StickyGum32

Glad we're all in agreement about the wood sidings 😂 I'm once again finding myself battling my old enemy: interiors. But that said, this little mining town is coming along on the outside, and pretty much at the point where I just simply have to do the ride interior now. The scizzer has been themed up as Docey Do, a hoedown party sort of flat ride, and the foliage around the outdoor bits of the coaster are complete. I also gave it a watchtower-type building to pass through out in the forest, and I think it adds a nice little touch to the otherwise monotonous woods. As for the interiors, I'm beginning to slowly chip away at them, adding some basic flooring and walls, and starting to play around with communicating story ideas, like the mine elevator here at the mid-point of the layout. Plenty more to come, but here's what we got for now! Overall, the park is growing quite a bit! I really love how much this little mining town has filled out this right side of the map. Maybe now that I'm chipping away at interiors, I can finally beginning planning my next expansion... 😏 - StickyGum32

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 9 – ChrysanthemumsChrysanthemums are the grand-daddy bullfrog of pyro. They cost the most particles to make and they leave the sky brilliantly lit for 5 seconds. They're not that hard to make since you've already developed a template in previous lessons. It's quite literally a matter of changing a few settings. Chrysanthemums are the royalty of pyro design. Unfortunately, their particle counts can get massively out of hand. The target you should be aiming for is 30K for a single effect. 10K for a willow or anything with a glittery tail. 1K for a tail-less peony or comet. Keep these targets in mind...you will be using this pyro over and over again and there's nothing worse than to make pyro that people can't use in their shows. 1) Open your classic willow from last lesson. We'll be using this as your chrysanthemum's base. Because of the way you have set this effect up already, we won't add or take away a single emitter! Huzzah! This basic structure should be familiar now. RED - Setup: A) Control | B) Launch Rotation | C) Launch | D) Stop Launch | E) Burst Shape BLUE - ProColor: A) Throw/Outer Glow | B) Inner Glow | C) Core ORANGE - Die-off emitter GREEN - Glitter Tail On the RedE emitter, increase the particle count to 40. On the BlueA emitter, increase the particle count to 4. Now you should have an effect with 160 arms. Don't count them one by one though. On the same emitter, increase the Sphere to 15.00 and decrease lifetime to 5.50 @ 30% randomness. Make sure your drag and gravity are low. My formula is 0.20 drag over 0.15 grav. We're halfway there. 2) Since BlueA is also the beginning of your ProColor formula, we'll need to adjust the glows just a tad. If you notice, right now with the effects unchanged, you might be getting a really fake brightness coming from the origin of the effect. That's because you have 160 stars emanating from the same point. To offset this ugly wash, you must delay the glow a touch. Under the particle basics window, start your outer glow solid black. Halfway in, use your normal outer glow brightness (whatever you use in your formula). And before the effect dies off, double the brightness. To understand why I'm having you do this, take a look at the lifetime of your effect. All stars start at the same point - as the effect increases in size, those stars fall away from each other so you're naturally going to want the glow to be brighter to compensate for the space between stars. And the end of the effect, the stars are hundreds of feet away from each other - so you want to increase the brightness to keep the chrysanthemum nice and bright. It's a game of compensation you will need to play when your effects get BIG. This diagrams shows the outer glow compensation. 3) Select the BlueB emitter and increase the particle count to 200. It's the same reason why we increased the inner glow during the palms lesson. The longer your effect, the more particles you need to keep your inner glow bright. Otherwise it'll thin out and look like a weak strobe. To continue the delay we started in the outer glow, increase your start time on the inner glow to 0.10. This delays the ignition of the inner glow to 10% of the entire effect in. The result is a very quick delay that throws the stars outward a bit before they show up. 4) You're going to want your die-off emitters turned back on, so do that and change the Start Time / End Time to 0.95. Since the Chrysanthemum is such a long and large effect, you need to delay the start of the die-off emitter for it to show up. Otherwise it gets consumed by the inner glow of your ProColor. 5) And lastly, your glitter. Now you could simply go with what you have, but you're going to end up with a 50K particle effect. The beauty of large effects is that you don't need a super-full glitter to achieve the same look. There are so many stars, that you can lose some of the tail: On the GreenA emitter: Reduce the number of particles to 150. On the GreenB emitter: Increase the number of particles to 3. Decrease the Lifetime to 1.10 @ 100% randomness. If you've done everything right, you should have a large booming effect that looks absolutely spectacular coming in at about 25K particles. Be sure to troubleshoot any problems. The biggest one is burst height - make sure the effect has plenty of room to boom without crashing into the ground. You can continue to modify the glitter if you want a fuller tail, or if you're particle conscience - reduce the tail. 7) Name your effect, save your effect (don't forget .frw!) and submit with a video containing your chrysanthemum. If your effect crashes into the ground, we will have to ask you to resubmit - this is one of the big things about large effects - you need to be aware of how big they get. Congratulations, you have completed all the true lessons of the ATPA Basics. Next lesson is your graduation test. Good luck! Editors Note: This is the conclusion of the ATPA. I am loosely aware of there having been more advanced lessons created, but I am not in possession of them, nor did I ever see them back when vPyro was alive and well. Regardless, this is the entire ATPA course as it appeared on vPyro in the 2010's. Hopefully you find some good information here and create some incredible effects!

