#MAGIC Help
15 messages in this thread
I'm having a heck of a time getting Magic to work correctly! I
don't get the "Disney Dust" effect as promised. What I get is more
like Fireworks, where the trailing dust follows the emitter. And I'm
working from a very basic file (a cube moving along a path, and
that's it!). What am I doing wrong? I'm presently searching
desperately for the manual. Thanks.
Hi Glenn,
Can you give me a call at Digimation, I'll be happy to step you through the
process of Disney style dust with Magic. My number is (504) 468-7898. If it's
not easy to call, leave me a message with the steps your using (better yet
EMAIL me a project) and I'll help you here.
Thanks,
David – Digimation
Okay, here's what I do, very simply: I create a flat, self-illum
color in materials editor. In 3d Editor I create a cube, center it,
then assign my flat color to it. I then adjust its attributes so
that it doesn't cast or receive shadows, and I turn on the magic
routine. I usually start with about 200 particles, set the particle
size to maximum (both smallest & largest), set particle life to 60
(the length of the scene in Keyframer). In Keyframer I move the box
from left to right over 60 frames. When rendered, I get a blob of
glitter that pans from left to right, leaving no trail. Any
suggestions?
Hi Glenn,
Regarding the Magic questions, I'd like to know this:
1) Which Magic Axp are you using Magic2, Magic3, or Magic4?
2) Do the examples that come on the disk render OK?
It sounds like you are doing things correctly if you are using Magic4, in any
case let me know.
David – Digimation
I'm using Magic3, but I do have Magic4. The only thing that scares me about
Magic4 is that it has problems when it's parented to another object. At least
that's what the docs say.
Two of the demo .3ds files work okay , bu they're the explosion examples.
The demo of the star-shaped path didn't work at all, as far as I could tell. I
put a camera on it & assigned my flat color to the emitter but still got
nothing.
If I could find my manual I'd try again! Perhaps my start and end numbers
are incorrect.
I have one more suggestion. Try changing the life to 1/2 the total time
(30?) and add a little gravity. Shake viggorously and call me in the
morning.
Funny! I'll try that. I seem to recall getting Magic to work beautifully a
long time ago, but I don't remember how! This is frustrating!
If you would like to e-mail me a prj file I'll gladly take a look.
Thanks, Lee, I'll do that. Let me put one together and I'll either send the
file or send a description. Like I say, the test file is about as simple as
you can get!
Glenn:
I used Magic for a variety of effects in a recent PPV movie that is airing next
month. I generated all sorts of colored dust traveling in a path as well as
dust outlining the actors as they magically appeared in the scene. The only
problem I had was the thickness of the little cross stars were very, very
skinny. I would have liked them fatter in some cases. If you could be more
specific I might be able to help you on this end. I can tell you that the dust
is quite sensitive to your settings in respect to life and variance. I use the
number at 1000 to 2000 as well and size as 5 to 10. I added the moving cube
AXP object in front of a rotoscope background of the video from the PAR. I got
the best results with the rainbow material that was mapped to the cube.
Hope these hints help.
Glenn
>> I don't get the "Disney Dust" effect. <<
You mean "Pixie Trails"? <G>
Try using a single sided material with a little "glow".
John
I do, I use a flat, self-illuminated color. I'll add glow once I
get the motion I want.
>> I use a flat, self-illuminated color. <<
Ah well that's it. Use one of the custom gradient maps.
John
Also try setting "At Surface" to Ignore and bump up the "Life" to a
higher number of frames.
I do that too. I push the life of the particles to the length of
the Keyframer scene. I tried rendering the star-shaped path demo
that came with it & got very strange results.