Fireworks ... Just wondering
 

I was thinking, does anyone know where there is a fireworks tutorial? Im not too fussed about the part where the rocket is flying into the air it's the explosion im more interested in.

Cheers

_LIVID

Don't know of any tutorials, but I've played with it some. What's your question?

I was thinkning of making some firework type explosions (you know, bright colours ect) and was just wondering if there was a revelent tutorial.

With the New Year comming I though I would be pretty cool.

So if anyone can point me in the right direction then that would be good.

_LIVID

What version of Maya are u using? I know that in 4.5 there is a pre-made fireworks set up in the Dynamics Mode->Effects->Create Fireworks. They are different colored and look pretty good.

Tim

I have found that but they are shooting up and I am finding them hard to control. I guess it's just a case of changing the numbers ect.

Shame there is not a tutorial explaining all the attrabutes and values ..... *wink, wink*

_LIVID

.... worth a try I guess

_LIVID

yeah there problably is an explanation in the help docs. BUt it's just gonna be omni particle emitters that have a few fields on them and some nice glow effects. It shouldnt be too hard to do manually. Just key the emission rates to start and stop quickly.

Alan

The best I can tell you is that there are controls for the fireworks.

If you select the top parent node, and look under "Extra Attributes" in the Attribute editor, you can see the basic controls for the size and glow of your fireworks explosions and trails.

If you select the "FireworksRockets" particle node, and look under "Clip Effects Attributes" in the "FireworksRocketsShape" node of the Attribute editor, you will se more controls. Select the rocket you want to affect from the drop down menu and you can set the launch frame, burst frame, launch position and burst position very easily. The way the color works is you specify the spread meaning how many of those color chips you want your sparks to use. If you set it to 0 it will onyl use the color chip you've selected (by clicking on the bar below the color). A setting of 1 will use the color you set, plus one to the left and right. Get it? You can edit the colors by clicking on them.

The shapes is uses are under the "FireworksBurstSparksColorCones" and are controlled by the "FireworksBurstSparksInstancer". If you want to instance other shapes, just add them to the instancer.

That's all I can think of right now, so if you have any more wquestions feel free to ask.

I hope this helps.

-dann

Cheers for that, I was having a look and I can see loads of 'FireworksBurstSparksColor' and when I go ito them they give me laods of colour options etc. The colours are good, the thing that I really whan to change is the lifetime of the burst, I want it to diaspear sooner. You don't know where that would eb do you?

_LIVID

Yes. Select the "FireworksBurstSparks" particle object. In it's attributes, look under the Creation Expressionans and you will see the mel script

"FireworksBurstSparksShape.lifespanPP = rand(3,4);"

edit those values.

I think I have found it mate cheers, oh ... one last thing (Colombo style) ..... if I find that the particles are just going quickly, is there a way of making them fade out rather than just stop? Hmmm?

One to think about, anyhow, there is enough here for me to play with.

_LIVID

For fading them out you could try mapping a ramp to the lifespanPP.

Tim

I think I have something for you :beer:

Sorry wrong type :D :D :D

Sorry to bother you all about my dam fireworks again (especially soo close to Xmas :-D). I think that the preset fireworks look a bit bright so I tried to tone down the colours a bit but it wouldn't let me. I made them more transparent. That didn't seam to have a huge effect.

The problem is that there are soo many colours to alter, there must be a better way.

Cheers guys

_LIVID