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 8 – WillowsWillows are not that much different from palms in the AFE. Since we've already set up a burst control emitter in the last lesson, we can now manipulate it to create new effects. This lesson covers two types of willow - waterfall and classic. 1) We're going to work straight from the palm lesson file because it contains the structure we want to use for the willows. A & B are the major emitters we're going to change for Willows. **NOTE** Traditional willows usually have no bright glowing star to lead the tail so for this effect, be sure to set your particles to 0 on your inner glow and core and black out the particle that controls your outer glow. Be sure to also set your particles to 0 on the die-off emitters. WATERFALL WILLOWWaterfall willows have one dedicated direction to their burst habit. They usually shoot upward and spill over like the fountain. Instead of having multiple arms like a palm, we just want one arm with a couple dozen trails shooting from the origin. A) START TIME - 0.00 END TIME - 0.01 PARTICLES - 1 SPEED - 3.05 SPHERE - 3.10 CIRCLE - 2.75 LIFETIME .05 B) PARTICLES - 25 SPEED - 6.40 SPHERE - 1.00 Parent - 0.50 LIFETIME - 6.50 @ 30% Randomness DRAG - 0.20 (OR SAME AS YOUR PALM FIREWORK) GRAVITY - 0.15 (OR SAME AS YOUR PALM FIREWORK) **NOTE - these values are not a one-size-fits-all formula - I encourage you to experiment to find out what each one of these properties do to the shape of the willow** 2) You should be getting some nice movement now but there could be a few problems with the effect. Since waterfalls willows are unpredictable, they might be shooting glitter into the ground. Try increasing the height of your launch so that if the waterfall willow bursts downward, it doesn't hit the ground. Also, your glitter might be a little ratted and thin. This is because we've increased the lifetime of the trail from 3 and a quarter seconds to 6 and half - exactly double. To get your glitter thick again, simply increase the amount of particles from 140 to 250. 3) Name your effect, save your effect (don't forget .frw!) CLASSIC WILLOWClassic willows have a familiar round shape and are more predictable than their waterfall brethren. They're easier to control and only take a few tweaks. For this shape, we'll continue from the waterfall willow you just created. 4) Open the Waterfall Willow file and make these adjustments to the A & B emitters listed above. A) PARTICLES - 10 B) PARTICLES - 3 SPHERE - 8.00 5) And that's it! Since you are using the same lifetime, you don't need to adjust your glitter. Now the firework should explode in an elegant sphere with 30 glittering arms. 6) Name your effect, save your effect (don't forget .frw!) and submit with a video containing BOTH willow styles. Be bold and experiment with Silver and White tailed glitter too! By setting up a burst control emitter from the palms lesson, you were able to easily control different shapes in this lesson. You'll find that if you set up your fireworks intelligently, you can create a multitude of unique effects from a single file with little ease. Next Lesson: Lesson 9 - Chrysanthemums

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 7 –PalmsPalms are often referred to as 'tailed peonies' but that's an incorrect generalization. Palms use an additional emitter that controls the grouping of the burst. Instead of simply adding a tail to your peony shell, we're going to start from scratch to illustrate the difference between a tailed peony and a palm. You can see that there are distinct arms in a palm - a peony would simply throw stars in random directions. Before we begin, I want to share this diagram with you. This should be your emitter structure for every effect you make from now on. Certain emitters might not be utilized, but you should prepare your effects for the off chance that you MIGHT use them. They don't really cost you anything to add in. 1 - CONTROL - How long your entire effect is / what default color it is. 2 - LAUNCH ROTATION - A useful emitter when you want to create a 'fan' launch. For this lesson we won't use it, but it's important nonetheless. 3 - LAUNCH - Shell goes up... 4 - STOP LAUNCH - Stops the launch motion and sets the firework up to burst. 5 - BURST SHAPE - Designates what shape your burst will be (round, irregular, one-sided, mirrored, perfectly spaced). 6 - THROW - The size and direction of your pyro burst. This emitter is also the beginning of your ProColor formula (Outer Glow). 1. We're going to start like we start any other shell. To the single emitter, add 2 more emitters to control the potential launch rotation and the launch itself. A) Control B) Launch Rotation (optional emitter) C) Launch Use the same description settings (particle, speed, life, etc) you used for your peony including a stop launch emitter. After that, you should have 4 emitters. At this point, it's a very basic setup. Control - Launch Rotation - Launch - Stop Launch. 2. Now add a 5th & 6th emitter. This is where the formula changes a bit. We want to group clusters of stars at the burst instead of having them spread out all uniformly. On the 5th emitter, add 10 particles (this will control the amount of clusters) and on the 6th emitter, add 6 particles (this will control the amount of arms). You should now have 60 potential 'arms' grouped in 10 clusters. Control - Launch Rotation - Launch - Stop Launch - Burst Shape (10) - Throw (6) 3. Now we need to add some properties for these emitters: Burst Shape (5th emitter) SPEED - 0.01 SPHERE - 10 Parent - 0.00 LIFETIME - 0.05 Throw (6th emitter) SPEED - 0.00 SPHERE - 2.00 Parent - 1.00 LIFETIME - 3.25 - Random 30% (0.30) DRAG ~0.20 GRAVITY ~0.15 (~) - "not totally equal to" Note - Throw is also the emitter that begins your ProColor formula. Throw is your Outer Glow. 4. You should have some nice motion happening, but it's a pretty skeletal effect. During this time, add your ProColor formula, add your die-off emitters and be sure to clean up any straggling white particle emitters. If you're unsure of anything I'm talking about, be sure to review older lessons where I go further into detail. From here on out, the lessons will start to get really technical and concise. You should now have something that looks like this. 5. The last step is to give the tails some life. We're going to use a variation of the moderate glitter from the last lesson. We can't simply copy and paste the glitter because we'd crash the game! Because this glitter will be multiplied 60 times (60 arms) we need to edit down the details of the glitter without losing the lush quality. This requires that you experiment quite a bit. I'll give you a cheat sheet for now though. A) Your ProColor formula B) Die-off Emitter C) (Moderate) Glitter Tail C1:START TIME - 0.05 PARTICLES - 140 POS SPHERE - 0.05 SPEED - 0.55 SPHERE - 0.40 Parent - .03 SPIN OFFSET X - 3.29 SPIN RATE Y - 3.52 SPIN RATE Z - (-4.27) LIFETIME - .05 C2: END TIME - 0.95 PARTICLES - 2 SPEED - 0.70 SPHERE - 0.10 Parent - 0.40 SPIN OFFSET Z - 4.71 LIFETIME - 1.60 @ 100% RANDOMNESS C3: START TIME - .50 @ 20% RANDOMNESS PARTICLES - 2 LIFETIME - 0.10 These values are not one-size fits all solutions. They also do not factor in the look of the particles - you need to figure that out on your own based on the things you learned from the previous Glitter lessons. Experiment until it works. 6. If you have done everything right, your palm should look something like this: It takes time and a little bit of a patience, but you can achieve some pretty spectacular effects! 7. Name your effect, save your effect (don't forget .frw!) and submit with a video containing multiple palms in a variety of colors. Be bold and experiment with Silver and White tailed glitter too! Next Lesson: Lesson 8 - Willows

