Don’t think of particles as little blobs and squishes in fact don’t limit yourself, keep your mind open
This is the start of a project I am doing for a motivation conference coming up using NASA as theme big challenges
Using PI and using full color pics as particles
yes all PI and i could have used video as the particles no problem even PNG seq.
For animated video walls , spreading video clips like a deck of cards, its really very versatile
And fire water sparks normal stuff that you would use for particles
For very little effort you get good results
Rory
edit
The clip was composed in Vegas with audio but the fx were done in PI
PI is NOT for editing and compositing
I also use PI for animated masks and animated transitions just render them out in black and white with gradings
Also other animated ramps
Hey I have just bought this program from DJ, excellent program (great price) except for one thing, I am unable to use it in Vegas Pro 8 with (PI) alpha channel as it is supposed to.
Now I use other software saved with alpha channels and I have no problem with them in Vegas.
FYI I use Lagarith codec (as advised by PI) with alpha channel ticked (and other tried configurations) but no luck even when applying (in Vegas) Straight Unmatted, Premultiplied (or dirty) to the imported PI clips I still have the (PI) black background....am i missing something or what?
So can any one advise me how to get PI working with alpha channels in Vegas.....Please
If you render out in uncompressed AVI you shouldn’t have a problemHave you tried this? Have you? I have. I get mono tonal renders. "Shapes" are less than convincing, but I DO get the Alpha channel. I have tried all the other render "video" out options and the one that is nearest doesn't produce an Alpha channel.
Is your success, Rory, due to the fact you say to render in a graphics format? Meaning many many stills as frames? Until such time as anybody can come across with a video render out WITH a transparent BG then I would also need to resort to your method of PNGS and the such. Now, if you HAVE rendered out to a video format, pray tell me what you did? What CODECS do you have, Rory, that allow for your AVI alphas?
I have read much so far on the subject and I am still banjaxed by it. Very frustrating indeed.
FYI I use Lagarith codec (as advised by PI) with alpha channel ticked (and other tried configurations) but no luck even when applying (in Vegas) Straight Unmatted, Premultiplied (or dirty) to the imported PI clips I still have the (PI) black background....am i missing something or what?So, Lee, as you are following the advice and you aren't getting the alpha channel back in Vegas, then I guess we are both missing something fundamental. What and where are you locating your CODECS that give you the "Lagarith" - and yes I read that advise too.
Unless we both resort to PNGs and things, this remains an unknown.
In Uncompressed it comes out as just a WHITE animating BLOB. Bob saw this on my monitor - over SKYPE. If you did Skype I could ALSO show you??
I was using "Turbulent Plasma" - it has many tendrils and shades of grey. I am ONLY getting the central mass, as a deforming spinning lumpen piece of - whatever - and no detail at all.
1 you need to choose a good icc profile for your screen as this will effect your render and how you see the visuals
Windows settings display ,advanced, colour management and choose one ie RGB color space profile
as PI uses this “so does your printer” use the same for your graphics editor in the preference settings
use the same for all your editors so what you see is what you get
2. in PI you can change the tonal depth of the particles in the particle colour settings
3. make your own shapes ie for flames I took a video clip of a flame 400x400 keyed out the black back
ran for a few frames ,copied that back to back in reverse so that your start frame and end frame are the same
render that out as a PNG SEQ, use that as your particles in PI
do the same for birds ,insects whatever your particle needs to be
When I render AVI uncompressed in PI and drop in Vegas alpha straight I don’t have a problem I get what I rendered in PI
BUT if you need close up stuff for pans and zooms into the clip I render out as graphic seq
From Vegas side weather ICC profiles will effect output of PNG’s I don’t know.
From your last statement I doubt that this is your problem..do you have Nero 8 loaded?
This caused a few AVI issues for me so I bombed it and went back to Nero 5
I can get PNG Alpha sequence in. Looks fine. Tried to make it less jerky, and screwed that up too.
Not getting back the alpha from uncomp is worrying me. I had this last week.
The solid white blob? MIA CULPA - I found out what I was doing wrong. I had View Alpha Channel engaged. What this meant was that I rendered the "alpha" mask only . . . sheesh . . . But now having rectified THAT blunder on my part, I can no longer get the uncomp alpha to be rendered in.
I am turning into a right miserable git!!
Am I correct in experiencing that I need to start a NEW project each and every time I CHANGE Project or Preference settings? Meaning do I need to start afresh?
1] Unchecked SHOW Alpha - still got solid animated mask
2] No ALPHA channel support - at all!
3] Installed Largarith CODEC - no ALPHA, even though I FORCE and check ALPHA in CODEC GUI.
Of course I am testing for alpha in Vegas - no-dice at all....
Oh yes "thinking" that I might have codec wars with Vegas, I tried with and without VEgas live. Both no Alpha options. I am testing using "STRAIGHT" and the other two too!
I am rendering straight from Pi to open in Vegas. When I bring the SAME Pi rendered "Alpha" file back into Pi as a Layer - yes, you guessed correct! It IS transparent.
It is this transport from Pi to V that is crooking the matter.
Uncompressed rendering from within Vegas and setting to Premultiplied shows the Alpha. So, render and premul gets me Alpha.
Just before you render out in PI you get a "Output Option"settings window where you have to check "Save Alpha". That show further options "Remove black BG from RGB channels". I usualy uncheck this and and do the alpha settings in Vegas. If I check "Remove black......." then my output is very chunky.
we are at least two now. I can't get it to work either. Still experimenting..
And wondering how some can make this work and some not when we use the same OS, the same applications and the same codecs.
Edited
Got it working!
I had checked to many checkboxes in PI.
When just checking "Save alpha" everything works. Looks great in Vegas. I use uncompressed AVI. Will come back with more after having tested Lagarith Edited 2
Yup - works using Lagarith too. This will be fun :-)