Positioning objects or particles

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vtec
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Positioning objects or particles

Post by vtec »

Hi folks,

would there be a way to bulk organize a "swarm" of particles or objects? Let's say there's a bunch of little squares scattered across a scene in one frame, and during 20 frames I want them to be positioned in a shape of an arrow pointing upwards.

Image

Would there be another way than manually rendering movement of each of the little squares in the Keyframer? Some advanced Particle Generator settings maybe, or some other magical workaround? I am on TVPaint 10 on Windows 10. Many thanks in advance!
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slowtiger
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Re: Positioning objects or particles

Post by slowtiger »

No, there's no other way than doing it for each object separately.

Tip: Working backwards is much easier, arrange everything to the final shape first, then, with the keyframer, set random position. Reverse sequence after rendering and merging all layers.
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TVP 11.0 and 11.7 MacPro 12core 3GHz 32GB OS 10.11 Quicktime 10.7.3
TVP 11.7 Mac Mini M2pro 32GB OS 13.5
vtec
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Re: Positioning objects or particles

Post by vtec »

Oh I see. Thank you Mr. Tiger!
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ematecki
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Re: Positioning objects or particles

Post by ematecki »

You can also reverse the *keys* before rendering.
In case you have other effects like motion blur, they will still be correct this way.
Quicktime is DEAD. Get over it and move on !
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slowtiger
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Re: Positioning objects or particles

Post by slowtiger »

Reversing keys must be done layer by layer, reversing the final merged layer is much less steps.
TVP 10.0.18 and 11.0 MacPro Quadcore 3GHz 16GB OS 10.6.8 Quicktime 7.6.6
TVP 11.0 and 11.7 MacPro 12core 3GHz 32GB OS 10.11 Quicktime 10.7.3
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ematecki
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Re: Positioning objects or particles

Post by ematecki »

[Edited]
Sorry, you can't reverse keys on all Keyframers (or all FXs for that matter) at once...
Doing it one by one is time consuming, so unless you have to do it (because of, say, motion blur), slowtiger's method is faster.
Quicktime is DEAD. Get over it and move on !
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Peter Wassink
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Re: Positioning objects or particles

Post by Peter Wassink »

you could consider doing it manually using the CTRL key
if you animate reversed so you start with the arrow.
create a number of layer of sufficient length
then move each blue square (as a custombrush) from its position in the arrow while holding CTRL key.
depending on the complexity it could be more work, but it does offer you a lot of control on the movement of the individual particles.
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slowtiger
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Re: Positioning objects or particles

Post by slowtiger »

Oh yes, stamping stuff can be much faster than setting up FX for each layer. It also helps to have a layout layer with all movement paths and indicated positions underneath ... scene can be done in 15 min.
TVP 10.0.18 and 11.0 MacPro Quadcore 3GHz 16GB OS 10.6.8 Quicktime 7.6.6
TVP 11.0 and 11.7 MacPro 12core 3GHz 32GB OS 10.11 Quicktime 10.7.3
TVP 11.7 Mac Mini M2pro 32GB OS 13.5
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