Particle Magic - MacroSystem Digital Video AG
Contents
1. Particle Magic for the Casablanca Avio and the Casablanca Kron User s Manual MACRO BSYSTEM Safety notices To avoid making mistakes during operation we recommend that you carefully follow the instructions provided in this manual We would also like to point out that Particle M agic has been designed with the hobby enthusiast in mind We have taken a great deal of care while programming and checking this software Nevertheless since it is not possible to guarantee totally error free software applications in all environments and at any time we unfortunately cannot rule out the possibility that some errors may have crept in If contrary to all expectations this is indeed the case we shall remedy any errors in the program and supply the affected customers with the new software free of charge We cannot however accept any liability for loss of data time or any consequential damages that may occur as a result particularly since we have no influence over correct software installation and operation by the customer M acroSystem Digital Video AG and its dealers therefore cannot be held liable for any defects or unintentional damage in connection with the installation or use of Particle M agic M acroSystem Digital Video AG and its dealers do not guarantee error free use of the software or complete flawlessness of the program Any implied guarantee is null and void including guarantee of suitability of the software or operating instruct2. monochromatic particles that can be selected though you can apply any color tone you want to the latter Images from other products are hardly ever suitable but the specialists amongst us can certainly try them out to create unusual results If large numbers of particles overlay one another in an effect they will become very bright and generally almost white The original color will usually only be retained at the edges where the particles are less dense Quantity This is where you can select the quantity of particles Since the actual number depends very strongly on the type of effect the setting is only defined in percent The higher the value the larger thenumber of particles A large number of particles will require more time for calculation Sometimes considerably more time so you should hardly ever use values above 30 The particles are often very close together which means you will not be able to work out their actual number Life Span The life span i e the time during which the individual particles remain visible can be adjusted using this value This setting is also defined by percentages Intensity This is where you can set in percent how intense you want the individual particles to appear This setting can roughly be compared with the alpha value that is used in other areas of the Casablanca T he lower the intensity the more transparent the particles Starting Size This value defines the size o
3. to open the Particle Settings window then select a balloon e g the red one which isin second row from the bottom on the far left You should now also set the Final Size of the particles to 60 so that the balloons appear more clearly 4 4 PM Fly Away Tutorial You ll need to make a scene for this tutorial too Create a 10 second empty black scene and place it in the storyboard From the Titling screen insert the Pages effect Again write a brief bit of text without a shadow or border in large white letters on a page and place it in the center of the picture Let the title render and then create a scene with it If you own a Casablanca Avio without the Avio Pro Package you can create this scene by first recording onto your video recorder and then back again Lesson 1 In this tutorial you ll superimpose a title onto a scene and then make It fade out Place a scene of at least 10 secondsin length in the storyboard followed by the text scene that you ve already created with the Scene function Now open the Transition Effects screen and use the PM Fly Away effect with the maximum effect length Load Lesson 1 from the archive You won t see any change in the preview since you need to first make some changes to the settings Set the Threshold Value in the Effect option to 10 You might still be able to make out some black areas around the edges of the letters due to this setting you ll see this most clea
4. addresses and telephone numbers printed in the Casablanca manual We kindly ask you to provide the serial number of your device or your customer number whenever you contact us 1 2 Installation The software that you acquired from your dealer on the SmartM edia card must now be installed on your Casablanca To do so you will need at least version 1 8 of the Casablanca system software You can look up the system versions using the information item in the System Settings screen bottom left Now leave your Casablanca switched on and in System Settings select the Install Product button to open the corresponding window Now insert the SmartM edia Installation card into the Casablanca s drive When you insert it make sure the gold colored contacts are facing downwards and the beveled corner is on the left pointing towards the front i e towards the Casablanca Push in the card until only around half a centimeter remains protruding from the unit and you feel some resistance You will now see the Particle Magic software listed in the window Select it in the list and click on License A numerical keypad appears You can use it to enter the license code that you purchased from your dealer A notice will then inform you that the installation process has completed You can now remove the SmartM edia card 1 3 What is Particle Magic Particle Magic is a collection of four effects namely three transition effects and o
