Particle Illusion FX Program - A New Life
Steve K
Posts: 3,234
I have mentioned "Particle Illusion" before, and while I thought it was going away, it turns out it has a new life with Boris.
https://borisfx.com/products/particle-illusion/
This development has caused me to upgrade a lot (long story). But here is why I enjoy using it - a five minute entry in the 48 Hour Film contest in the Fantasy genre. The PI effects are probably obvious, but ... foliage in the intro, bird flocks, welding sparks, smoke from the sub stack, birdseye view of the sub wake, locomotive smoke, closing aurora.
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Comments
Thanks for the info!
300E for the upgrade of the After Effects plugin, it is not so expensive and I can uninstal my old Autodesk Combustion 2008...
So there isn't any form of stand-alone version, right? I didn't see one at least. I wonder how well it works in Resolve.
I saw that price and shut the browser
The old program had a standalone version that could import any still or video and export the product with the overlaid FX. I am keeping that program. The Boris version says it can run standalone but only to develop new "emitters" (the effects), but any rendering must be done in the host program. I'm not familiar with Resolve, I'm planning to use it with Vegas Pro, now owned by Magix (who is happily offering upgrade prices for owners of Magix Movie Edit Pro, which does not support OFX plugins I think, at least not my older version). Other big name hosts are Final Cut Pro (Mac only) and Adobe Premiere Pro (subscription only).
I got started with the SE version that came with 3D World Magazine years ago, and even offered an upgrade price. The SE version was actually pretty full featured, but I eventually upgraded. Now at least Boris is offering an upgrade price for users of the old version.
Magix has an AMAZING new year deal for Vegas Pro. I have Movie Studio and Music Maker, so I get their newsletters. I think it was like $399 off sale bringing Pro down to around 125 or something.
I won a version of Fusion a few years back, I just could not get into it. The node-based approach just seemed foreign to me. It gets very good reviews and I'm sure in the right hands it gives stunning results. So it was probably just my long experience with Particle Illusion that made me biased. PI just seems more intuitive and fun, probably more suited to hobbyists like myself.
Well, the fun factor is probably higher, but the price of 200-400$ and a host application of 100-1000$ is not hobbyist level.
The free version of Resolve does not support plugins and I missed the Humble Bundle deals with Vegas.
I don't think we need plugins for particle use - especially in Fusion. Resolve's built-in Fusion is not entirely the same as the stand-alone, but I bet it's still really powerful.
When my graphics card blew and I replaced it with an economy pile o' junk (GT 730), Resolve won't run on my computer. When I build my new computer, I'm going for Resolve along with the stand-alone Fusion.
It'll be really cool to have Fusion directly in the Movie-Making Resolve, but stand-alone is truly wonderful for just popping in and doing VFX magic with Fusion.
Just a tiny example of using Fusion as a quick helper, I have some stock footage that I wanted to use on a plane in Carrara, but I can't load the video format in Carrara. So I just dragged the video into Fusion and rendered it to the version I wanted and Boom! Done!
Along the way, I also decided to make a separate trans map while in Fusion.
Paid versions of Resolve/Fusion allow for higher resolution support and plugin use along with a slew of other nice things, like collaboration support, etc., and it's not that expensive compared to how powerful they are. But the free versions can do a LOT!
There is a link over in CarraraTors to an alternative to Particle Illusion.
http://www.bond3d.byethost18.com/index.php?topic=357.0
I could post the link here but I make no secret about wanting you to visit CarraraTors.
Good man! I'm coming... I'm still just getting my head on straight! LOL
Very cool! I tried to leave a comment there (Carrarators) but it became unresponsive. I tried a few more times, but to no avail :(
A good tip, the more options, the better. As you may have guessed, I think these kinds of FX can add greatly to videos, especially if used "gently". OK, I may have gone a little overboard in my animation in the original post, but we only had two days ...
Yes, the free version of Fusion should attract a lot of people. Same way the magazine version of Particle Illusion SE attracted me, years ago, with no host required.
Well dont quite know why you had that problem assuming you managed to log in.
But shucks, I'll put the direct link here as i dont wish to cause anyone any pain.http://www.rigzsoft.co.uk/timelinefx-particle-effects-editor/
Worth noting the developer's comments about moving code to C++ and making program open source [ free ] then relying on selling pre-made effects packs. However his timeline for that not mentioned
SteveK - have you tried and compared to Particle illusion ? Any thoughts ?
No, I'm kind of swamped with new software I won in a Rendo contest ... and the upgrades needed to run it ... so many toys, so little time.
It's really easy - especially at first - to accidentally go overboard (or be too harsh) with compositing! The folks who are really good at it certainly deserve artistic respect!
Great detective work, 3drendero, Thanks!
Wow This looks impressive ! Thanks
https://effekseer.github.io/en/index.html
new version out but I cannot download it
Fail Server problem
update
Open link in new tab on the download works