Re: Fading out
Originally posted by DukerX
Anyone got a solution for the bullet-trail not fading away?
In the original (The Matrix), the bullet trails fade away, and seems to dissipate (is that the right word??) into thin air... because the shockwave would loose it's energy.
.....Any coments on the previously mentioned methodes, or MEL scripts that could work in the same fashion as my VB-thingy would be aprechiated
-DX-
MAN, this was a long time ago, and I'm sorry I didn't see this untill now....
A few ways to make the particles fade/dissipate would be:
1. You could "bake" your trail(s) particle animation,
render out your "beauty/color pass",
then go back and apply a rgbPP attribute to them by:
clicking the bigger "color" tab in the particle objects' attribute editor and choosing "per particle".
In the newly created rgbPP slot, right-click and create a ramp for the particle color.
By default, the ramp cycles through the colors depending on particle age.
So if you make your ramp go from white to grey to black, what will happen, is that you will see your particles start white when they are born, then go to black as they die.
So the reason this is cool, is that this sequence can act as your ALPHA for your beauty/color pass! 
So now you can just tweak the ramp so the particles fade QUICKLY to black at the end of it's lifespan,
thus creating an ALPHA that when combined with your color sequence,
will make them look as if they "dissipate and/or fade" out at the last minute
2. Another, less dynamicly controllable way would be to create an animated alpha map for your TRAIL shader, keyed to fade at the appropriate time
Israel "Izzy" Long
Motion and Title Design for Broadcast-Film-DS
izzylong.com