User Manual

Table Of Contents
is displayed and so on. If a particle cell is not generated until frame 50, it begins
with frame 50 of the movie file. This causes all particle cells to use the same image
on any give frame of the comp. The Particle Age setting causes each particle cell
to begin with the first frame of the movie file, regardless of when the particle cell is
generated. The Particle Birth Time setting causes each particle to begin with the
frame that coincides with the frame of the particle cell birth time. For instance, if the
particle is generated on frame 25, then it uses frame 25 of the movie file for the
entire comp. Unlike the other two options, the Particle Birth Time setting holds the
same frame for the duration of the comp
Time Offset: This dial is used to slip or offset the starting frame used from the movie
file. For instance, setting it to 10 will cause the movie file to start of frame 10 instead
of frame 1.
Time Scale: This slider is a multiplier on the frame. Instead of using an offset, it
changes the starting frame by multiplying the frame by the value selected with the
slider. For instance, if a value of 2 is selected then when the playhead reaches frame
2, the movie files displays frame 4 (2x2=4) and when the playhead reaches frame 8,
the movie file displays frame 16 (8x2=16).
Gain: Gain: The gain slider is a multiplier of the pixel value. It is used to apply a
correction to the overall Gain of the Bitmap. Let’s say you have a bitmap particle cell
that contains a pixel value of R0.5 G0.5 B0.4 and you add a Gain of 1.2, you end up
with a pixel value of R0.6 G0.6, B0.48 (i.e., 0.4 * 1.2 = 0.48) while leaving black pixels
unaffected. Higher values produce a brighter image, whereas lower values reduce
both the brightness and the transparency of the image.
Style Bitmap: This control appears when the Bitmap style is selected, along with an
orange Style Bitmap input on the node’s icon in the Node view. Connect a 2D node
to this input to provide images to be used for the particles. You can do this on the
Node view, or you may drag and drop the image source node onto the Style Bitmap
control from the Node Editor or Timeline, or right-click on the control and select the
desired source from the Connect To menu.
Blob: This option produces large, soft spherical particles, with controls for Color, Size,
Fade timing, Merge method, and Noise.
Noise: This slider only applies to 2D Blob particles. The noise slider is used to
introduce a computer generated Perlin noise pattern into the blob particles in
order to give the blobs more texture. A setting of 0 introduces no noise to the Blob
particles and a setting of 1 introduces the maximum amount of noise.
Brush: This styles produces particle cells based on any image file located in the
brushes directory. There are numerous controls for affecting the appearance and
animation.
Gain: The gain slider is a multiplier of the pixel value. It is used to apply a correction
to the overall Gain of the image that is used as the Brush. Let’s say you have a brush
particle cell that contains a pixel value of R0.5 G0.5 B0.4 and you add a Gain of 1.2,
you end up with a pixel value of R0.6 G0.6, B0.48 (i.e., 0.4 * 1.2 = 0.48) while leaving
black pixels unaffected. Higher values produce a brighter image, whereas lower
values reduce both the brightness and the transparency of the image.
Brush: This menu shows the names of any image files stored in the Brushes
directory. The location of the Brushes directory is defined in the Preferences
dialog, under Path Maps. The default is the Brushes subdirectory within Fusion’s
install folder.
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