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 6C – Glitter (Complex)Here is where we push glitter and its capability as a pyro decoration. I marked this as orange, not because the lesson is difficult to follow...but because it requires a LOT of tinkering to get it to move the way you want it. I'll provide the reasons for each emitter, but it's your job to make it work! The end result is very rewarding though - look how the glitter seems to be caught by the wind and the wobble of the comet in the air. 1. We're going to start where we left off - this lesson is simply a continuation of what has already been learned - we're just opening up the possibilities a bit more. Open the 6B effect and click on the first emitter. We're going to make a more radical change to the Emitter Rotation. 2. For this tail, let's push the movement a bit. When comets burst, they don't always stick to one linear direction - they can be taken by the wind, they could have a slight spin to them, they could wobble back and forth and the tail should be able to show this. To keep you guys from pulling out your hair trying to figure out what I mean, start by setting the Emitter Rotation panel like this: As always, these are jumping off points - try to find a different combination that provides a similar effect. You should notice a big difference in the very subtle whip you made in the previous lesson. This new tail seems to flip back and forth - still subtle but a different movement. If the movement is a little cloudy, go to the Emitter Speed panel, change the sphere to 0.00 and drop the speed to 0.30. Now the tail's form should be a lot clearer. 3. Add two emitters after the second glitter tail emitter - these will increase the depth of the glitter. You should now have 4 emitters in a row: The first emitter controls the tail's overall movement The second emitter controls the tail's primary glitter The third emitter will control the tail's secondary glitter The fourth emitter will control the tail's final sparkle effect Confusing enough? Let's just dive in! 4. Click on the second emitter and change the lifetime to 0.85. This allows room for the secondary glitter to shine through. 5. Select the third emitter and add 1 particle to the Emitter Rate panel. Increase the lifetime to 1.30 seconds at 100% randomness (1.00). Then open the Particle Basics window and create a style for this secondary glitter: Anything is fine as long as it's small and darker than the previous glitter style. When you're satisfied with the look of the secondary glitter, open the Particle Motion window and set the gravity to approximately 1/4 of the primary glitter - for me, I have 0.20 gravity on my first glitter, so I set the secondary glitter to 0.05. Why set multiple gravities? Gravity is relative in the AFE - when you look at particles dropping from real fireworks, they don't ever fall at the same rate. Variances in size, burn, wind and other environmental factors can warp their path slightly. We compensate for this by assigning two different gravities for the same overall glitter. Now if you look closely, you have two different glitter tails falling at different rates - zoom back though, and it looks like one solid effect. 6. And finally, the icing - select the 4th emitter and add 2 particles to the Emitter Rate panel. Also, set the Start Time to 0.50 and the random to 25% (0.25). Set the lifetime to 0.10 and use this for the particle style: It's a simple addition that provides a little bit of sparkle - just enough to make your glitter stand out in a show! 7. Name you effect, save your effect (don't forget .frw!) and submit with a video containing multiple glitter comets in a variety of colors. Be bold and experiment with Silver and White tailed glitter too! If you've followed everything right, you should have a very luxurious glitter that feels like it's being tousled by the elements. Lesson 6 is a hard one to follow because it takes so much tinkering and experimentation to get a decent product, but I hope this gave you a better understanding of how to approach glitter and the simple things you can do to make your effects look spectacular. Next Lesson: Lesson 7 - Palms

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 6B – Glitter (Moderate)Now that you understand the fundamentals of glitter, it's time to introduce some familiar and some not-so-familiar concepts to get the glitter to feel like it's being affected by the elements. It's hard to see from these videos, but the glitter does feel like it gets picked up by the wind a bit more. 1. We're going to continue from the 6A effect, using the exact same emitter setup, particle styles and particle counts. In this lesson, we're going to tackle the Emitter Rotation window once again, and we're going to apply a drift effect to the glitter just like we did in Lesson 3B. By simply fiddling with the speed and rotation of the invisible tail and the visible glitter tail, you can provide a much more realistic effect. 2. Start with the first emitter of the glitter tail (the invisible one) open the Emitter Speed panel and increase the speed to 0.55 - also increase the sphere to 0.40 - this will provide some directional movement for the changes to the emitter's rotation we're about to perform. 3. Open the Emitter Rotation panel and fiddle with the settings until you get a slight 'whip' from the tail particles. This is easier said than done, so I've provided a picture of a possible jumping off point for you: Just like the other settings I'm having you experiment on - there are some guidelines: * Keep Particle Relative checked. * Experiment with positive and negative spinrate values. * Avoid anything over 5.00 or -5.00. * SpinOffset values help to direct how the tail 'spins' * Make sure the effect is SUBTLE - you're not trying to create a twister tail...yet. 4. You might notice that your tail gets stuck in the air as the comet starts dropping - this isn't attractive for this kind of effect, so go to the Emitter Rate panel on the first glitter tail emitter (the one you've been working on) and change the End Time to 0.65 - this should stop the tail just as its cresting and dropping. If not, experiment with the end time until it looks correct. 5. Select the second emitter for the glitter tail and open the Emitter Speed panel. Now that your glitter tail's movement is being controlled by the first emitter, you can set the sphere down to 0.20. We're going to set up this emitter to have some drift to it, so add some speed (around 1.00) so that the drifting glitter has a direction to go. Now open the Emitter Rotation panel and set the SpinOffsetZ rate to 4.71 and uncheck Particle Relative. If you used a different formula for your drift smoke (other than 4.71) use it instead - this is your universal 'wind direction'. If your tail is crooked, slightly irregular or just barely twisting, you've done everything right. Slight irregularity will transform your effects from made by a particle engine to wow, that looks real! 6. Name your effect, save your effect (don't forget .frw!) and submit your lesson by providing a video containing comets with different colors. You're almost done with the glitter gauntlet. Lesson 6C will provide the final icing on this shimmering cake. Next Lesson: Lesson 6C - Glitter (Complex)

