Since we are now quite happy with the final result, we are going to export it as a PNG sequence before importing it in a movie clip in Flash.
The first thing we need to do is to make the background image invisible by clicking on the little "bg2" icon on the layer.
To start the export process click on the little red dot on the main tool bar, in the new window select the PNG format (or TIFF or TGA) and give a name to the sequence.
In the new window make sure to save all the frames from 1 to 60. Also you need to select "Save Alpha" and "Remove black bg from RGB channels"
The sequence of images should be rendered in less that 3 seconds.
Here we are, we now have a PNG sequence of animated sparks ready to be imported in Flash.
In Flash let's create a new layer above the later where our graphics reside and let's call it sparks.
Now we create a new
movie clip that we can also call "sparks". We select the first frame of the new movie clip and we select File / Import / Import to stage
When you are asked to import the whole sequence press yes. When all pictures have been imported delete the first frame and the last frame.
You are now ready to place your movie clip on the top layer and to let the magic begin.
The final size of the file is around 300k depending of a compression ratio between 80 and 100.
Final result and final words
Here is the final result that we achieved through the following steps:
1) load a background image or movie
2) select an emitter from the emitter libraries
3) modify the properties of the emitter to customize it to your project
4) turn off the bg image and render as PNG with alpha channel
5) import into Flash :
This little tutorial should give you an overall idea of how you can use particleIllusion v3.0 to create effects for your Flash website or Flash games. To create such an effect purely using Flash the you had 2 possibilities : if you are a designer you could use several motion tweens to create many particles, if you are a developer you could use actionscript and the Tween class to generate those sparks dynamically but in both case it would take 10 times longet that it took me to create the little effect above.
I think That particleIllusion v3.0 is a wonderful little program that you probably won't use in all your Flash project but when you need to create any type of particles effect (fire, water, smoke, rain, snow, artistic effect ..etc) you won't hesitate to use particleIllusion v3.0 because it has all you need.
Wondertouch particleIllusion comes in 2 flavours:
- particleillusion v3.0 (particleIllusion 3.0 is our fully-featured professional version. It uses the latest version of the particle engine, and can create the largest number of effects, with amazing realism and complexity.) - Price: $399 (US)
- particleIllusion SE (particleIllusion SE is the low-cost introductory version of particleIllusion. It uses an older version of the particle engine, but can still create a huge number of effects. The effect created in that tutorial can be created with the SE version)the SE version is
a low-priced way to get these great effects into your Flash projects - Price: $99 (US)
If you want to give it a try don't hesitate to download the 30 days unlimited demo from wondertouch.
Wondertouch particleIllusion 3.0 (part 5)