5. cles can be loosened up by introducing many small waves of turbulence You can use the Max Quantity button to set in percentages how much turbulence is visible at the one time currently a maximum of 40 can be displayed However since the turbulence forms and disappears at random you will often see only some of it at any onetime This depends on the probability value that is entered for the Occurrence of turbulence At 100 all of the set turbulence is active at the once Lower values will reduce the number accordingly At 0 there is no turbulence at all and the other slider controls no longer have an effect You can use the Intensity slider control to select how strong you want the turbulence to be If only a small amount of turbulence is active this setting will produce an effect that looks more like horizontal or sideways gusts of wind the turbulence generally will only take effect in a horizontal direction Only when the whole screen is filled with particles will you clearly see the large variety and complexity of the movements 4 Tutorials This chapter contains tutorials for all four effects The tutorials are subdivided into separate lessons so you can easily see how the various settings take effect step by step 4 1PM Draw Tutorial Lesson 1 For this tutorial you ll need a scene that s approximately 5 seconds long Insert it into the storyboard and open the Image processing Effects screen In this s
6. clicking on the Effect button You can select any mask you like in the selection window We suggest you try experimenting with some of the masks supplied by other software packages such as Video SpiceRack PM Static The Source of the particles is selected in the same way as for PM Draw The Threshold value in percent defines the brightness value in the right hand scene above which the particles will form The Starting Activity and Final Activity settings have the same effect asin the PM Draw effect PM Fly Away In the Effect Settings window you will see the Select Effect button which you can use to open the window of the same name You can select a mask in this window to define the effect that s superimposed on theright hand scene The Threshold Value button defines the brightness value in the right hand scene in percent above which the effect takes effect 3 3 Movement The Movement Settings window is accessed using the Movement button and has the same function for all four effects Dispersion If no Dispersion is selected i e both slider controls are set to 0 the direction in which the particles move after they form is only governed by the Wind and Gravitation settings The dispersion setting can be used to give each particle an additional randomly selected starting direction at the point of particle formation and only at that point The Horizontal and Vertical dispersi
7. creen select the PM Draw effect and insert it Next select Archive in the effect options click on Load and select the Lesson 1 entry first entry in thelist and confirm your selection with Ok You can view the effect by pressing the Preview button in the mage Processing Effects screen In the center of the picture you will see an orange white dot moving slightly This is the source of the particles Now you can select a different mask Click on the Source effect option A window appears In which you can click on the Select Mask button The Circle mask is highlighted initially Now select the Vertical mask two masks further left in the list and close the window with Ok to return to the Source Settings window Adjust the Starting Position slider control to 85 and take a look at the preview by clicking on the lower button in this window You ll notice that the particles are no longer generated at a single point in the center of the picture but in a horizon tal strip in the upper screen area As we already described in chapter 3 2 Source Effect the source of the particle is defined by the mask and the Starting Position The Starting Position defines the brightness value in the mask at which you want the particles to form the higher the percentage the greater the brightness value 0 black 100 white You can use the Starting Position control to set the color nuance that is deci
8. ding predefined sequences from the archive or creating your own customized versions 2 2 Archive The archive contains numerous predefined settings You should start by loading and trying out the supplied examples contained in the archive The first two letters of the name refer to the type of effect for which each particular entry has been optimized You can also use archive entries that have been created using other effects although the results may not look quite as good FA PM Fly Away ST PM Static TS PM Transition DR PM Draw Thearchive can also be used as a placeto store your own creations or adaptations of existing entries so that you can use them later even in other projects 2 3 Preview The preview feature allows you to view a preview of an effect before the effect is created You can access the preview feature from the effect screens and from the settings windows in Particle Magic H owever the preview feature does have some limitations as follows The preview feature can only be used if the effect has not yet been created i e if the effect icon in the storyboard Is still red Thesmall preview might look considerably different from the final result especially around the edges of the picture Effects that run outside the visible screen area in the final video might be visible in the small preview In the case of some effects depending on the settings the calculation times might under some c
