After Effects CS5 203: Secrets of Particle Playground for iOS

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Learn the little-known secrets of After Effects' Particle Playground plugin with special effects expert & Star macProVideo.com Trainer Richard...

Learn the little-known secrets of After Effects' Particle Playground plugin with special effects expert & Star macProVideo.com Trainer Richard Lainhart.The Adobe After Effects Particle Playground plugin is a powerful environment for particle systems & other eye-catching special effects, but few After Effects users even know it's there! And what's more, many of those who do find its interface mysterious and intimidating. Yet Particle Playground is a wonderful environment for all kinds of effects (particularly text effects) that are difficult or impossible to achieve with other tools. Our Particle Playground expert Richard Lainhart fills you in on the basics of how particle systems work, and how they differ from After Effects' standard keyframing techniques. Richard dives in at the deep end to show you how to create unique particle effects like snow and fountains, before taking you into Particle Playground's incredible particle text effects.You'll learn cool techniques you can use in your productions, like the ever-popular revealing of a logo from a string of randomized letters, bouncing animated text off a wall with real physics properties, and blowing up selected letters in a line of moving text. You'll also learn how to use image sequences to create run cycles and animated particles. From there, Richard walks you step-by-step through creating the Matrix Code Effect, as featured in the popular Matrix films, and how to customize it for your own title sequences. Particle systems can be confusing and difficult to understand, but once you complete this tutorial, you'll be well on your way to mastery of the Secrets of Particle Playground.Table of Contents:1. Introducing the Secrets of Particle Playground2. Keyframing vs. Procedural Animation3. How Particle Systems Work4. About Property Maps and Simulators5. Particle Playground Parameters6. Varying Particle Velocity7. Varying Particles Per Second8. Simulating a Fountain - Randomizing Direction9. Randomizing Velocity10. Setting the Initial Particle Snow Parameters11. Refining the Particle Snow Parameters12. Creating Stylized Snow with a Layer Map - Part 113. Creating Stylized Snow with a Layer Map - Part 214. Setting Up a Photoshop Sequence as an Animated Laye...15. Applying the Animated Layer Map16. Setting Layer Map Time Offsets17. Relative and Absolute Layer Map Offset Types18. Setting Up Cannon Text19. Adjusting Cannon Text Parameters20. Bouncing Cannon Text off a Wall21. Using Selection Texts22. Using Particle Exploder with Cannon Text23. Using Time Offsets with Particle Exploder24. Combining Wall with Particle Exploder25. Property Map Concepts26. Creating a Simple Property Map27. Adjusting Property Maps Offsets28. Scrolling Characters with Property Maps29. Applying Multiple Property Map Channels30. Enabling Grid Text31. Creating Animation Presets32. Creating a Noise Map to Randomize Properties33. Randomizing Characters with the Noise Map34. Introducing the Matrix Code Effect35. Generating the Text Grid36. Creating the Random Noise Map37. Creating the First Gradient Opacity Map38. Creating Additional Gradient Opacity Maps39. Animating the First Four Opacity Gradients40. Adding Additional Opacity Gradients - Part 141. Adding Additional Opacity Gradients - Part 242. Increasing Animation Density by Duplicating Element...43. Setting Channels for the Master Property Map44. Applying the Custom Map to the Particle Playground ...45. Simulating the Code Effect with Standard Fonts