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 6A – Glitter (Basic)Glitter is going to be the hardest set of lessons in the entire Basics portion of the ATPA - it's not because it's a terribly hard concept to put into action - it's because glitter is extremely relative. There is no universal one-size fits all method to glitter. You are going to need to experiment heavily in these next 3 lessons - the glitter gets progressively more difficult, but more beautiful and lively. We'll start with the basics just to get the concept driven home. Basic glitter is pretty out of the box, and it isn't too hard to achieve. Truths about RCT glitter: * It can disappear on you if you back up too far. * It often either looks too thin or too thick. * It can look too rigid if you put any drag on it. * It can crash RCT3 if you use too much of it in show design. * It can be hard to maintain a consistent style. * It changes from application to application - ie: Comet Glitter is not the same as Palm Glitter is not the same as Chrysanthemum Glitter is not the same as Fountain Glitter. 1. We're going to use the 3A Pearl Comet for this lesson - with the die-off emitter and nothing else. Glitter is a very resource-heavy effect and it becomes cumbersome to RCT3 when you have too many particles being created. Therefore, if glitter is going to be an important part of your effect, drift smoke is pointless and won't be seen. It's important to think this way - always cut particles where you can! 2. Glitter starts off much like drift smoke - with an invisible tail to tell the glitter where to populate. Add a child emitter from the Outer Glow parent and increase the count to 300 particles. Change the parenting in Emitter Speed to 0.00 so that you get a nice white tail from the ground to the head of the comet. Decrease the lifetime to .05 - this emitter is a navigator for the particles to come - it tells them how to act. Make the emitter invisible by decreasing the particle to 0.00 for Start and End sizes. 3. Add another emitter from the one you just adjusted - this emitter will control the visible glitter. Your setup should now look something like this: On the second emitter, add a particle to the Emitter Rate panel - you should now see a thick white line. This is the skeleton of the tail...but as you can see it's not very pretty. Let's make the tail a little more attractive now. 4. First, increase the lifetime to around 1.50 seconds, with about 50% randomness (0.50). Then add some gravity to the tail - I use about .20 considering that glitter won't fall as fast as a star - it tends to get picked up by the elements. Before you can edit the motion of the glitter, you need to be able to see it - change the white particles to something like this: You don't have to follow this exactly - in fact I encourage you not to. But stick to these guidelines for glitter: Glitter should start light and end dark. Glitter should be pretty small - anything over 1.00 is not going to work. Glitter should use hard-edged particle styles like: A2, A3, A4, B10, B7, B9 (A4, A5, A6, A2, A1, B9) Glitter should start larger and end smaller. Glitter should be conservative in color - golds, silvers, whites - anything else might be too experimental. Now you should have a rather unattractive line of graduated gold. Don't worry - we haven't applied any movement to the glitter yet. 5.On the second glitter emitter, open the Emitter Speed panel and play with sphere. This will provide all of the movement for this basic glitter style. Somewhere around .50 should do you well. There should be just enough movement that it breaks from the line, but not so much that it tears the tail apart. We're getting closer, but the glitter still seems a bit anemic and small. 6. Go to the Emitter Rate panel on the second emitter and increase the count from 1 to 4. This solves a number of problems associated with glitter - it multiplies the particle four times so that the tail is longer, stronger and brighter. It also allows you to view the glitter from farther away without it disappearing. And lastly, it provides a more natural diffusing effect as the particles drift away from each other. If you've made it this far, congratulations - you've learned the basics of glitter. With this technique, you've alleviated many of the glitter concerns I mapped out in the top of this lesson. It won't disappear on you, it looks thick and luminous without being too big, it has no drag on it so it doesn't appear rigid, and it's a fairly reasonable particle count (under 1000 particles per effect). 7. Name your effect, save your effect (don't forget .frw!), and submit with a video of your glitter comets in multiple colors. The fun is just beginning! Next Lesson: Lesson 6B - Glitter (Moderate)