9. e effect Effect button A crossfade between the two scenes is carried out along the gradient level that s defined by the mask and the particles form in the transition region T he appearance and behavior in this region is defined by various settings in the Particle and Movement sections PM Static Thistransition effect does not create a crossfade Instead it uses a special effect to place the scene on theright in front of the scene on the left We recommend that you use a predefined title as the subject of the right hand scene H owever interesting effects can also be created using footage that you have recorded T he subject should if possible be placed against a black background since black is interpreted as transpa rent and that is where the left scene can be seen If moving subjects are used on the right hand side an additional effect is generated A simple moving dot for instance can be made to look like a burning fuse You can load predefined sequences from the archive or create your own customized versions Thetwo scenes and the effect should all have the same length PM Fly Away Thistransition effect isa mixture of PM Transit ion and PM Static In this case too the right hand scene is placed as the subject in front of the left scene Though here you can also select a mask to fade out the subject For the right hand scene use a predefined title on a black background Again you havethe option of loa
10. er picture areas and higher values in brighter picture areas Please note that in some masks the particles might under certain circumstances appear in the non visible areas of the screen right at the very edge if settings close to 0 or 100 are selected You can use the Tolerance button to add a range to the starting position At 0 the particles will only appear precisely at the set starting position brightness High tolerance values will cause the particles to appear in a broader region of the mask The Starting Activity function defines how far advanced the activity of the particles is at the beginning of the effect At 0 the particles are just starting to form at their origins and have not yet begun spreading across the screen The distribution then takes place gradually At 100 the effect is fully developed right from the very start as if the particles had always been moving Thesame applies to Final Activity At 100 the particles continue moving without stopping until the end of the effect is reached At 0 particle formation stops before the end of the effect is reached and the remaining particles move slowly out of the picture until they are no longer visible Depending on the various other settings options you should often select particularly for Final Activity intermediate values between 0 and 100 PM Transition You can directly access the selection window for the image pool Select Effect by
11. f the particle when it is formed As the particle develops its size changes until it reaches its final size as defined by Final Size Final Size The size of the individual particles will approach this value near the end of the effect s duration The relationship of Starting Size to Final Size and the selected lifespan will determine whether the particles increase or decrease in size or remain constant for the duration of the effect 3 2 Source Effect This menu ts different for all four effects In the case of PM Fly Away and PM Transit ion you will see the Effect button which you can use to open the Effect Settings window The PM Static and PM Draw effects however have a Source button which opensthe Source Settings window PM Draw If you click on the Source button the Select Draw window opens in which you can define the source position of the particles Pressing the Select Mask button enables you to select a mask from the Image Pool Other products provide masks besides Particle Magic e g Video SpiceRack Liquid Images etc The masks are black and white images that have different gradient levels Please also take note of the Mode option to differentiate between the positive and negative settings in the mask selection The Start Position slider sets the brightness value in the mask at which the particles should appear Lower values will cause the particles to appear in dark
