3D particle "cloud" in Motion 5

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edvinpedvin Author

Level 1

19 points

3D particle "cloud" in Motion 5

Hi guys,

I am trying to achieve an effect like this in Motion 5:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RQo60j9W9I&feature=channel_hash_redirect

It looks like tha orb in the BG stays still (it is quite uniform, so it doesn't have to move since it wouldn't show),

while the particles (replicator) are in 3D so you can move a camera around and get that very nice effect.

Of course, when adding a camera and rotating in the "ground" plane, I quickly discover that everything exists in a plane. It's 2D.

Both groups (orb + replicator) resides in 3D groups. I've also checked 3D in the replicator controls.

I thought at one instance that I could move the camera in between the replicator (the particle cloud) group and the orb and keep the orb in the background.

But of course that didn't work. And like I said, the particles are also 2D.

Is an effect like this possible to achieve in Apple Motion at all?

I'm fairly noob to Motion so I may be either a) trying something impossible, or b) missing something obvious.

Cheers,

::edvin 🙂

MacPro 8-core, Mac OS X (10.5.8), Macbook 2GHz at home

Posted on Aug 12, 2011 7:47 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

GFXZen

Level 4

1,985 points

Aug 13, 2011 12:35 AM in response to edvinpedvin

According to the creator of the video you linke to, this was done in Motion, so yes, creating this effect is possible, and is actually pretty easy. Here's how I would recreate this.

-The "sphere is a soft gradient generator. Set the size and tint to taste, put this in a 2D group. You might want to lower the opacity and set the blend mode to screen.

-Add a camera, (make sure the group with the soft gradient is still 2D.

-In a 3D group create a particle emitter using a small circle shape with a slight feather.

-Set the emitter to 3D, set the shape to sphere. Increase the radius as needed.

-To animate the camera, apply the sweep behavior for rotations, this will make it look like you are spinning around the sphere.

-When it comes time to move towards the text, don't move the camera, move the text and particles. You will need a second copy of the particle system that you animate towards the camera too. You could do this with the move behavior. Make sure to trim the particle systems so once they no longer exist.

-Finally enable Depth of Field and Motion Blur, these will really help sell the effect, but do increase render time.

For more details on anything I've mentioned here, check the docs, they will help as you are learning. Good luck.

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Answer 2

edvinpedvin Author

Level 1

19 points

Aug 13, 2011 2:04 PM in response to GFXZen

Aha- Wow!

Thanks a lot for a good, thorough answer! Not only do you know motion very well, but have a rather impressive eye for VFX anatomy. I suppose that's something you can't really learn from a tutorial.

I was able to make the spherical and the particles 3D - "sphere" for the emitter shape was it...

Now, the next issue the paint spatter. For some reason, if I set the group w/ paint spatter (video clips, actually - does it matter they are not stills?) to "3D", they disappear from the comp altogether :-]

With the text, this works OK as long as it's in a 3D group.

Thanks + all the best;

Eivind

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Answer 3

edvinpedvin Author

Level 1

19 points

Aug 14, 2011 1:28 AM in response to edvinpedvin

I foudn out what the problem was:

The 3D paint spatter group was oriented in a plane perpendicular to the camera's image plane when I introduced the spatter layer. So I could not see it.

BTW, camera DOF and motion blur (from the render drop-down) seems critical for a credble effect.

Cheers;

Eivind

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