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 5 – BatteriesYou might have noticed this lesson is blue, that's because marking this as green would have been insulting to the green lessons...in other words...this is EASY Batteries are great effects when you want to fill in long periods of the same kind of music. What is a battery? A rapidly fired sequence of aerial fireworks. 1. Open your 3C Pearl Comet with the launch sparks, die-off emitter, and drift smoke. We're going to use this for our battery effect. Change the control emitter to 5.00 seconds - you can make your battery any length you want by changing the lifetime of the control. 2. On the Launch emitter, which also happens to be your Outer Glow from your ProColor, increase the particles to somewhere around 30. This will cause an equal firing of 30 comets in 5.00 seconds. For math buffs, that would be 0.1666667 of a second between each firing. If you increase the particles, it will shoot at a faster rate - if you lower the particles, it will shoot at a slower rate. But it will ALWAYS shoot perfectly even. Back in Lesson 2, I had you add an emitter between the control and the Outer Glow - this was to keep all the particles shooting at the same time - otherwise they would have fired like these batteries. You may notice your smoke is blocking up a bit more than normal - simply decrease the amount of smoke particles from the comet and it will even out. And that's it! That's how simple a battery is to make. Next Lesson: Lesson 6A - Glitter (Basic)

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 4 – PeoniesPeonies are the most basic bursting firework you can make. Its name derives from the flower (as most firework names do!): In this lesson, we will apply the ProColor style to a spherical bursting firework using the same physics we learned from Lesson 1C - Pearl Comets. Here is what we're going to make. 1. Create a new firework and add 2 emitters to the control. Set the control's life to 4.00 seconds. Add 1 particle for each emitter. On the first emitter, set the particle life to somewhere around 2.30 seconds. Apply the same kind of physics you assigned in the 1C lesson. My formula is 1.40/0.40 (drag/grav). Now, set the emitter speed until the particle is high enough above the ground and there is nice launch (with a little bit of slowdown at the top). Add some sphere to give the launch a random pattern. Once you are satisfied with your launch height, make the particle invisible. 2. Click the second emitter and set the Start Time to around .90 and the End Time to the exact same number. This ensures that the burst happens in the air and not on the ground. Set the lifetime to 0.05. In the Emitter Speed panel, set the parent to 0.00 - this ensures that this new burst does not adapt the motion of the launch. In the Particle Basics panel, set the size around 15-25. End size can remain the same. Use a soft-edged particle style (ex. C9, D4, D5)*. By now, you should have 3 emitters and a short white flash every 4 seconds. 3. Add another emitter and give it 100 particles. This will be our peony burst. Apply the same physics to this burst that you did for the launch in the Particle Motion panel. Open the Emitter Speed panel and apply a generous amount of sphere. You should begin to see the peony take shape now. When you are satisfied, open the Particle Life panel and increase it between 1.40 and 1.80 with a randomness of about 30% (0.30). *Editors Note: C9, D4, D5 are Vanilla Values; Expansion Values are D1, C7, A9. You should now see this: 4 emitters: A control, a launch, a launch-stop, and a burst. 4. Now apply your ProColor starting with the 4th emitter - your burst will now become your Outer Glow. You should now have a beautiful peony effect! If the glow is a little strong, adjust accordingly. When the particles first burst, they are close to one another, so you might need to darken the beginning of the Outer Glow emitter. This is an important note - the formula is a starting point. Each effect will affect the glow differently - so be prepared to adjust. 5. Apply the die-off emitter and drift smoke to the peony - if you haven't finished the 3a and 3b lessons, I suggest going back and completing them. http://forums.vpyro....ie-off-emitter/ https://parkcrafters.com/topic/1626-atpa-lesson-3a-die-off-emitter/#comment-12854 http://forums.vpyro....3b-drift-smoke/ https://parkcrafters.com/topic/1627-atpa-lesson-3b-drift-smoke/ 6. Name your effect, Save (don't forget .frw!) and submit a video showing your peony with multiple colors. Hopefully this lesson taught you how to keep bursts in the air and how physics can be universal in an effect. Next Lesson: Lesson 5 - Batteries

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 3C – Launch SparksTo finish off the refinement process, we'll go back to an easier lesson. Launch sparks are not necessary, but they can add a nice effect and it doesn't cost too many particles overall. Launch Sparks in the AFE are basically a firework tail that stops before the firework develops - they only last for about a half a second, but they signal that a firework has just been ignited. Launch sparks begin your effect with a little extra pop. 1. Open your Lesson 3B Pearl Comet and add a child emitter from the parent Outer Glow emitter: Add 50 particles to the Emitter Rate panel and set the End Time at 0.02 - This indicates that the effect will only happen in the first 2% of the comet's entire life. 2. Open the Emitter Speed panel and set the parent to 0.00. Now experiment with all of the other controls until you have a nice randomized movement. I set position sphere to 1.00, sphere to 1.50 and speed to 7.00 - you can use these or make your own combo. 3. Set the particle life to around a half a second - I used 0.60 with a randomness of 100% (1.00) - With sparks and glitter (which we will get into later) 100% randomness gives a realistic fade out. 4. Open the Particle Basics panel and choose a small particle style - A2, A3, A4 (A4, A5, A6) work well for what we're doing. Don't be afraid to experiment here. 5. Either rename or save over your Pearl Comet. Submit lesson with multiple comets and place the camera so we can see the launch. As a bonus, apply these refinement techniques (die-off emitter, drift smoke, launch sparks) to your Lesson 2 Mine and include them in the video. This completes Lesson 3 - Pyro Refinement! You are now able to apply all of these techniques to anything you design. From here on out, ProColor, die-off emitters, and drifting smoke are going to be known simply as 'stars'. Save your formulas because you will be using them constantly. (It isn't required that you use Launch Sparks for future lessons) Next Lesson: Lesson 4 - Peonies

