Synfig Project Forum

To move the particles you have to move the particles source (x, y) in the exported valuenodes. What are you moving is the particle itself meanwhile the particle source remains stationary. The origin of the circle, on the center of your gif, is not moving. You are animating the particle itself but not the particle emission source. Watch carefully here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJV3xMP24fc

-G

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I'm sorry, i didn't noticed the video, but you were right, i had to do it from the ValueBase Nodes

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=D!

You're welcome.
Remember that this particle template is not officially included in the source code and it is just an experiment I did with the value node conversions.
-G

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Hi Genete,

I've got a question about how to link the particle source (emitter) to an item in an animation.

Let's say I've got a circle. I can convert its origin to a composite and that will give me the X and Y coordinates. I can export those components as "AnchorX" and "AnchorY".

How would I go about getting the particle emitter to follow AnchorX and AnchorY rather than "X Origin" and "Y Origin"?

This is really more of a question about Value Nodes rather than specific to the particles demo. How can I change a Value Node to follow a value other than the one it was exported from?

<pause>

OK, I edited the .sif file and accomplished what I wanted. The particle emitter is now linked to an item that exists within the animation.

Is there a way to do that from within the program?

[edit] That didn't really give me what I wanted. I did prove my concept but the concept didn't understand the stack.

Let's say I've got a little truck built within an inline canvas. And I've linked the particle emitter to the exhaust pipe. The exhaust pipe is located within the inline canvas and the particles correctly follow it as it twists and bounces across the screen, as long as the particles are contained within the same canvas. This is all well and good!

The problem comes when I turn on free floating. The particles free float relative to the inline canvas rather than the parent canvas. From the particles point of view the exhaust pipe isn't moving and the particles stream straight away from it without regard to its motion across the screen. Do you see any simple way around that?

Say you have two exported value nodes node1 and node2.
At the children panel convert the node1 to Reference convert type. Unfortunately it is not possible to expand the Convert types at the children panel. In one layer, connect one same type parameter to the node1. You can expand it now and see the Link subparameter. Now just Connect the Link subparameter to node2.


What about to share the sample file?
-G

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Thanks for your response Genete,

It's almost embarrassing how lame this animation is, but I've gone ahead and spread it out onto the interwebz.

The video is here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abYaFuCuZUc

The .sif file is here...

You can see the little blue circle that the particle emitter is linked to. My question is, and I know it's a big question. How to animate (move/rotate) the particle emitter with the command module, but have the particles free float relative to the background.

If you didn't get it yet this project is my response to the Aug/Sept Challenge. The easy part is, the movie's obvious before the thing even starts leaking.

(Please note! I've got a flippin' YouTube now. This could get awkward! )

[edit] Cleaned up previous edits...

I had to read that three times for it to sink in. I got it! But in doing it I realized I didn't know how to properly link a value. I can't really explain what I was doing, but I was getting confusing results. I've relinked the emitter to a star layer. That gives ducks for angle, origin, and two linear items(currently X and Y size). I'm getting it figured out.

My biggest question now is, can an item within an inline canvas, calculate its origin position within the global canvas? That would at least partially solve the the question from earlier about inline particles free floating on the global canvas. Since the inline origin could be translated to a global value for a particle setup within the global canvas.

Thanks for your input. No need to respond unless you can answer that "biggest" question. I'll just keep stirring around in it.

[edit] Regarding finding an items position in global coordinates, for simple origins I understand that I could use add to find origins within an inline canvas, but as soon as you mix in a rotate it gets confused.

Hi BentFX, please wait a bit until I find some free time to open your file on my computer and reply to the "big question".
-G

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Hi BentFX,
the problem with your composition is that you rotate the whole particles once they have been rendered. This cause that even making them free floating, the particles rotate as a whole (source and particles) so you don't get the desired effect.

To obtain the effect you effectively need to rotate the x and y position of the particles source by it self. You can do this by:
1) Go to Children Panel and right click on the OriginX and select convert it to Cosine. Same with OriginY and convert it to Sine.
2) Link the two radius sub parameters as well as the two angle sub parameters. Or if you like to move in an ellipse just give different values to each radius.
3) Animate the Alpha and you're done.

In general, the pair of OriginX and OriginY value nodes are the responsible of the particles movement. Just convert them to be linked, obtained or attached to any math composition and you will obtain the particles travelling that path.

For example, it is interesting to attach particles to a bline, would you dare to achieve it?
-G

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