Reverse Speed Particles

July 21st, 2008

In our newest tutorial you learned how to create a dynamic particle system based on the speed of a layer. Now, take that result and reverse it! You will see the particles come together for a stunning reveal.

Watch Sample Video

Just another idea for the stuff you already know.

To reverse the layer, precompose the final composition and then use the "Time Reverse" function on it and set to -100.

Andrew Kramer

POSTED:

17 years ago

82 Comments

till sidan

12 years ago

Amazing! This could be one particular of the very very helpful blogs We have ever be seen across about this issue. Actually Great. Therefore i'm also a specialist in this particular topic in order to recognize your efforts.

Artillusion Menelaos

17 years ago

I think this looks like an intro from a TV chanel in my country...

Pete Valcanas

17 years ago

I just finished this and I used the "Time Reverse" with it but I wanted the particles to reverse in the beginning and then disperse at the end along with the text and after about a dozen trial and errors I figured it out. Now I need to get the timing right.
This old man is feeling pretty good right now!

Thanks A.K.,

Pete

BOBBY HERNANDEZ

17 years ago

ANDREW KRAMER ES EL MEJOR, SALUDOS DESDE PUERTO RICO

John

17 years ago

Oh wow!

I just finished giving my try on the first Particle Sped.

I'm eager to check this out!

17 years ago

Hi Andrew!!
I want to know if exist any expression to do the same thing of link, but only one parameter, like the position of a layer?

HIStory [Germany]

17 years ago

@The Real Smithy:
thanks for this link.
i know this tutorial but i hope andrew show us his technic to do this.

Rafaga

17 years ago

This is totally amazing Andrew... Thanks for the best web-tutorials!!!

The Real Smithy

17 years ago

hey Martin,

here is the link to video co. archive website, explosion

http://web.archive.org/web/20051029005515/www.videocopilot.net/resources.html

The Real Smithy

17 years ago

hey HIStory,

check out this link, its from creative cow, its a great way of making your own growing flourish.

http://library.creativecow.net/articles/hansen_jaysen/growing.php

gunsmith

17 years ago

My adobe after effecsts is working slow. Why?

martin

17 years ago

Hi, this maby slightly offtopic,

but can I find that old VCP tutorial of the city impact somewhere on this site?
I am trying to make a mushroom cloud with particular, but havn't succeeded yet.

HIStory [Germany]

17 years ago

Hi Andrew,
these two Tutorials (Speed & Reverse Speed Particle) is very awesome !
This is an very nice idea for my new DVD-Intro.

I really like your Flourishes and I hope you can give us an Tutorial about making Growing Flourish...

My beste wishes to you and your Family.

Greets from Germany
HIStory

Vidvillain

17 years ago

I love this website.

sholto

17 years ago

respect for the beatles link

Andrew Kramer

17 years ago

Smithy, check some of the recent blog posts.

tankman37

17 years ago

hi andrew..i live in new zealand...tonight there was an advert for x-men3 on one of our tv channels at the end they had the ENERGY ball from your ENERGY tutorial ...could not believe my eyes...looked great.....keep up the good work and thanks .....

The Real Smithy

17 years ago

isn't the new website suppose to be up by now?

Jack H

17 years ago

The reason I want it to emit when it's stopped is to take advantage of the momentum of the layer to give the particles a nice movement. For those who know hockey, picture a player stopping really fast and spraying ice shavings. that's what I'm looking for. I will try this tomorrow and if I can get it to work I will post a link to the video. Thanks for all the help so far!

Now that I typed it I just had a thought. I will probably need to have the particles emit not exactly at zero but a little before in order to take advantage of some momentum. Maybe have to increase the "affected by velocity" number as well.

Bajistapro

17 years ago

hello I am having a problem with the render my particles do not apears at the final render! why??? please help! (I am not following the tutorial is just some inspirational results from the tutorial!)

Dustin James

17 years ago

that is what i said...

but after thinking about it.. if the object moves later it would be nice to keep the emitter connected to the object...

but all together the idea of particles stopping while it is moving just doesn't make any since... at least in this TEXT type of instance

Drobins

17 years ago

Now that I think about this more, you don't really need this code if you want particles to emit once the object stops.

Wouldn't it be easier to just create an instance of particular at that specific moment and size the emitter to your object and have the particles emit at that specific time?

Dustin James

17 years ago

I got it... thanks.

The blog might be interpreting it as code..

Some Guy

17 years ago

I meant:
So if you use equations in"if"-brackets use the relations "<" (smaller than), ">" (larger than) or "==" (equals).

The blog has problems with the signs "smaller than" and "larger than".

