequence, in the system I renamed them all backwards.

( frame 30 as 1: frame 29 as 2, and so on )

opened it in QT and saved a QT movie......looked good

 

Went back to the right side, did the same render but DID NOT change the order.

(both attached)

 

So now the next question ha (bet you all hate hearing that one)

How to combine both sets of tga sequences together?

ScatMatLogo1.mov

ScatMatLogo.mov

[robcat2075]

How to combine both sets of tga sequences together?

 

If particles can be included in an alpha channel, render one sequence with an alpha channel and make is a layer or rotoscope in front of the other sequence (which woudl also be a layer or rotoscope.)

 

If they can't... hmmm...

 

 

 

 

BTW, if you are resaving any of your TGA sequences as QT and need to preserve an alpha channel, "Animation" codec is the only one that supports an alpha channel.

[Bendytoons]

How to combine both sets of tga sequences together?

 

If particles can be included in an alpha channel, render one sequence with an alpha channel and make is a layer or rotoscope in front of the other sequence (which woudl also be a layer or rotoscope.)

 

If they can't... hmmm...

 

 

 

 

BTW, if you are resaving any of your TGA sequences as QT and need to preserve an alpha channel, "Animation" codec is the only one that supports an alpha channel.

 

As I recall particles cannot be included in an alpha channel. The workaround I used was to rerender the scene with the particles in a white bg with black particles (or black bg, white particles), and use that as the mask.

[heyvern]

My trick with Thom being assembled by particles was done by reversing the rendered sequence. You can't "reverse" particles so the best way has been covered. Get both animations the way you like them. Render the second "equence". Import that sequence and reverse the time. You could just render both sequences and composite with another program or you could composite both in AM or just use the one sequence as a rotoscope and "hide" that model and particle sequence in the chor. You would only have to render TWICE instead of 3 times. So you render one sequence to go backwards with the other model hidden or not active. Import that sequence as a rotoscope and reversed the time. Make THAT model not active and turn on the OTHER one.

 

You could also throw in camera movement this way as well but would have to reverse the keys of the camera movement for the reversed rendered sequence. See the rendered sequence used as a rotoscope will match the camera movement but it's backwards in time...

 

... oh my... I'm getting dizzy... is anyone else's head spinning or is it just me?

 

-vern

[johnl3d]

The trouble with your two qts is the one of the vase never stops sending sprites so we do not see that sequence stopping and the letters start with the sprites already hitting the lettering and extending to the left side.. you need both sequences to "throw" a group from it to the object to the opposite side.

 

vase throw to the right letters to the left then reverse letter sequences now from vase sprites go toward the letters then the sprites cross into the letter sequence and flow into the letters

 

 

simple sample using the apple to orange idea watch the group of sprites

 

transfer.mov

 

I did this simple example in the project without the reverse sequence move because movement was just left to right ..also fade is not too fancy but what time allowed

 

project file does not have sprite image that is in v15 data

 

transfer.zip

[NancyGormezano]

As I recall particles cannot be included in an alpha channel.

 

Particles are included in the alpha channel - ver 15e (don't know about other versions). This is screen capture of tga file straight out of A:M. The particles had been baked.

[Walter Baker]

Hi All

Thanks John for the files

I have looked over your 'transfer prj' and still cant figure out how you controlled the amount of sprites, I did see some differences from the 'form file' you sent above but still cant quite figure out how to make the sprites stop sending. I did notice you have pose sliders in both, can you explain them and the difference? I have an idea but not quite sure.

Still working on it.

 

I love this stuff, way to much fun.

[Walter Baker]

Hi Nancy

So does baking have some effect with the alpha channels thing? I am still a bit in training with the alpha thing.

[NancyGormezano]

Hi Nancy

So does baking have some effect with the alpha channels thing? I am still a bit in training with the alpha thing.

 

I don't know actually if it makes a difference with them being included in the alpha channel. Try it. I baked the particles because it's easier to manuever in the chor for further animating. Once particles are baked, they are not recomputed. So then one can jump to frames or scrub thru the timeline without having to watch and wait for "computing particles or dynamics" to finish.

