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age, the videos included with the academy are of a lackluster quality, and some of the information in these lessons is outdated.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

8 – Willows

Willows 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 WILLOW

Waterfall 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 WILLOW

Classic 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

Edited April 22Apr 22 by StickyGum32