Some Guy

17 years ago

@Dustin James: In programming languages "X=1" means the variable X is set to 1 and "X==1" is a relation that returns "true" if X is equals 1 or "false" else. The function "if" requires a logical value (true or false) in the brackets. It's like "if(true) { do this } else { do that }".
So if S is equal to zero then the relation "S==0" would return true and 10000 particles would be emitted. If you write "if(S=0)" then it won't work correctly, because After Effects sets that always to "true" and particles would be emitted whether S is zero or not.
So if you use equations in "if"-brackets use the relations "" or "==".
I hope that helps.

Dustin James

17 years ago

@some guy

why == ?

is that absolutely equal to?

Some Guy

17 years ago

Dustin was one minute faster.

Some Guy

17 years ago

If S is less than 1, then it's 0 or a very small number like 0.123. And like Dustin James said 35*0 is zero and 35*0.123 is only 4.305. So you need to write a big number instead. For example:

S=thisComp.layer(â???TEXTâ???).transform.position.speed;

if(S==0){
10000;
}else{
0;
}

Change 10000 to emit more or less particles.

Dustin James

17 years ago

Try this

S=thisComp.layer("TEXT").transform.position.speed;

if(S=0){
THE AMOUNT OF PARTICLES YOU WANT TO BE EMITTED HERE (e.g. 500);
}else{
0;
}

That should work for you...

what it says is that if S (the speed) is 0 (not moving) then emit X amount of particles.

if not then don't emit any.

Drobins

17 years ago

Just a guess but would changing the code around a little make a difference. Right now i believe it says if S is less than 1 do nothing else emit at 35*S.

Should it not be if S is less that 1 emit at 35*S else do nothing.

I am just guessing without trying but here is what I think it should be.

S=thisComp.layer(â???TEXTâ???).transform.position.speed;

if(S>1){
35*S;
}else{
0;
}

Dustin James

17 years ago

But besides that...

why would you need an expression to turn on particles when it isn't moving...

this tutorial is showing how to turn them on and move in the direction of the object..

Dustin James

17 years ago

I could be wrong.. but.. 35*S would be 35*0... and anything multiplied by zero is going to be zero.

But I'm not that good at expressions..

Jack

17 years ago

Hello, newbie here, I was just tinkering with this and tried to get it to emit particles when it was stopped instead of moving. Like it hit something and that caused it to emit.

I tried modifying the expression to this but it won't work:

S=thisComp.layer("TEXT").transform.position.speed;

if(S>1){
0;
}else{
35*S;
}

I'll take any help, Thanks!

JAck

Jacob Behunin

17 years ago

Ausum last 2 tutorials.
Any word on the new website?

Nacho

17 years ago

Incredibleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Kevin G

17 years ago

Keep the ideas flowing man there's no bounds to what you can help us to conceive. You blow my mind everytime you create a mew project and your method for teaching is probably just as important as what you are teaching us. You simplify the tutorial process and the rest of the industry is running scared to catch up.
Kepp up the amazing work and never let them catch you.
Peace out.

Morten Enoksen

17 years ago

neato^^ I actually found that out myself, bu thanks anyway

Tianaina

17 years ago

Your creativity is amazing !!

Speedbreaker

17 years ago

@Drobins

wow that showreel is realy amazing!

BTW I know it's totally unrelated but I know alot of you are interested in 3D Stuff and breaking things up.

As I searched around I found out alot of Studios use "SideFx Houdini" for that kind of animation in Blockbuster movies. The Master Edition of the software costs about 8000$ BUT you can get a FREE license for personal use! Which I think is absolutely amazing!

http://www.sidefx.com/

I hope that helps!

Fabian

SteveB

17 years ago

@Drobins
You're right, that reel is fantastic - very inspirational...

Thanks for that!

Drobins

17 years ago

This effect has given me some serious inspiration for a water simulation that I have wanted to do for a looooong time. Thanks Andrew!

Also if anyone is looking for some serious inspiration I found this demo reel online and was floored by it.

http://gonzo.uni-weimar.de/~puen5159/showreel08/Showreel_Conrad_Ostwald_2008.mov

amazing!

Jake

17 years ago

Dang, seriously ... that looks pretty awesome.

Gregger

17 years ago

Thanks for the expression tips. Very useful!

pendejo

17 years ago

how come VCP doesn't have any advertisements

Flubber

17 years ago

nice, i guess you just have to stay and think for 5 minutes and to be creative and the results can be like this one...

thanks for the tip

keep up the good work VideoCopilot... as always

Eugenio Fructuoso

17 years ago

Check this, Andrew??¡??¡??¡

http://imagenhd.blogspot.com/search/label/Tutoriales

noone

17 years ago

Awesome tutorials, helped me learn lots of expression stuff I needed to pick up on. What's the word on the new site?!

versa

17 years ago

Andrew!I wish to make so, that from under the text at impact under force of gravity (like in this post http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/?p=60) particles took off like in this tutorial. Could you explain more in detail this post.

