ATPA 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age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated.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

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)

Edited April 22Apr 22 by StickyGum32