Greetings:
A lot of Combustion Version 2.0 users ask me questions about using the built-in Particles generator. Remember that the particles are actually an integrated plug-in calle Particle Illusion from Wondertouch. So, if you really want to learn more about using the particles, just pay a visit to the Tutorials, Hints, and Tips Section at the Wondertouch website!
As reported Aug 1st, Wondertouch is the company founded in July 2002 by Alan Lorence, the principle programmer behind Illusion. Illusion has been around since 1998 and was previously distributed by Impulse Inc. The new Wondertouch website has extensive resources, including a Gallery, Downloads, Support, associated Links and Tutorials. Also available are Samples, Documentation, Updates and User Submitted Emitter Libraries. This is all located at: http://www.wondertouch.com
If you have specific user questions about particles, there is a free User Forum right located at www.CreativeCOW.net website: http://www.creativecow.net/index.php?forumid=23
At the Tutorials Section of the Wondertouch website, you will find the below list of tutorials:
http://www.wondertouch.com/tutorials.asp
-Recreating a scene from The Matrix: (Machinegun bullit casings falling into the camera) by Alan Lorence, 15 May 01
-Creating a "Sparkles" emitter from scratch. by Alan Lorence, 08 May 01
-Making a tornado by Alan Lorence, 28 Jan 01
-Simulating "light" (lit smoke) by Alan Lorence, 28 Jan 01
-Making a "repeatable tile" pattern by Alan Lorence, 28 Nov 00
-Making a "drop shapdow" by Alan Lorence, 01 Nov 00
-Making a frog go "poof" by Alan Lorence, 11 Aug 00
-Using particleIllusion to make waves by Lars Fresk, 25 Jul 00
-Converting an emitter into an "explosion" emitter by Alan Lorence, 25 Jul 00
-Making an "octopus" emitter -- by accident. by Alan Lorence, 23 Jul 00
-Using Alpha Channels (Escher Waterfall) by Paul McDonell, 11 Jul 00
-Making an emitter go around something "3D". by Alan Lorence, 27 May 00
-Adding a watermark to an animation. by Alan Lorence, 26 May 00
-Creating particle shapes in Photoshop by Eki Halkka, 27 Apr 00
-Using Layer Offset to simulate wind by Alan Lorence, 10 Apr 00
-Integration between Imagine and particleIllusion by Jason Gold, 31 Mar 00
Additional Notes:
It is the Particle Illusion software that is integrated with Discreet Combustion Version 2.0 (both Mac and PC.) Combustion v2 User can download additional FREE Particle Libraries for use in their systems. The relevant Particle Libraries should be dated AFTER January 2002, since most of the libraries BEFORE that date are already included with the release of Combustion v2. This includes effects such as Abstract, Explosions, Natural, etc. These User Submitted Particle Libraries are generally very nice, but, unfortunately, totally un-organize. However, if you search, you can find some cool new pre-created unique effects since Combustion V2's release. To Install them, first download a library, then simply use the "Load Library" button in Combustion. Or, you can drop the Illusion library file into the "Particle Libraries" folder in combustion's program folder and then restart combustion. The new library will be converted and it'll become another entry in the Library popup list. Particle Illusion uses OpenGL, so you'll time most of your renders in frames per second instead of seconds (or minutes) per frame. Of course the number of effects that you use, and the parameters of those effects have an impact on performance.
regards,
Jack Pfeiffer , denmark
Secretary, Danish Discreet User Group-Copenhagen, Denmark
Co-Host: CreativeCOW Combustion and Edit Forums