Anyone got a good particle setting for insects?

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 9:14 am

I'm looking to create a swarm of insects (moths, actually) with AS but so far it doesn't look very convincing (even for a cartoon :>) because they kind of start in one place, move over and then disappear at the other end.

What I really want is a "swarm" where the same 100 or 200 particles keep swirling around (and then I'll animate the layer movement myself). Anyone got some good settings for this?

Genete · Post by **Genete** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 2:16 pm

http://pastebin.com/m19815622
Try this link. Select all the text, copy and paste into a plain text editor. Then save as bees.anme.

It is the best I've imagined to set up for that requirement.
-G

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 3:32 pm

http://www.mediafire.com/?gwytitt0iym

Here's my crack at it. I just tried to match the 'lifetime' to where the particles were generating from. So if you don't look too close, or have a dense enough swarm, you don't notice them appearing and disappearing.

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:18 pm

Thanks to both of you -- I'm sure these will help.

Now if the @!#$%! particle system only worked with vertex animation (it doesn't -- only bones and/or layer animation will be used, gosh darn it!)

synthsin75 · Post by **synthsin75** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:34 pm

I don't follow, Mike. Could you give us an example of where you'd need that?

mkelley · Post by **mkelley** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 6:18 pm

I actually got it to work with vertex animation when I put it in a separate group layer -- otherwise it seemed to ignore vertex animation of the particle vector seed.

But, no matter, it looks fine, and thanks to both of you for the help (I've never used particles much because in 3D they are *very* CPU intensive and while they make magnificent effects the render times just were killers. No such problems with 2D so I can see all kinds of possibilities).