Firstly, my apologies. I only just decided I should probably show this after it was all rendered. Lesson 1, render in larger resolutions then downscale as needed, because Instagram uses 640x640 when it comes to viewing on the web even in a square ratio it's a bit crap at that size. But remember the days of PAL and NTSC? Truely awful. *shudder*.
Anyway, here's something I made, the goal was to connect locations via xParticles, which after a lot of trial and error has been achieved. Not that they're entirely noticeable, it's good to know for anther time.
My concept was to use a tracer object - ubertracer this time around - to connect the locations together, make it editable into a spline and manipulate that to be my connections. This went well until trying to map particles to it. A combination of the way the tracer & splines worked created a confusing time for x-particles. Originally I used the web mode - which connects everything within a min and max range, this created a lot of strange splines, for 14 locations I ended up with around 417 points, soooo, I can see where x-particles got confused. In the end I had to use 5 chain (1 > 2 > 3 > 4….) links with a random order of locations. the particles then flow from 1 > 2 > 3…. or 3 > 6 > 12 > 2 etc. This seems to work just fine.
*// Textures:
Hair materials on the splines
Material with Glow channel on the world map
Hair materials on the splines
Material with Glow channel on the world map
*// Lighting:
5 lights in a cloner with GSG Signal to fluctuate their intensity
*//Animation:
All x-particles dynamic, just some keyframes on a camera animation
*//Render:
Standard render.
*//After Effects:
“Graded” with curves (just a bit of a boost in the mids_
A touch of glow
Some shape layers, grids and animations for some spice
*// Scene:
Objects: 78 (155)
Polygons: 0 (139454)
Particles: 225
Textures: 5
Lights: 5
Render time: 14 minutes on a MacBook Pro
*// Problems:
As mentioned issues with the follow spline, but fixed with multiple splines, xpGroups and xpModifiers.
*// Tip of the day:
Render large, downscale later. No use putting something that’s ½ HD in a showreel or something like this.
Render large, downscale later. No use putting something that’s ½ HD in a showreel or something like this.
As always, thanks for watching, questions welcome!
Top view
New Zealand, had to home in there somewhere!
Yes, I'm well aware "Verticle" is not spelt that way....
Frame from After Effects
After Effects before and after
After Effects before and after
