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Apple Motion Particle emitter within a group not animating with the group

Hi there, I have an animated particle emitter within a group that is also animated, but the Particle emitter is not animating with the group.


Is this possible ?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.5

Posted on Oct 5, 2024 7:25 AM

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5 replies

Oct 5, 2024 10:17 AM in response to Steven Galvano

Particles don't animate with the Emitter (or an animated parent group) once they're "born". They're animated by the Cell Controls at the point of their birth. Depending on your Emitter (and cell controls settings) you may not be able to tell the difference.



The crosshair is the position of the Emitter animated at both the Group level and the Emitter itself [Birth Rate set to 5]. For the first half, there is no cell animation — Life is set for the length of the project (10). After the halfway point, Speed is set (keyframed) to 100 and Life down to 1. Notice that it doesn't affect those particles born before the changes.


HTH

Oct 5, 2024 4:34 PM in response to fox_m

If you're still having issues (and I expect so), you can rotoscope/mask out the building and use it as a source image for the Emitter [Set the Shape parameter of the emitter to Image, then the Arrangement to Outline, drop the masked building layer into the Image Source.] This Emitter setup ***should*** follow the building outline through the scaling/zoom without the Clone.


Duplicate the building image to keep all the background — mask the copy.


Oct 5, 2024 12:59 PM in response to Steven Galvano

Thanks! I suppose it's not an actual animation in the traditional sense. The Particle emitter is keyframed and moves along a path (the path goes around the outline of our building which is a still image in the group below) 

Both groups (Emitter and building) are in a parent group which has a slight zoom effect on it. 

The building is moving, but the emitter group is not.

Apple Motion Particle emitter within a group not animating with the group

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