Lens Flares? Particle FX?

[sanman]

Hey,

Can Kool Moves do Lens Flares, or Particle Effects? (or are there any plans to maybe do so in the future?)

There is a neat program at http://www.coolfun.com
which does that kind of stuff, just in case you need any ideas.

[Bob Hartzell]

There is nothing automated for that. You would have to do it manually.

[sanman]

But would you consider adding it to the wishlist, and one day implementing it?
I think there are code samples available on the net, as to how to do stuff like that.

[BradBradleySL]

I think particles would be better created frame by frame, perhaps by using symbols, having some sort of particle generator would also probally have to involve a bitmap, which kinda eliminates the whole advantage of the flash format, to decrease the size, if you want particle effects, do it manually, you have much more precise control and less file size. Hey Bob things like this could be more easily created if we did have some sort of storage for instances, I really like that idea!!
Brad
Boy a lot of posts! thats good keep asking questions

[sanman]

Nah man,

You don't have to do particles as bitmaps. Why?

Particles can be anything. They can be vector.
They could be done as symbols.

Make something into a symbol, and then you can use it for particle fx. Why not?

I've seen all sorts of cute particle-like Flash fx on the net. That "stardust" or "pixie-dust" or sparkle stuff.

It would be cool to do explosions with. Fireworks. Snow. Rain. Fire. Bubbles. All kinds of stuff.

Like I said, check out that program Illusion at http://www.coolfun.com

They can even do missile contrails with it. And it's all 2D fx.

[Bob Hartzell]

Hey Bob things like this could be more easily created if we did have some sort of storage for instances, I really like that idea!!
-> I assume you mean the ability to save one of more shapes or frames for later use. That actually would be fairly easy.

[BradBradleySL]

Sanman, what I meant by bitmap was most particle effects, involve a bitmap fill of some sort for the particles, that is for good graphics visually, yes you could probally vectorize the bitmap, but I don't think it would look great, but yes it would probally be a cool feature, but there are so many other more important things, like bones and motion paths, which seem more of a priority, in my opinion, but Sanman, could you point me in the direction of some pure vector particle simulators for flash, would like to check them out.
I know about CoolFun's Illusions it is a pretty cool program, though about getting it, but like placing by hand in my movies.

Brad

[sanman]

Dude,

The only reason that you've seen particles as bitmaps uptil now, is because most fx renderers are raster type renderers, outputting to .avi, .mpg, .qt, etc.

But presuming that the format is a vector format, it would be natural to do particles as vector objects.

Judging by the flash movies I've seen, lens flares look really cool when done in Flash. It just seems like one of those cool fx that you want to keep on hand. Just like all those other fx that KoolMoves does (drop from sky, etc).

But yeah, there are so many fx that one can think of, that it's just best to allow 3rd party suppliers to make up plugins. Because there are just too many for any one company to come up with all or most of them.

[BradBradleySL]

DUDE I know that, in fact almost all particles are simply, vectors, they are flat patches with a bitmap surface, and a patch is basically vector. And the "lense flares" you have seen in Flash animations are bitmaps, strung together to form a lense flare effect, or complicated(not really) scripts involving vector images. And I am glad we agree on the third parties, though I don't know if KoolMoves programming can accept plugins, good question though, BOB?

Brad

[Bob Hartzell]

Not at this time.