Particleillusion and Blufftitler

fadeout wrote on 12/17/2007, 7:37 PM
My questions are procedural rather than substantive.

Can Photoshop files be brought into BT to be animated?

How difficult is it to bring BT files into Vegas, and once there can they be tweaked (fx, fonts, etc.)?

The same question applies to Biangelo files.

How does Particleillusion work with Vegas? I read that it can't deal with DV files. I once had the demo, and had a heck of a time making anything happen. To be fair, that was at a time when I had trouble distinguishing a video track from an audio track in Vegas, but even so it was still a turn off.

I'm not one for Rube Goldberg work arounds in order to get a file into Vegas. Either it comes in hassle free or I'm not interested.

To that end, I would appreciate hearing about any applications that would fall into either category vis a vis Vegas.

Bill

Comments

kentwolf wrote on 12/17/2007, 11:57 PM
>>How does Particleillusion work with Vegas?

Make your stuff in PI, then bring the asset into Vegas. No plug-in-ability.

>>...I read that it can't deal with DV files.

There has been a recent (free) update for Particle Illusion. Reportedly, it is even more compatibile with DV files. Before the update, however, I could bring DV files into PI. You just had to render from Vegas with the video settings "Create an OpenDML compatible file" flag set to false.

>>...had a heck of a time making anything happen...

I guess that is influenced by what you're trying to do. It's not an NLE or anything like that, but it's great for creating various elements, then bringing them into Vegas.
Tim Stannard wrote on 12/18/2007, 12:51 PM
There's limited facilities within Bluff for file typew which may be produced by Photoshop, but no support for psds. From the manual:

Textures

Also you can create black & white images to use as the basis for particles - I did this with butterflies once for a friend's wedding (butterflies were a bit of a theme in the decorations)
fadeout wrote on 12/18/2007, 6:01 PM
Thank you both.

My main question, Tim, concerning BT and Biangelo was the process of bringing their output into Vegas. Is it a smooth ride or is the land littered with potholes? And also, once there, can those files be modified as Vegas FXs, fonts and whatever?

The bottom line is this: If I build an animation in BT, be it a pre-set or custom made, will it play in Vegas the same as I am seeing it in BT? And will I be able to use them with alpha channels as floating text?

As far as PI is concerned, I apparently have no understanding of it. I was under the impression that the various “particles” could be brought into Vegas to be used as backgrounds and such for text or a compositing layer.
>>Make your stuff in PI, and then bring the asset into Vegas. No plug-in-ability.

If I want to make a text overlay, everything except the “particle” is in Vegas. What would be an example of “stuff” made in PI, and then brought into Vegas? I am having trouble understanding how PI and Vegas relate to one another. Moreover, I am not even sure how PI relates to itself. What the heck is it anyway?

Thanks again,

Bill


TomE wrote on 12/18/2007, 6:37 PM
Export as png from bluff titler or PI. then open them in Vegas as an image sequence. Then set the apha channel in the properties.

You will see the effect when you render or preview. But it is not the same as Bluff titler which is using a GPU acceleration (Direct X) and PI also so you can see the particle effects in real time while you are tweaking them in those programs. Then you render to image sequence and bring them into Vegas. (you can also use Quicktime animation mode for the render as this supports alpha channels too.)

TomE
fadeout wrote on 12/18/2007, 7:05 PM
Thank you TomE.

>>You will see the effect when you render or preview. But it is not the same as Bluff titler which is using a GPU acceleration (Direct X) and PI also so you can see the particle effects in real time while you are tweaking them in those programs.

I'm not interested in the preview per se. All I want to know is that at the end of the day when I am playing back my finished, rendered (.avi, .wmv, .mpeg2 etc.) project in full screen Windows Media Player, will the title or text effect that I made in BT or Biangelo look like the one that thought I was making way back when in BT before the Hail Mary pass from BT to Vegas? The same applies to PI.

Bill