12. ions for a particular purpose Neither M acroSystem Digital Video AG nor its dealers are responsible for any damages resulting either directly or indirectly through the use of the software or the operating instructions e g for profit loss costs hardware or software problems or other issues Contents Page 1 General information mama AA 1 1 1 General information ma AA 1 1 2 IHStAll a ON 2400 ann anne 1 1 3 What is Particle Magic aaa 1 2 ANGIVIGUSl COMPONENTS iran 3 Zo EN OCES mina NANANG 3 PAPA ga AAP AAAH 3 23 PN AA AA 4 ZAS S A A T A E ANAN ANG AA 4 3 The individual effect options aaa 5 BA PAGE AA a 5 3 2 SOUFCEJETTECE iia 5 3 3 Movement aria 7 A PULONG cada 9 4 1 PM Draw Tutorial 0 9 4 2 PM Transition Tutorial 1 11 4 3 PM Static TUN aaron 12 4 4 PM Fly Away TUDO iia 14 1 General information 1 1 General information Thank you for purchasing Particle Magic from your dealer We would like to thank you for placing your trust in usand hope that this product will fulfill your expectations Particle Magic allows you to use your Casablanca even more extensively than ever before Particle Magic naturally supports the Power Key Option If you press the F2 help function key on the keyboard all the possible key codes will be displayed Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions or wish to provide us with suggestions for improvement To contact us please refer to the
13. ircumstances be so long that the preview does not run smoothly or is not usable at all In the case of the Kron and Avio with the Pro Package you can also easily use the full size preview Otherwise you can also view the first few frames after the calculation process has started and then decide whether to cancel or continue calculation The Full Size preview will only be updated after you click Ok to close the effect settings windows If you are using the Avio you will need the Pro Package to use the full size preview 2 4 Menus The menus contain a whole range of different settings that you might find a little confusing at first However if you turn your attention to one setting after the other you will soon start understanding their various functions and can then even create complex combinations yourself We recommend that you start off by using predefined settings from the archive To learn how to use individual options you should set as many of the other options as possible to 0 to avoid confusion With a little experience you can then create complex effects yourself These can then be saved in the archive and used again whenever you want Note Please read through our practical tutorials on this topic 3 Theindividual effect options 3 1 Particle Material This button opens the Select Pattern window You will find suitable particles listed under the Particle Magic product There are 81 multicolored and 11
14. lick on Particle in the effects options You should keep the particle Quantity as small as possible to that the effect does not appear too overloaded Select for instance the 5 setting The Life Span of the particles is probably still set to 100 depending on whether you have already changed the settings earlier or not If set to this value the last particles will remain until the last frame of the transition A Life Span of 100 sometimes has a somewhat different effect in the case of other effects A setting of 100 does not mean that the particles will survive until the end of the effect If you want the last particles to disappear gently you can set the Life Span to 95 If you reduce the Starting Size of the particles for instance to 10 and increase the Final Size to 100 the particles will form small and will continue to grow until the end of their lifespan Lesson 3 You can also use the settings in Lessons 2 and 4in the PM Draw tutorial exercise for this effect 4 3 PM Static Tutorial For this tutorial you will first need to create a suitable scene Create for instance a 10 second empty black scene Place this scene into the storyboard and insert the Pages effect from the titling screen Write a brief snippet of text without a shadow or border in large white letters on a page and place the text in the center of the picture M ake the system calculate this title and create a scene using it No
15. n In the window that appears press the Gravitation button The direction is displayed as an angle between 0 359 0 points upwards and increasing values change the direction clockwise Select 180 as the direction This value corresponds to down which isthenormal direction for gravity as we know it Now set the Intensity to 5 Next confirm the Preview and you ll see that the particles form in the middle and sink slowly to the bottom thus creating a gravitational effect Try playing around alittle with the Direction and Intensity values and note the results You can now save your project under the name Lesson 2 To do so click on Save in the Ar chive and enter the new name Finally confirm your work by pressing Ok Lesson 3 Select the Movement option once again but this time click on the Wind button Set the Direction to 90 and the Intensity to 10 In the preview you ll see that the falling particles are now steered towards the right and indicate a slight Curve Lesson 4 Since such a steadily blowing wind looks pretty unrealistic you can now liven things up a little To do so go into the Movement window which should still be open and click on the Turbulence option to open the Turbulence Settings window Start by making small adjustments to the settings to that you can easily appreciate how the adjustments influence the effect Set the Max Quantity to 10 the Occ