Link:http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/?p=60

VFX-Anomaly

17 years ago

Andrew I found this just for you, Go get a good laugh!

http://vimeo.com/832589

The Real Smithy

17 years ago

great background Andrew. and German nice work on your 3d comp, good lighting

Nic

17 years ago

Andrew, Thanks for all that you do. I just wish I could keep up with you and maybe go back about 30 years to learn this..

James Cawley

17 years ago

Texture looks like its from an old wooden box or table or something. I really like the way you mix textures with motion, they always fit perfect!! Thanks for all you do guys!

james

17 years ago

farout mate u r tha man

Dustin James

17 years ago

I take that back.. your first tutorials on here had some war scenes that had the desaturated colors...

Dustin James

17 years ago

these background images remind me of Bio Shock (the game) with those darker colors and the desaturated look.

Kind of out of the ordinary for you as you usually use bright vivid colors...

kris

17 years ago

wohooo!! really good stuff!

Fernando

17 years ago

Excelent! just ausum!

ÃƒÂ¶mer tatlisoz

17 years ago

very very good Andrew

Johan

17 years ago

Where's the background texture from ?

Monroe E.

17 years ago

Hey Andrew,

Great tutorial. I think that if I were to ever use this technique, I would most likely combine the two styles. This way, the particles come together to form the title (time reverse) and then they shake off to make the title disappear. Easily done by duplicating the precomp, time reverse one of them, and play with the opacity in the middle of the animation, where the title is still right?

Thanks again, I had been anticipating another tutorial!!!

gothell

17 years ago

I have following your tutorial and when I was lieing on my bed (we don't care) I have thinking to make the particles withe the matrix font you know all the little letters who they were growing down the screen.

Sorry for my realy bad english.

I hope you understand what I have trying to explain to you so if you want to see my video e-mail me ^^.

And realy thanks Andrew you rocks.

Stephen Bolton

17 years ago

smart, as usual.

Benji

17 years ago

Andrew, you did a great tutorial showcasing your Orbit tool preset which I think is an invaluable resource. It would be great if you could show us how to make particles follow any custom path...square, oval, zig zag...in 3D space. Just a thought, thanks!

Joe Avino

17 years ago

Looks awesome. Where to you get those great looking backgrounds?

john drach

17 years ago

Sweet. I have just become a product of the economy. End of September is my last day at work so maybe I can incorporate this into the intro to my portfolio site.

highdefw

17 years ago

heh, and I thought I knew something know one else would find out!!! thx anyway Andrew, good stuff

Nick

17 years ago

Oh nice, Thanks Andrew

Max

17 years ago

Andrew, you're awesome! Thanks alot for all the great work!

Ziga

17 years ago

OMG I was looking forward to go home and try to accomplish something like
this but you anticipated in the best way like always!

http://youtube.com/watch?v=U_UdZjg3ktM

Floris

17 years ago

Man, I had the exact same idea watching your tutorial yesterday.

German: that video looks to be made in 3D studio max, using just AE for compositing. It uses 3D motion tracking to get the right object angle and position.

Nikolaus

17 years ago

Yeah, thanks

Nina

17 years ago

Amazing thing.You are on fire Andrew!

German

17 years ago

Thanks Andrew!!! just... Thanks for everything!
But if you can... look this!
http://es.youtube.com/watch?v=lDd2I8fr06Y&feature=related

I want to know your opinion about this video that find in youtube.

Is posible to make like that with after and 3dmax?

I have the The Bullet Tutorial, but this is more complicated to do with the same methods.

So.... Thank you very very much! and.......... Sam is great!!!

Doug

17 years ago

Cool! love the background image.
I think I prefer the original tho.
awesome.

peter

17 years ago

I like the background it has that Indianna Jones feel about it..and the animation is cool too..!

Paulo

17 years ago

i wish i had particular and starglow, heck i wish i had CC Particle WORLD

Loay

17 years ago

I like this notes that is small but gets big results.
Thank you Andrew.

tom

17 years ago

awesome, insane, dynamic ect. But also really good

Alex 77

17 years ago

Wow ... that's ... umm ... what's the word I'm looking for ... DOPE!!!!

Rahul

17 years ago

As always another great one! Thanks a lot man.

Infaas

17 years ago

wow? hehe
Very cool...

Nikita

17 years ago

Amazing!

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