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 3B – Drift SmokeThis lesson is one of the harder basics lessons (you may have noticed the change in title color), but it is a very important addition to get your shells to look natural in the sky. Drift smoke is a dance of subtlety - too much and it will look too heavy and artificial. Drift smoke is a lovely effect that leaves a ghosted movement behind. 1. Begin by opening the 3A lesson comet (the one with the die-off emitter). To create a smoke trail, you need two emitters - add two children from the Outer Glow like this: 2. The first emitter will act as an invisible tail. Click on the first emitter and open the Emitter Rate panel. Give the emitter around 60 particles and set the Start Time to 0.05 and the End Time to 0.70. The reason why you're stopping the smoke effect at 70% is because this particular effect maxes out and drops before it dies out. For smoke, this is going to create a bunching of particles that will make your smoke lose its believability. For most effects, you want the smoke to stretch the entire length of the effect - Keep this in mind when you apply smoke to other effects. 3. Open the Emitter Speed panel and set the Parent to 0.00 - this creates a tail from the head of the firework to the base. In the same panel, add some sphere to randomize the tail. When you are happy with the result, change the Particle Life to 0.05 and make the particle invisible (set the size to 0). 4. Select the second emitter and add 1 particle to the Emitter Rate panel. You should now see the familiar tail once again - go to the Emitter Speed panel and add some speed to the tail - this is what is going to cause the 'drift'. Don't make it too fast - something around 2.00 will do just fine. 5. This next step creates the drift - Open the Emitter Rotation panel and uncheck Particle Relative. This will ensure that your smoke drifts in one single direction. Select the SpinOffsetZ category and change this to 4.71. This will create a universal drift to the left - you can choose other drift directions, however you are limiting yourself from using any other effects based of their drift direction. There is a classic drift problem between ID firework packs and AD firework packs. 6. If you've gotten this far and your effect looks like this, congratulations! You're not too far off now. Smoke is going to need some time to develop and fade off, so we need to increase its life. Open the Particle Life panel and give it a good 4.00 seconds with 30% randomness. You should now see your white particle tail slowly drift away from the firework's head. If you look closely, the particles themselves should be drifting at slightly different speeds. 7. Now that you have the smoke moving like smoke, it's time to make it look like smoke. Open the Particle Basics panel and do this: It looks like black nothingness, but that is how transparent your smoke needs to be! The more transparent the better. As always, experiment with different styles. I used D8 (D6) for my smoke but you can try other soft edge particle styles. Be sure your smoke fades to black completely. Now your smoke should be shaping up nicely - if it is nice and transparent, drifting to the side and fading out smoothly, you've done everything correctly! 8. Either rename or save over your Pearl Comet. Submit a video showing multiple comets with drift smoke. I hope I didn't lose anyone with this lesson - it is the harder of the Basics tutorials, but oh so essential to designing beautiful, realistic fireworks. Next Lesson: Lesson 3C - Launch Sparks

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 3A – Die-Off EmitterIt sounds like a morbid lesson, but it isn't I promise! With ProColor, you probably noticed that when the effect finishes, it ends a bit ragged. You've made convincing glow and movement - now lesson 3 is all about refinement. The die-off emitter is an addition to ProColor that caps off the death of the firework naturally. If you look carefully at the end of the effect, you'll see a subtle flash and recession of the star - that is the job of the die-off emitter. It cleans up everything in a tidy package. 1. Open your ATPA Pearl Comet lesson file, we will be using this firework to apply the refinement techniques. To create a die-off emitter, you are copying two of the 3 ProColor properties - Inner Glow and Core. So add a child emitter from your Outer Glow. Then add another one off of that. Your emitter map should look like this: Your die-off emitters should follow closely underneath your ProColor emitters. 2. Click on the first die-off emitter and select the Emitter Rate panel. Add a particle and set the Start Time to 0.85 and the End Time to 0.85. This ensures that the die-off emitter begins at the end of the firework's life and not the beginning. By setting the Start and End Time the same, this also ensures that there is one single moment when the emitter is activated. If you do not set it at the same time, you end up with a range of moments when the particles generate. 3. Open the Particle Basics panel and refer back to the Inner Glow of your ProColor formula. You may have to experiment with sizes and brightness. I've found that you have to overcompensate a bit to get the die-off glow to appear more clearly. Here is an example of my die-off glow emitter. My ProColor is 3.00-2.00 seconds - so for the die-off, I had to increase the start size a bit. Experiment with it until you are satisfied. What is important about a die-off glow is that it ends in black and starts in black. 4. In the same emitter, open the Particle Motion panel. Refer back to the gravity you used on the comet itself and halve it. So for my effect, I use 0.40 gravity - for the die-off emitter, I use 0.20. This is because when the firework has expired, it has used all of its fuel and is significantly smaller, weaker, and more prone to be affected by wind. The last remnants of the firework aren't going to fall as quickly. 5. Click the core die-off emitter and add a particle to the Emitter Rate panel. You will not need to set the start time because the core is a child of the die-off glow. Select the Particle Life panel and increase the life around 1.50 seconds. The core's lifetime must be longer than the glow's - you want to see the core die off very last because that is the final remnant of the firework. 6. Open the Particle Basics panel and refer back to your ProColor core style. Again, you may need to increase sizes and experiment to get the best look. One thing you must do though, is change the End Size to 0.00 - that terminates the core. My original ProColor core style was 0.70-0.50 7. Open the Particle Motion panel and set the same gravity you set for the glow. 8. Rename effect or save over existing Pearl Comet - Submit a video to be graded. And that is how you create a 'die-off' emitter! This simple little feature gives your effects a lovely crisp finish. Next Lesson: Lesson 3B - Drift Smoke

