Making a "sparkles" emitter from scratch (part 2)    08 May 01



(Note: the Illusion 2 project files and images used here can be found at the end of this page of the tutorial, and CAN be loaded by the demo version of Illusion 2.)



Ok, so we have a decent "trail" of sparkles -- now we need the "glowing head" part. Since we'll be creating a few more particle types in this emitter, let's rename the one we have now to something useful. In the hierarchy window click the particle type name (currently "New Particle Type" unless you've already renamed it) and rename it "trail":



Don't press ENTER when you're done renaming, because that will close the props dialog. (Annoying, isn't it? I'll have to remember to fix that some time...)

Now select the emitter (or one of its properties) in the hierarchy and click the "New Particle Type" button below the hierarchy window. We want to select the emitter so a "default" particle type is created. If we had the particle type selected then pressed the New Particle Type button, we'd get a copy of the particle type, not a "blank" one.



Rename this particle type "flare 1" or something like that. Here's what we have, and what we're trying to get to:

   

There is one main thing we need to do: make this particle type a "single" particle. The "single" option is located on the "particles" page just under the "intense" option. We also want to change the particle shape to a spikey flare-looking shape, so do all of that now:



What you'll see is one pretty useless little dot (it's silly to include a screenshot, but I will anyway):



We need to crank the size up a lot!

   

Still not big enough, but we can increase the size more by using the size over life graph:

   

It's still not quite big enough though, and both graphs are set "max", so what do we do? We use the *emitter* size graph of course. Increase the emitter size property to 200%:

   

Notice that when you select an emitter property in the hierarchy the preview window shows all particle types. Also notice that by increasing the emitter size property, the "trail" particles are too big. Select the "trail" size and decrease it (make it about half of what it was, since we just doubled the emitter size setting from 100% to 200%).

   

So now we've got the "flare" particle size big enough (and the "trail" particles small enough), so let's finish this flare up. Set the color:



As a final step, give the particle a little bit of spin:

   

I just noticed that the size of the flare is a little too big, so go back to the flare size property and decrease it a little:

   

Now we get a little fancy (but it's an easy fancy). With the "flare" particle type still selected in the hierarchy, click the "New Particle Type" button under the hierarchy window to make a copy of the "flare" particle type. Increase the size of this flare copy a little, make its color yellowish, and make it spin in the opposite direction.

   

   

The reason we have two different flare particle types is we want them spinning slightly in different directions (one slightly faster than the other too). This gives a nice illusion of "rays of light" moving around. Much more interesting than just a single non-spinning flare shape I think. (You can't see it in a still image, but when the emitter is animating, it's cool.)


Let's see where we're at and what we're aiming for again:

   

We're almost there -- just need to add some purple "glow". This is very simple, especially since we've already got the "flare" particle types. Select one of them and make a copy of it (click the "New Particle Type" button). Rename this new particle type "glow". Now select the "basic blur" particle shape and "make active", and change the color of the "glow" particle shape to purple:





That's pretty close to what we were aiming for! Adding that last "glow" particle type really made a big difference (I use a "glow" like this in a lot of my "intense" emitters). You'll notice that adding this last particle type really changed the color of the overall emitter -- all of the other particles. Experiment a little with different colors for the "glow" particle type and the two "flare" particle types. Try changing the sizes of those as well.

That wraps up this tutorial since we've gotten what we intended, but I've just had an idea for modifying this emitter, so...



BONUS MATERIAL

I'm going to just experiment here a little and record what I do. I'm not sure if the results will be cool or not, but let's see what happens.

Copy the "glow" particle type and make it a lot smaller:

   

Now click the "ref. point" button on the "particles page" and change the reference point to something like this:



And make it spin a lot more:

   

What you'll see is a little glow "orbiting" the bigger glow. It's not quite what I intended, so let's try to salvage it. Uncheck the "single" option:



Change the color gradient so the particles fade in and out:



Now increase the life a little:



And make the intitial particle angle random:



Here's what we have:

   

I'm still not really happy with this, so keep experimenting. Make the size of the particles decrease over life. Since the reference point is not at the center of the particle shape, this will make the particles "collapse" toward the emitter -- sort of like reversing the velocity:

   

Hmmm. They're not really "collapsing" like I thought they would. Oh, the velocity value isn't 0. Make it 0 (min):

   

They're not orbiting as fast as I'd like. Since the particle spin value is "max" already, increase the emitter spin value:

   

Ok, I'm not really happy with the color. Let's try something different:

   



Which is where I'm stopping. It's pretty cool, but I can play around like this for *hours*...

Hopefully you've learned something from this, and will have an easier time creating your own cool new emitters.



Click here for Quicktime movies of the emitters
Click here for the Illusion project file:   (23 KB)
(This project file CAN be loaded by the demo version of Illusion 2.)

Back to Part 1

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Alan Lorence    08 May 01