[CS3] Bitmap particle effects without a black background

[WilloughbyJackson]

Okay, this has been bothering me for some time, and I was just curious if I'm barking up the wrong tree and should just use sprite/movie clips based particle effects.

I've been looking at a lot of neat particle effects in AS3. Some of them are sprite/movie clips based, while others are bitmap based. However, I recently noticed that most of the really awesome bitmap particle effects have been on a black background. If you change the color of the background, you'll see the particles actually fade to black.

I have attempted to alter some of these bitmap "fade to black" examples to make them alpha out with no real success. So, my question is this: Does anyone know of a way to slowly fade out a particle effect using bitmapData AND have it alpha out so you can place it over top of a non-solid colored background?

[Squize]

Just had to code this the other day

var fadeMatrix:Array = [1,0,0,0,0,
			0,1,0,0,0,
			0,0,1,0,0,
			0,0,0,0.8,0];
fadeDown=new ColorMatrixFilter(fadeMatrix);

So that's your filter, and you just apply it every ( Or every other ) frame to your playField bitmap, eg

canvas.bitmapData.applyFilter(canvas.bitmapData,ca nvas.bitmapData.rect,qPoint,fadeDown);

( Where qPoint has been defined else where as qPoint=new Point(0,0); )

To alter the speed of the fade, play with the 0.8 value in the matrix.

Squize.

[WilloughbyJackson]

Cool beans.

Thanks Squize.

If I'm ever in London, I owe you a pint.

(Is that what you say over there?)

-pXw

[Squize]

Nearly, the actual phrase you wanted was "I owe you 8 pints. And a kebab".

Cool, glad it worked for you mate.

Squize.