Download Source Files
We’re going to be implementing something new here in 2010 called Quick Tips. We often get tutorials pitches from users and they are good ideas, but not quite enough to fill a whole tutorial. These Quick Tip posts will allow us to gather and pass along more content from those who may only have a little something to share. It will also be perfect for any viewers who don’t have time to sit and watch a full tutorial.
Requirements
- Nothing And that should feel good!
Overview
- Core Training Value: You’ll learn how to attach AE’s built in particle emitter to a null for more control.
- Difficulty: Intermediate
QuickTip
Download QuickTip .flv
File size 37MB
Tags: Quick Tips




great thinks
Love this site but dl’ing the tuts can be a headache!!
Browsers: Firefox, Google Chrome (bèta for Mac)
Thanks !!!
Seriously great tip dude… One of the things I really suck at in this world is math… so I am glad you did the hard part for me. hahaha
Hallo Adam, thanks for the Tutorial but for some reason I don’t get it ! If I can cotroll the xyz of the producer in particle world why do I need to take the controls out of the effect and onto a null?? I don’t have much experience with particle effects, so please excuse if this is a dumb question. I just don’t get the “why” of this tip. Otherwise many thanks for your great work.
Cheers
No, that’s a great question… If you’re only working with CC Particle World, then that’s fine, stay within it’s controllers. The reason I needed to give it “normal” AE controls is because was because I was working with a larger 3d environment and needed my emitter to moved with another layer (one that has “normal” controls). Running into that problem, I kinda stumbled upon this simple method and figured I’d share it.
Nice one, Adam! “You DON’T have to do the math. YEAH!!!
Hi!
Sweet tipp!
What screen captrue Programe you use?
-Matthias
Camtasia Studio
Requirements: Trapcode Particular, no ?
nice Adam
Sick! I always thought this was possible for particle world but I’m terrible with expressions to have figured it out. Thanks!
Thanks, Adam,
great and very handy quicktip. Enjoyed listening and watching.
André
Hm this is the Cool idea buddy….
Check this out buddy…
http://www.vimeo.com/8988918
great idea and a great tip .. thanks
very nice… but you can do this without separating the xyz. link them directly to the transform values and add a subtraction of half the screen width and height to the x and y properties respectively. make sure to affect the expression before the multiplication/correction comes into play… this way you can control your particles with the 3 directional scrubber directly on screen. (even more control) … I saved mine as a preset too.
This and their method are both totally brand new news to me. Great stuff!
Awesome tip, great tutorial, short and sweet and to the point.
We need more like this one!
Very useful – thanks!
Hey, i’m quite the noob with AE and here’s a stupid question: what is that “expression” (e.g Express…ition X) thing you use to make the Null-layers X,Y and Z positions as parents of the emittors positions? Is some extra feature or a buyable add-on or what? My AE is the basic setup from the box, so is that something i need to install?
Got it. Sorry bother you
.
I applied the plug-in “Separate XYZ” to the null so that I could quickly have an editable value for each axis. To get to the expression area, you just alt/option click on the stopwatch next to each position value. Let me know if I didn’t answer your question accurately.
Hello, thank you very much for this excellent tutorial.
I do not know much English so I do not understand what the video says, I know how you got the key “expression position” (This track in 2.55).
Thank you very much.
Awesome, it worked and it’s free! Thank you.