Is it possible for Trapcode's Particular to interact with another instance of itself?
by Robert Storm
on
May 3, 2008 at 7:03:28 pm
Basically, I've got two particle systems. I want one type of particle to be gradually replaced by another particle.
Great, I thought, all I have to do is set a keyframe at 4 seconds for 50 particles per second, and another one at 30 seconds for 0 particles per second, and then vice versa on my other emitter.
While this does a great job of slowly swapping out the particles, whichever particular layer is on top seems to obscure the particular layer on bottom...
So I've got some particles that are obviously off in the distance being shown through particles that are an inch away from the camera.
Is there a workaround?
Re: Is it possible for Trapcode's Particular to interact with another instance of itself? by Andrew Yoole on May 4, 2008 at 2:17:31 am
It's not possible for two Particular layers to truly interact, but you can fake it by dividing the Z depth of your scene into zones and using the "Far Vanish" and "Near Vanish" visibility parameters in Particular.
Basically, once you have your two particle systems set up correctly, duplicate each into the number of Z-space zones you desire, then use the Far and Near Vanish settings to make their relevant particles visible.
So, for example, lets call the Particle layers A and B. Duplicate each, then distribute their stacking order:
Layer A copy
Layer B copy
Layer A
Layer B
In Layer A&B copies, set Far Vanish to 10,000, Near Vanish to 0
In Layers A&B, set far vanish to 20,000, near vanish to 10,000.
The result is that all particles with a Z-space of 10,000 or less will appear in front of all particles with a Z-space of 10,000-20,000.