 

When you go to render - you must have alpha buffer = ON (output/buffers/alpha=ON), and you must render to tga format (or png I think is ok too). Rendering with the alpha channel (the data included in the alpha buffer) - makes it easier to use imagery to composite, manipulate later

 

To stop sprites emitting: On the frame you want them to stop, set the rate of emission = 0.

Edited May 26, 2009 by NancyGormezano

[johnl3d]

The pose sliders were to make each model become transparent . The sprites emission percent is as Nancy said the way to turn that on and off. And by adjusting the life of the sprites you can make them end when you want them to etc

[HomeSlice]

v15 e - you don't have to bake Sprites (not sure about streaks/blobbies) for them to show properly in the alpha channel, even if the sprite images themselves have alpha channels. A couple weeks ago I rendered two or three sequence of just sprites with the alpha buffer turned ON and they rendered fine (rendered with multipass OFF) . To see the final composition of the particles and background/foreground elements see the "Act 2, Sequence 6 : Bumpy Man" sequence at this link:

http://www.holmesbryant.com/files/video/scarecrow_of_oz/

[Walter Baker]

Hi All

Well here is what I have come up with, which will work for now.

I am planning to present this to a friend that created a comic book.

This is his company logo (which was just a still 2D image) and I am hoping to get him and some friends together, get excited, and to get on with some business.

We played around with RayDream many years ago but never got anything going, this time with AM ( which is great by the way) I am going to look for a more fun and adventures to come.

 

It just so happens I have another question. (like you didn't know that was coming) ha

 

I have two models, I am trying to put one into another and to get them to work together, example: person inside a car....car moves but person doesn't. Should I combine them as one new model, use constraints or something else?

 

By the way thanks for all the help and advice!

Wally

ScatteredMatterlogo.mov

[robcat2075]

Looks like a good proof of concept!

 

I have two models, I am trying to put one into another and to get them to work together, example: person inside a car....car moves but person doesn't. Should I combine them as one new model, use constraints or something else?

 

constraints. You can constrain any object (or bone) in the chor to any other object (or bone ) in the chor.

 

You'll need a Translate To and an Orient Like constraint. With offsets, of course.

[Walter Baker]

Hi Rob

Ok, now do I do it with the models or in the choro window, and/or with the main bone of each model or some other way?

and "offsets" ???? not sure what you mean there.

[robcat2075]

Hi Rob

Ok, now do I do it with the models or in the choro window, and/or with the main bone of each model or some other way?

and "offsets" ???? not sure what you mean there.

 

In your case, you do this in your chor.

 

You can connect anything as long as you're not creating a "circular constraint" in which one bone is trying to be constrained to a second bone which is already trying to be constrained to the first bone.

 

I'd say you constrain the model bone of the man to the model bone of the chor. Or, suppose your car has some sort of suspension rigged where the body of the car can jiggle a bit from where the model bone is. then you'd constrain the model bone of the man to whatever bone is the main chassis of the car.

 

What if your car had rigged power seats that could move in relation to the chassis? Then you'd constrain the man to the bone for his seat.

 

 

"offsets" allow a bone to be constrained to anther bone without being snapped to the exact same position. The "use offset" button should be on by default when you make a constraint in V15. Before you had to turn it on manually.

[HomeSlice]

v15 e - you don't have to bake Sprites (not sure about streaks/blobbies) for them to show properly in the alpha channel, even if the sprite images themselves have alpha channels. A couple weeks ago I rendered two or three sequence of just sprites with the alpha buffer turned ON and they rendered fine (rendered with multipass OFF) .

 

Ummmmm .... correction. Sorry, I did a lot of stuff since I rendered those sprites and I forgot a thing or two. The alpha channel was not properly created out of AM. The alpha channels were solid black. I had to run a Photoshop batch action to select the solid black background color in the image, invert the selection, then fill in the selected areas with white in the alpha channel. Sorry for the misinformation. I'm not sure how Nancy got it to work so well. Maybe baking the particles made the difference?