Firebreathing with Particles 2.2

Author: Poseworks

Tools Needed:

• Particles 2.2

Support Files:

• PRT2_P6FaderWacros.zip
• smiley.zip

The Particles 2.2 update introduces some powerful new features, including the all-new Animation Editor.

Using these alongside Particles 2's already robust toolset, you can very quickly create a fire animation. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to do just that. Check out the Smiley animation (DivX) to see the final product.

If you need help with the basics of using Particles 2, try Energy FX with Particles 2 or Weather FX with Particles 2.

You do need Particles 2.2+ to follow this tutorial. Owners of Particles 2.0 can download the 2.2 update. Simply unzip to your Poser directory and run the updater from your Library.

Poser 6 users may want to pick up the Wacros linked in this tutorial.

Without further ado, flame on!

A) Set up your character's animation. Smiley's animation is 40 frames long.

B) Set the current frame to the first frame that you want a full jet of fire. In this case, frame 24 was when I wanted the fire was fully formed.

A) Create the Particle System using the Generator. The “Spurt” preset (included with the 2.2 patch) will give you the exact settings that I used. A continuous animation like a stream of fire is best with a Linear range for the axis that you want the fire to travel on. (In this case, the Z).

Keep in mind that you can always just rotate the particle figure if you want the particles to move along a different direction.

1) Set the materials when the Materials Editor pops up. The “Burn” preset (included with the 2.2 patch) will give you the exact settings that I used.

Keep in mind:

Only Diffuse Color, Ambient Color and Transparency can be animated.

Setting a reflection map may give you undesirable results with sprites.

A) Move the particle figure's body into place and parent it to a body part, if you want.

B) Go back to frame one, and your particle figure collapses to a dot! By not generating the particles on the first frame, they stay in their original state. The position that you set them in is saved as a key frame. Play back your animation and you'll see the particles grow from a dot to the full stream of fire. Make sure you go to Frame one after you're done inspecting the animation.

A) Now, you might not want the particles to start moving into position after frame one, and this is where Poser's Animation Palette (AP) comes in handy. [ Window > Animation Palette ] In the AP, go ahead and collapse all of your figures by clicking the little arrows next to their names. Now we can see everything that we need to. Each of the brightly colored rectangles represents one key frame. You can select one by clicking on it. Clicking and dragging will move the selection to a new frame.

B) Select the keyframe in Frame 1 and move in to the frame you want the animation to start in. In my case, I want it to start in Frame 14. Playback your animation to check it.

A) Now it's time to set up the procedural animation for the fire jet, so that the fire continuously shoots out along the Z axis.

B) Go the frame in which you generated the fire (in my case, frame 24).

C) Launch the Animation Editor. The Animation Editor is a hybrid of the System Editor and the Materials Editor that lets you configure the animateable properties of each. Only the gradients and parameters that you check will be animated.

D) The preset “Burn” will load the settings that I used. Read on for more about choosing settings.

A) The things that need to be set to animate are: Scale, zTran, Diffuse, and Ambient. Don't check off Transparency if you're using transparency maps, unless you know what you're doing.

B) By default, the formula used to animate is the same as the one used to create your particle system. You can use a custom

range if you'd like, but, in this case, what we already have is just fine.

C) Setting the keyframe rate properly is very important. In most cases, stick between 1 and 3. If you're animating a random formula, you might want to use a high keyframe rate, or else your particles will appear jittery.

D) Consider what you're animating when you choose how many frames the particles live. In the case of fire, short, rapid movement and a quick death are required, so a low number like 15 frames (half a second) is ideal. With something like clouds, a long, leisurely life would be better–something like 120 frames (4 seconds).

A) Hit OK and the editor will start calculating your values.

B) This process can be slow, here are some tips to speed things up:

Keep the number of parameters that you're animating to a minimum, and fewer calculations will have to be done.

For a fast but fairly accurate preview, use a key frame rate of 2 or 3. You'll probably want to re-animate with a key frame rate of 1 for the final render, but this will cut down on time exponentially for testing results.

Don't use more particles than you need.

C) Materials don't really have much impact on speed, so don't be shy about animating those.

Poser 6 users can take advantage of some new material Wacros developed specially for Particles 2.

“PRT2 Add Fader Node” adds a special control to the transparency node that overrides transparency maps, allowing you to fade in/out particle figures that use transparency maps.

“PRT2 Fade In” will set the Fader nodes to opaque (normal transparency, respecting other settings).

“PRT2 Fade Out” will set the Fader nodes to transparent (completely transparent, regardless of other settings).

Using Fade In or Fade Out on a frame will set a key frame so that you can fully animate these settings.

Go to Animation > Make Movie and you're done!