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 2 – MinesMines are much like the pearl comets we just made, the only thing that's different is that a mine sends a bunch of comets into the air at the same time. Since we didn't set up the previous lesson to accommodate for this effect (purposely) we'll need to remake the effect from scratch. This should test your ability to recreate the glow from the pearl comet on this effect. (I hope you saved your formula!) 1. Start a new effect, set the control to around 3.00 seconds and add an emitter to the control. We used to consider this emitter the 'launch emitter' but now we're going call it a battery emitter. Ignore what this means for now, it will become more important in Lesson 5. 2. Add a particle to the Emitter Rate panel - set the speed to .01 in the Emitter Speed panel. Why? For some reason (that no one has been able to logically decipher) for all particles to shoot upward in a simultaneous movement, the emitter(s) before the launch has to have a minimum speed of .01 to direct the particle in an upward direction. If you do not do this, half of the particles will shoot upward and half will shoot in random directions. Set the lifetime to .05 and make the particle invisible by reducing the particle size to 0.00 for Start and End time. 3. Add a new emitter after the barrage emitter - this will now be our launch emitter. Add about 20 particles to it and increase the lifetime between 2.00 and 3.00 seconds. Apply the same physics you created for the pearl comet - my cocktail is 1.40/.40 (drag/grav). Now open the Emitter Speed panel and play with speed, sphere and circle until you achieve a nice upward burst. If this looks similar to what you have, then you're on the right track - as long as the particles are moving in an upward grouping all at once, you're good. Apply some randomness to the lifetime of the launch emitter - I use around 15%. 4. Now apply your ProColor formula starting with the launch emitter. What was once the launch emitter is now the Outer Glow of your ProColor formula: Control > Battery > Outer Glow (formally launch) > Inner Glow > Core 5. Save your effect (don't forget .frw!) and post a video with multiple mines (all different colors) for submission. And that's a very basic mine! If you have any questions or if anything in this tutorial is unclear, feel free to ask your questions here. Next Lesson: Lesson 3A - Die-Off Emitter

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 1C –Pearl CometWe are finally on to a real firework! *yay* The Pearl Comet is the easiest firework to make. It is quite simply, a ball of fire projected into the air. So in this lesson, we will apply our new glow style to particle movement and introduce physics to give the firework a realistic launch. Here is a preview of what we're going to do. You may notice the core is lagging a bit behind - don't worry, we will fix this in later lessons. 1. Create a new firework and add another emitter to the control. This new emitter will be our launch. Because this is a comet and it has no second stage, additional emitters are not needed. 2. Set the control to 3.00 seconds. Set the emitter's life to 2.75 seconds and add 1 particle to the emitter. Go to the Emitter Speed panel and experiment with different speeds for different heights. We will apply physics soon, but just get an idea of how high you want the comet to launch. If you want to add some realism, add a little bit of sphere to randomize the launch pattern. 3. Go to the Particle Motion panel and apply some drag (degree of resistance) and gravity (degree of downforce). Drag should be anywhere between 1.40 and 2.00. Gravity should be anywhere between 0.30 and 0.60. My formula for drag/grav is 1.40/0.40. Once you find a formula you like, go back to the Emitter Speed panel and adjust it accordingly (if needed). The drag should have reduced the flight path of the comet - fix that so that the original launch height is restored. 4. Now apply your formula for ProColor - starting with the launch emitter as your Outer Glow, add 2 more emitters for Inner Glow and Core: I changed the labels on these to show the difference in particle characteristic. C is the control emitter. 1 used to be the launch emitter, now it's both the launch and the Outer Glow of your ProColor. 2 is Inner Glow. 3 is Core. You may notice that your Inner Glow is a little strong - since your formula for ProColor was designed for a 10 second interval, the 200 particles used in Inner Glow might be way too much. Experiment with lowering the particle count - for a 2.75 second effect, 80 particles might work better. If you're unfamiliar with ProColor, I suggest referencing Lesson 1B - ProColor. http://forums.vpyro....on-1b-procolor/ https://parkcrafters.com/topic/1623-atpa-lesson-1b-pro-color/ 5. Now that you have a pretty good looking comet, it's time to apply some randomness. Open the launch emitter (1 in the diagram) and select the Particle Life panel. Right now the life is set at 2.75 seconds, but the random is set at 0%. Let's give it about a 25% random factor (0.25) - this means that it may go as much as 25% over or under 2.75 seconds. This helps your effects from looking like a rigid particle engine. Experiment with randomness - it can provide many different effects. 6. Name your firework, save and close! Submit a video with multiple comet colors. See? I told you this one was easy! Next Lesson: Lesson 2 - Mines

