Particles not rendering

General Moho topics.

Moderators: Víctor Paredes, Belgarath, slowtiger

Post Reply
User avatar
Jkoseattle
Posts: 430
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:39 pm

Particles not rendering

Post by Jkoseattle »

I have a particle layer which looks great when working on the movie, but when I export the animation, I could see exactly 1 particle one time, and no other particles rendered at all. So because I do see one particle briefly I know it's not like it thinks it's not supposed to render at all (such as if I had "Don't render this layer" enabled or something). I could understand it being the other way around - can't see them UNTIL I export the animation, but in this case I see it during normal playback but not when I export. Or almost not.

Also when I Ctrl-R preview a frame that has particles in it, the particles don't appear in the rendered frame.

Both Particle Count and Preview Particles is set to 30.

In general, the particle layer functionality is so flaky and difficult to use. I was happy when I finally got it working. But why isn't it in my final export?
Most of the time I'm doing music stuff. Check me out at http://www.jimofseattle.com/music.

Thing I did for work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFYGqifLYw
User avatar
synthsin75
Posts: 9935
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:20 pm
Location: Oklahoma
Contact:

Re: Particles not rendering

Post by synthsin75 »

No way to troubleshoot without seeing the file.
User avatar
Jkoseattle
Posts: 430
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:39 pm

Re: Particles not rendering

Post by Jkoseattle »

Here it is. I've removed everything but the particle layer. Problem persists, probably something dumb.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rzs8mre532yez ... t.zip?dl=0
Most of the time I'm doing music stuff. Check me out at http://www.jimofseattle.com/music.

Thing I did for work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFYGqifLYw
User avatar
synthsin75
Posts: 9935
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:20 pm
Location: Oklahoma
Contact:

Re: Particles not rendering

Post by synthsin75 »

Jkoseattle wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 5:26 pm Here it is. I've removed everything but the particle layer. Problem persists, probably something dumb.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rzs8mre532yez ... t.zip?dl=0
If you un-mute the fill and stroke animation channels on your spark vectors, you'll see that the keys at frame 10 have made them transparent (zero opacity).
User avatar
Jkoseattle
Posts: 430
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:39 pm

Re: Particles not rendering

Post by Jkoseattle »

Thank you!! Toldja it was something dumb. I have no idea what step I took that made those keyframes. Oh well. Thanks again.
Most of the time I'm doing music stuff. Check me out at http://www.jimofseattle.com/music.

Thing I did for work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFYGqifLYw
User avatar
Jkoseattle
Posts: 430
Joined: Tue Nov 08, 2016 6:39 pm

Re: Particles not rendering

Post by Jkoseattle »

AH! I just remembered how those opacity keyframes got it there. and it's another thing I couldn't figure out.

What I wanted was for those sparks to fade out rather than disappear instantly. I couldn't figure out how to make each particle fade out after it was generated. I thought that might be it, but I guess not. Weird that even though opacity went to 0 the sparks were still visible during playback, but whatever, live and learn.
Most of the time I'm doing music stuff. Check me out at http://www.jimofseattle.com/music.

Thing I did for work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgFYGqifLYw
User avatar
Greenlaw
Posts: 9192
Joined: Mon Jun 19, 2006 5:45 pm
Location: Los Angeles
Contact:

Re: Particles not rendering

Post by Greenlaw »

I haven't seen your file but maybe the individual sprite can be animated to fade out over time? Then the particles should fade that way after being emitted.

I just did a quick test to confirm:

1. Animate the opacity of the 'sprite' layer. For example, set the layer to fade to 0 opacity at frame 24, then set a keyframe at frame 12 to be 100 opaque. This will make the sprite opaque from 0 to 12 and then fade out by frame 24. (To set Opacity keyframes, remember to enable Animated Layer Effects.)
2. Drop the sprite into your Particles folder.
3. Make sure the life of the particle lasts at least 24 frames. You can set it a little longer to be safe.

Now the particles should fade before they die. Adjust the fade time to suit your animation.
User avatar
synthsin75
Posts: 9935
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:20 pm
Location: Oklahoma
Contact:

Re: Particles not rendering

Post by synthsin75 »

Jkoseattle wrote: Sun Jul 07, 2019 7:22 pm AH! I just remembered how those opacity keyframes got it there. and it's another thing I couldn't figure out.

What I wanted was for those sparks to fade out rather than disappear instantly. I couldn't figure out how to make each particle fade out after it was generated. I thought that might be it, but I guess not. Weird that even though opacity went to 0 the sparks were still visible during playback, but whatever, live and learn.
Muted channels means any keyframes after zero will not show in the workspace, but channel muting doesn't affect renders, so they still disappeared there.

Your fade out idea should work with those frame 10 keys. I think you just have to un-mute those channels and disable Randomize Playback in the particle. Randomize Playback includes the timing of the fade out keyframes, so you don't want that.
Post Reply