Smoke - Can you animate it in A:M?

[higginsdj]

I'm trying to create a puff of smoke from the end of my flint lock pistol using the Smoke Tutorial and TAOAM but I cannot get AM to set any keys on the smoke parameters (sprite) Any suggestions?

[robcat2075]

What are you trying to key?

[John Bigboote]

It's done in the chor, not the material... you need to expand the 'show more than drivers' thingy, find the group where you applied the material and keep expanding until you see the smoke material's settings- which are fully keyframeable as far as opacity- number of emitters- size- life- color- etc

[higginsdj]

Thanks guys. My aim it to create a puff of smoke so I would animate rate - ie a high rate dropping to zero at, say, frame 10 (or whatever looks ok)

[robcat2075]

I have animated smoke that varies the emmission rate so I know it can be done.

 

There's a thread with an example PRJ there...

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...43&hl=smoke

[higginsdj]

Thanks guys. Just needed to know where to set/access the animation keys. Got it now and all is good. Thanks for the tutorial link. I found an old one of your Robert that still talks about 'clicking on the material' (Particles_Sprites_Tutorial) - someone might want to remove it or redirect it to a more up to date tutorial (or label it as - will only work in versions older than....)

 

Cheers

[robcat2075]

I found an old one of your Robert that still talks about 'clicking on the material' (Particles_Sprites_Tutorial) - someone might want to remove it or redirect it to a more up to date tutorial (or label it as - will only work in versions older than....)

 

I don't recall that one, where is it?

[higginsdj]

Sorry Robert - it was one of Holmes.... http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...=smoke+tutorial

[robcat2075]

Sorry Robert - it was one of Holmes.... http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...=smoke+tutorial

 

What didn't work in that?

[higginsdj]

It wasn't specific enough on what to do. ie it just said select the Sprite in the PWS - well I did that (it appears in multiple places and shows keyframes in materials but selecting it there didn't do the trick.)

[robcat2075]

I'm still trying to track this down. Can you point me to the page?

 

The nearest I can find is "Click on the material in the folder to select it." but that one seems specific.

[higginsdj]

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...mp;#entry249010

[NancyGormezano]

To animate emission rate: In the chor pws - turn on "show more than drivers" - ie click the red thingy, for the model that has the sprite/smoke material. Navigate to the group (in chor pws) that has material (expand all triangles, +'s) - select emission rate property - set keyframes wherever you want. In this example I've keyframed 100 for the emission rate at frame 0, and 0 at frame 24. Particles will still exist past frame 24, until they all die (according to number of frames asigned to LIFE property - also animatable)

[higginsdj]

Thanks Nancy

[johnl3d]

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=44718

[higginsdj]

Thanks John

[KingVidiot]

I have animated smoke that varies the emmission rate so I know it can be done.

 

There's a thread with an example PRJ there...

 

http://www.hash.com/forums/index.php?showt...43&hl=smoke

 

 

Damn fine work in those smoke vids. I was working on a cigarette character long ago for an anti-smoking PSA (scrubbed) and he could have used some nice smoke like this.

[higginsdj]

Robert, in your cigarette smoke example (using sprites) how did you keep the smoke going up?

 

Cheers

[jimd]

Robert, in your cigarette smoke example (using sprites) how did you keep the smoke going up?

 

Cheers

 

 

one way is to use gravity in show more than drivers

- smoke goes up + smoke goes down and of course you can automate that over time

[robcat2075]

Robert, in your cigarette smoke example (using sprites) how did you keep the smoke going up?

 

Cheers

 

The emitter is constrained to always point up regardless of how the cigarette is pointed. That allows me to use a fairly high viscosity setting on the particles so the smoke hangs in the air after it rises from the emitter.

[higginsdj]

I did that but it still didn't work - turns out there is a Y direction dynamic force in the Choreography set to -100% by default. Setting this to 1 or 0 did the trick. (Streak smoke doesn't have a gravitational setting)

 

Although my wispy smoke looks great against a black background it is not visible when rendered on an alpha and composited onto the original frame (well only the emitter is bright enough to be visible and it does look a little weird) I think I will go back to sprites and try a version of that.

 

Cheers

[robcat2075]

I did that but it still didn't work - turns out there is a Y direction dynamic force in the Choreography set to -100% by default. Setting this to 1 or 0 did the trick. (Streak smoke doesn't have a gravitational setting)

 

All I know is that somehow my project worked. i don't actually remember how.

 

Although my wispy smoke looks great against a black background it is not visible when rendered on an alpha and composited onto the original frame (well only the emitter is bright enough to be visible and it does look a little weird) I think I will go back to sprites and try a version of that.

 

rendering it to a black background with no alpha channel and compositing with some other transfer method such as luminosity might be useful. Applying a level adjustment could bring out the visibility of the smoke as needed.