DISCLAIMER: The ATPA Lessons are a self-service pyro academy from the days of vPyro. I saved the lessons from the academy back in 2011 before the site went down for good, and feel that they should be accessible again, not just as a historical record of what was, but also for new pyromaniacs to learn the ropes in the same way that many of us did so many years ago. Because of their age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated. In the name of history, I wish to preserve these lessons as they are, but as a recognition of how out-dated some of the advice can be, I will strikethrough and italicize the text of any information that should be ignored. If you run into questions or issues, leave a reply. Also, the lessons ask for you to submit a video of your progress. Feel free to reply to the lessons with your submissions! Some of us old vPyro vets would love to see and comment on your progress and creations. 😊 - StickyGum32 1B – Pro ColorThis lesson is another one of those lessons that isn't terribly exciting, however, it is absolutely crucial that you complete this and understand the concepts in here. ProColor is the characteristic that makes pyro feel like it's burning. Without it, your effects will feel flat and lifeless. In addition, this lesson will touch on other important features of the AFE and will give you an idea of how to construct a specific glow style. This is the intended end result. PROCOLOR THEORYProColor derives from a standard of pyro design that breaks stars (the colored part of fireworks) into components. This model illustrates the components of ProColor: Core - a flickering white particle that simulates a burning star. Inner Glow - a flickering colored particle that simulates light being emitted from the burning core. Outer Glow - a steady particle that simulates overall glow being emitted from the burning core. Early ProColor was only two components - core and glow - but you will see in this following video that it lacks dimension and depth. Even with Advanced ProColor there is some refinement to be done (and we will do that in later lessons), but it is a lot deeper and richer than any other type of glow. And it is important to know how to build a star using this system before we tackle any sort of pyro design. Stars are the basis for all pyro and once you have your own specific style template, you can construct any effect. THE AFE PARTICLE STYLE SHEETRCT3 Vanilla: RCT3 Expansions: Editors Note: Expansion particles in this and future lessons are referenced with parentheses, such that D3 and (A10) are the same flame particle between the two sheets above. If you haven't seen this matrix yet, open up the Particle Basics window in the AFE and click this: This is the particle style sheet where you will assign 'personality' to your particles. It may seems daunting at first, but this window will be your best friend in a matter of no time. I've marked this window with alphanumeric indicators so that it's easier to reference. For instance, if I want you to choose a soft, round particle shape, I would refer to C9 or D4 (D1 or C7). To really see the difference between particles, play around with this window when you get a chance. The best way to make a firework your own is to experiment with different particle styles. COLOR MODIFIERThis checkbox also located within the Particle Basics window is irreplaceable. Color modifier will allow you to change the color within the mixmaster for your shells without having to design 6 differently colored fireworks. When you design an effect or in our case, a glow, that uses color modifier you need to color your particles with a neutral gray so that when the modifier is selected, your fireworks can be tinted any hue (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple and everything in between). There are times when you won't want to use color modifier, but for ProColor, this is an important tool. CREATING A GLOWNow we're going to apply all of that theory above. 1. Open the AFE and create a new firework. You'll notice on this emitter it doesn't have all of the options that are available on future emitters. That is because this emitter is the control for two things - lifetime and default color. Setting the lifetime in this emitter will decide how long the effect lasts in the mixmaster time line. 2. Set the lifetime of the first emitter to 10 seconds. Very few stars will ever be 10 seconds long (if any) but it allows enough time for you to see the effect completely before it refreshes. 3. Now add 2 more emitters to the first. They should look like this: The first emitter is your overall lifetime control. The second emitter is typically your 'launch'. The third emitter will act as your 'launch stop' - which signifies the end of the launch and the beginning of the burst. In this case, we're building a stand for you to craft your glow from without it sinking halfway in the ground. When you start designing real pyro, this emitter combination might be a little different. But the basic elements remain - Control, Launch, Launch Stop. 4. Click the second emitter and add one particle (in Emitter Rate). Set the speed to 50 (in Emitter Speed). Set the lifetime to .05 (in Particle Life). 5. Click on the third emitter and add one particle - set the Start time to 1.00. Set the lifetime to .05. Set the parent controls (Emitter Speed) to 0.00. Now you should have a quick blip of a white particle every 10 seconds. 6. If everything is good so far, go back to the second emitter and make the particle invisible by setting its sizes to 0 (in Particle Basics). Do the same for the third emitter. Now nothing should be showing. 7. Add 3 more emitters so that the total comes to 6. These are the emitters that are going to control the ProColor: The fourth emitter will act as the Outer Glow, the fifth as the Inner Glow, and the sixth as the Core. Why Backwards? You may have noticed that this is constructed opposite the ProColor diagram (Core > Inner Glow > Outer Glow). This is true for a very important reason. When you start using these stars for your pyro, they are going to have a lot of physics applied to them, and they are going to want to rip apart from each other (they are 3 independently functioning emitters). If your glow starts to separate from your core, the illusion of a cohesive star is lost. So by constructing ProColor backwards, you save yourself from having to apply multiple versions of the same physics for each emitter. You will see soon how this works to your advantage. 8. Click on the fourth emitter and add one particle. Set the lifetime to 10 seconds (to match the lifetime of the entire effect) 9. Click on the fifth emitter and add 200 particles. Set the lifetime to .15 seconds. This will ensure that when you do start using these stars in moving pyro, that the refresh rate of .15 seconds will keep the inner glow with its outer glow. Thus, the glows stick together and the illusion is created. 10. Click on the sixth emitter and add one particle. Set the lifetime to .10 seconds. 11. Now the fun begins. (EXPANSION PARTICLE STYLES - D9, D8 & D10) This is my template for this lesson of ProColor glow - it doesn't have to be followed, but it makes a good starting point. The important things to know are: - Outer Glow needs to be BIG and dim. - Inner Glow shouldn't exceed 5.00 size and must be dim - there are 200 particles refreshing on top of one another and if you make the glow too bright, you lose the depth. - The more randomness you apply to the size, the more intense the flicker. - Core should be large enough to see - .55 is a nice base number. - Remember to use the color modifier appropriately, you need to color your particles gray. - Do not use the color modifier on your core. - EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT EXPERIMENT - play with all of the particle styles and mix and match. My combination is not the only combination. 12. Once you have a style that you are happy with - WRITE IT DOWN starting from the 4th emitter (You only need Emitter Rate, Particle Life & Particle Basics). The template above was once on a piece of paper written in pencil, but I spared you the awful chicken-scratch for the easier to access digital version. It does sound silly to ask you to write your formula out, but it's extremely important if you want to keep a consistent style throughout your pyro. We're going to be using these stars for every lesson on, so get used to your formula. 13. Once you have written out your formula for your own safekeeping, give your ProColor template a name by typing one out in the name box. Then save your file - (replace MyGame.dat with your template name) remember that you MUST have .frw at the end of your filename for the game to recognize it as a firework. 14. For submission, create a video with 3 copies of the same stars showing multiple colors to prove that your ProColor works with the color modifier. And that's ProColor! This was a fairly dry lesson I know, but an essential one that will impact everything you do from here on out. If you can master a beautiful ProColor, you can create some stunning effects right out of the academy. Next Lesson: Lesson 1C - Pearl Comet