16. ne image processing effect All effects are based on the ability to move many tiny particles around the screen The ways in which the particles move can be adjusted using several options The screen content itself also plays arolein some of the effects An archive that is available to all projects contains pre defined sequences to help introduce you to the software You can use these high quality video techniques to do such things as make the ground letters or hearts burst into flames simulate fog or a snow blizzard or make texts whirl out of the screen you can let your imagination run free 2 Individual components 2 1 Effects PM Draw This image processing effect superimposes animated particles on scenes You can load predefined sequences from the archive or create your own customized versions A mask similar to the one used in the Video SpiceRack and Liquid Images programs is used to define the basic characteristics Source button Pressing the Particle and Movement buttons will take you to other menus containing a whole range of different options with which you can influence the appearance of the effect PM Transition You can use this transition effect to create a cross fade from one scene to another Again you can load predefined sequences from the archive or create your own customized versions A mask similar to the one used in the Video SpiceRack and Liquid Images programs is used to define th
17. on strength can be set separately You can therefore use it in conjunction with Gravitation and or Wind to create very complex movements Gravitation The Direction button that you see allows you to select an angle of up to 360 0 top 90 right 180 bottom and 270 left You can of course also use any values that lie between these values The default value for gravitation is 180 downwards but you can just as easily use other directions for creating special effects Gravitation generally produces an accelerated particle movement i e the longer they exist the faster they get You can use the Intensity button to set how strong the acceleration due to gravity should be Wind In the same way as for Gravitation you can set the Direction and Intensity of the wind If of course you set a wind strength of 0 the Direction setting will be irrelevant Wind generally blows horizontally i e around 90 or 270 However you can of course also set other directions to create special effects In the case of flames for instance a direction of 0 is useful for simulating the upwards draft caused by the heat In contrast to Gravitation the Wind setting makes the particles move at a constant speed For linear movements you should either select the same direction for Wind and Gravitation or set the intensity of one of these motion types to 0 Turbulence The motion of the parti
18. rly in the single frame preview If this is the case increase the threshold value to optimize the appearance of the text In the preview you now see your title dissolving in a circular motion from the outside to the inside At the edges of the text you will notice that the particles are displayed as suns again Mis a An Ane Due to the configured lifespan the particles remain visible until the very last frame of the transition To change this click on the Particle effect option and set Life Span to say 80 You will seein the preview that the particles begin dissolving towards the end of the effect thus creating a soft transition You can now try out some other particles to familiarize yourself with Particle Magic To do so click on the Particle effect option and then on Material from where you can select other particles You can also select various mask effects Click on Effect and in the subsequently appearing window click on Select effect to select a new mask Note You also have the option of playing the masks in either Negative Mode or M irrored Lesson 2 Now that you ve selected the particles and the effect you can begin modifying the particle movements To do so proceed as described in lessons 2 to 4 in the first tutorial the PM Draw Tutorial 15 16 1 055 06702
19. s Since the effect first has to develop you might have to adjust the current settings in the case of shorter effect times so that you are able to see the effect s full sequence of movements After all an effect that first has to develop during a short effect time will appear much different than one which is fully active right from the very beginning 4 2 PM Transition Tutorial You can use this effect to create a transition from one scene to another Insert two scenes with a length of 10 seconds each into the storyboard open the Transition Effects screen and insert the PM Transition effect Now use the xs control to set a transition duration of 3 seconds Lesson 1 Load the Lesson 1 entry from the archive and view the result using the preview function in the Transition Effects screen Now simply adjust the effect by clicking on the Effect option and in the window that then appears selecting for instance the Heart first row fifth effect from the left in Negative mode You can now also adjust the particles to suit your selected effect Click on the Particle effect Option and then on Material and select for instance the red Heart fourth row from the bottom on the very left a You can now view the new resulting effect or the preview Why not try a few different settings and see how they change the appearance Lesson 2 To change the effect some more open the Particle Settings screen To do so c
