Creating fireworks?

[BruceM]

I recently delved into trying out the particle generator to make a scene with falling snow. It worked great! I would like to now make a shot showing fireworks exploding as with a 4th of July celebration. Has anyone on the forum done something like this? If so, may I ask how you did it?

[Peter Wassink]

there are some party>fireworks presets in the particle generator.
you can actually see some of these applied in the help>aboutTVP panel

but the particle engine has not been updated in decades and it does have a distinct 90's quality to it.
depending on what your goal is i recommend to try animating by hand, and if you don't mind it becoming very symmetrical you could try this in combination with the distortion>kaleidoscope FX

[slowtiger]

It's totally possible, just requires a bit of work. My example is from a real job, more a "magical" effect than real fireworks, bu close enough.

Fisrt I created all the different mini-explosions in about 12 frames, and the spark-with-a-trail for the beginning, saving all as DIP files. Then I used these as sources in 3 different emitters with as much variation in the settings as necessary.

fireworks.mp4

(223.94 KiB) Downloaded 158 times

[BruceM]

Thank Peter and Slowtiger!
Slowtiger, I tried opening the link you attached, but it's telling me it can't be opened.

[slowtiger]

You have to download it to watch, it's an MP4.

[BruceM]

Slowtiger, thanks, but I can't get that MP4 to open. It downloads but then I get a message: "The document "fireworks.mp4" could not be opened"

I'm still working with the particle generator to see what I can get with it, and I have another question. I have the emitter set to "point" so that the fireworks blast will come out from that single point in all directions. However, I want the blast from the center point outward to happen all at once, but what I'm getting is sparkles that keep flowing outward from the emitter point. Any idea how I can set it so that it's a single blast outward?

[Peter Wassink]

you need to deactivate the current emitter at the frame you want it to stop.
by creating a keyframe and uncheck the "active" box
From then on, after that frame, already emitted particles will finish their lifecycle but no new ones will be emitted.

[BruceM]

Excellent! I'll give thta a try.
Thanks Peter!

[BruceM]

That works great Peter! Thank you. I have one more issue that perhaps you know the solution to?: my firework sparkle cycle is comprised of 3 drawings. I'm following an old Elodie tutorial in which she does a 3 drawing cycle of a bubble, names the cycle, and then calls it up for her particle generator animation. My issue is that when I follow the steps, my cycle isn't playing. It's only using 1 of the drawings. Any idea where I'm going wrong?

[Peter Wassink]

can't really tell.

there are several ways of loading your particle frames.
easiest is by using the TVPaint custombrush. Save it as a deep (this gets written as a *.dip file)
Unfortunately i can't test it because my V12 has lost its export panel(!? those floating panels are not yet bug free )

but if you load an animated brush it should automatically cycle.

[BruceM]

Thanks again Peter! I'll give that a try.

[BruceM]

My apologies, but I have another question about the particle generator: I set the key frame to turn off the generator as you instructed, and that works great. Now I would like to adjust the speed of the firework sparkles that are blasting outward from the center point. I want their speed to taper out as the sparkles move further outward. I've adjusted the Speed Profile window to try to do this, but it isn't having any effect at all. How is this kind speed adjustment made?

[kelanhordos]

Unfortunately i can't test it because my V12 has lost its export panel(!? those floating panels are not yet bug free )

Sorry to butt in, but I wonder if you have tried this Peter regarding your missing panels. I have been able to retrieve my missing panels(sometimes they end up loading up behind other panels and take a while to locate) So I haven't needed this yet, but if you relaunch Tvpaint 12 with it enabled, you are able to tab through(on windows, not sure how it works on Mac) your panels like individual windows. Also they are all under the TvPaint icon in the tray and you can select each one individually.

panels.jpg (76.34 KiB) Viewed 3777 times

[Peter Wassink]

Unfortunately i can't test it because my V12 has lost its export panel(!? those floating panels are not yet bug free )

Sorry to butt in, but I wonder if you have tried this Peter regarding your missing panels. I have been able to retrieve my missing panels(sometimes they end up loading up behind other panels and take a while to locate) So I haven't needed this yet, but if you relaunch Tvpaint 12 with it enabled, you are able to tab through(on windows, not sure how it works on Mac) your panels like individual windows. Also they are all under the TvPaint icon in the tray and you can select each one individually.
panels.jpg

Wow thanks, i'll switch that on, the first v12 build had this as standard and it was annoying in its own way, but if they stay within one taskbar tray i can live with it.
Those panels playing hide and seek the whole time is a main reason i don't like v12!

[BruceM]

Peter, I'm sorry to pester you with another particle generator question, but I can't find the answer to this in the TVP documentation, nor in anything on the Forum. I set the key frame to turn off the generator as you instructed, and that works great. Now I would like to adjust the speed of the firework sparkles that are blasting outward from the center point. I want their speed to taper out as the sparkles move further outward. I've adjusted the Speed Profile window to try to do this, but it isn't having any effect at all. How is this kind speed adjustment made?