20. sive for this particle origin Set a value of 50 here and take a look at the preview You will notice that the particles no longer form at the upper edge of the screen but around the middle of the picture After all the mask that is set Vertical has a color curve that goes from bottom to top from black to white Relative to this a Starting Positi on of 0 is at the very bottom and 100 is at the very top Any values between these two settings are therefore positioned within the picture accordingly 10 If you want to adjust the width of the line of origin you should use the Tolerance slider control You can use it to set a starting position plus minus a particular tolerance Adjust the slider control from the configured 0 to 20 The preview now no longer displays the particlesin aline but in a broader area Go ahead and try out a few more settings and masks for the Starting Position and Tolerance options so you can get an idea of the range of options provided by Particle Magic Note The particles only appear in the center of the picture when using our predefined settings because the mask is a circle that s white in its center Since the Starting Position is set to 100 the particles only appear within the white center of the circle Finally load the Lesson 1 archive again and then move on to the next lesson Lesson 2 Using Lesson 1 as your starting point select the Movement effect optio
21. te If you own a Casablanca Avio without the Avio Pro Package you can simply create this scene by recording onto your video recorder and then back again Instead of using a few lines of text you can use a normal video scene or an empty scene with a mask The important thing to bear in mind here is that you must ensure the scene contains a light area on a dark background Lesson 1 In this tutorial you ll superimpose a title onto a scene and then animate it Place a scene of at least 10 seconds in length in the storyboard followed by the text scene that you have already created Now open the Transition Effects screen insert the PM Static effect and set the maximum effect length Next load Lesson 1 from the archive You will not yet see an effect in the preview since you first have to make some changes to the settings Set the Threshold Value in the Source effect option to 10 The preview now displays your text as moving particles over the video scene Lesson 2 Thetext does not yet look quite as good as we would want it The particles are too big and the text is not that easy to read To make it easier to read you can reduce the size of the particles and increase their number Click on the Particle effect option to open the Particle Settings window Set the Starting Size to 10 and the Final Size to 30 The text is now easier to read but can be optimized if 13 you increase the Quanti
22. ty of particles e g to 35 Lesson 3 Click on the Source effect option and take a look at the preview from this screen You ll notice that the text appears suddenly and then disappears just as abruptly To prevent this from happening set the Starting Activity in this window to 0 and the Final Activity to 40 In the preview the text now appears more slowly and fades out gently Lesson 4 Now you can introduce a little movement to the text To do so click on the Movement effect option you ll already be familiar with the settings here since they re the same as the settings in the previous tutorials Under Gravitation set the Intensity to 8 and leave the Direction at 0 You ll notice that the gravitational effect now moves upwards within the preview Now we want the rising suns to appear to be blown by the wind To do so open the Wind menu in the Movement settings and set the Direction value to 270 the wind blows from right to left and the Intensity to 1096 You can then adjust the Turbulence As an initial test set the Max Quantity to 10 the Occurrence to 50 and the Intensity to 20 You ll notice in the preview that the rising particles are now even more animated 14 Once you ve found the right values to create the effect that you want you can move on to the final setting in this tutorial To do so click on the Particle effect option and activate the Material button
23. urrence to 5 and the Intensity to 20 Instead of indicating an even curve as we did before the particles are now livened up dueto a change in direction If you now increase the Max Quantity or Intensity settings the movement of the particles becomes much more Intense T hese settings modify the otherwise smooth particle trajectory to make it look as though the particles are being disturbed by sideways gusts of wind Lesson 5 Using the settings in Lesson 4 as your starting point the particle motion forms a line This shape can be modified using the Dispersion function in the Movement Settings window the basic operation of this function has already been described in chapter 3 3 In this tutorial set the Horizontal option to 12 and leave the Vertical option at 0 The preview will now display the particle motion though this time the movement of the particles no longer appears as a line but rather is dispersed Changing the Dispersion for the vertical setting would in this case have little effect since the movement of the particles vertically is already being influenced by the Gravitation setting Lesson 6 The effect that you ve generated is fully developed when it starts You can change this appearance however by clicking on the Source effect option Next adjust the Starting Activity from 11 its current setting of 100 down to 0 The effect will now take time to fully develop after it start
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