Creating Custom Particle Graphics

CS Effects comes with a set of puff/particle graphics that are the basis for creating the various effects, for example, smoke and fire types. For the intermediate to advanced user, CS Effects lets you specify your own particle graphic and the system parameters can be applied to plumes or streams using that graphic.

This section describes how to inject your own graphic as the basis for a plume or stream. For example, you can make a special kind of smoke, or a water-from-a-hose pattern.

Important: You should be comfortable with the concept of Flash keyframes, and possibly movie clips, to read this section.

Creating a Custom Graphic

Typically, custom particle graphics will be PNG files that you create with image processing programs such as Adobe Photoshop. You can create a new graphic using any tool and save it as a PNG file. PNG is the preferred format because it has many levels of transparency, so if you want to make a particle graphic that is fuzzy and has smooth edges, you can gradually taper the transparency to the edge of the graphic. Describing how to create a semi-transparent PNG is beyond the scope of this document, but you should find help in those programs for making graphics with soft edges.

To give your particle stream some variety, we suggest you make a few different variations of your graphic, rather than a singleton. For example, we have made the following graphics to illustrate this process:

Creating a Movie Clip to Hold Your Graphics

Once you have made your graphics, you need to create a "movie clip" (a Flash concept) to hold your graphics. Open a new Flash document, and then choose Insert > New Symbol... from the menu. Enter a symbol name into the box, such as My Custom Particle, make sure the Type is set to Movie clip:

Click on the Advanced button, if it is displayed, and then your dialog box will look as follows:

In the section marked, Linkage, choose a "Linkage ID" that has no spaces (and write it down to remember it, you'll need it in a few moments), such as MyCustomParticle, then check the boxes marked Export for ActionScript, and finally Export in First Frame:

This prepares the symbol to be included in the Flash file. Press the OK button at top.

Flash now opens the Stage with crosshairs in the middle. At this point, you are "editing" the movie clip. You want to bring in the images you made, in a sequence of keyframes. Click File > Import to Stage, and go find your images:

and click on the first in the series. We recommend naming your graphics with a prefix then 1, 2, 3, etc. because Flash will detect the sequence (once you press Open), and ask you if you want to load the sequence:

We answer "YES", and then Flash brings in custom1.png, custom2.png, and custom3.png, each in their own keyframe:

You will see that the images have been loaded into successive keyframes. You may want to adjust the position of each image so it is aligned in the center of the movie clip (center of the crosshairs). The Align tool (Window > Align) is very useful for aligning the graphics to the center of the Stage. We have also added a label to each frame, so we can identify the particles in the plume.

When you are finished with your placement, you can close the movie clip by clicking on the Scene 1 button label:

Your graphics will not be on the Stage, but will be in the Flash Library. The last step is to tell CS Effects to use your movie clip from the Flash Library.

Specifying the Particle Movie Clip to CS Effects

If you don't have one there already, place an instance of CS Effects on the Stage and open the Component Inspector panel. Go to the EDIT pane of this panel.

and then to ALL SETTINGS, PARTICLE, and pull down the drop-down box to set CUSTOM:

Once you do this, the LINKAGE ID box appears:

Type in the name of the Linkage ID you assigned earlier. In our case, it was MyCustomParticle (note there are no spaces allowed).

Click on the TEST MOVIE button, and you should see the following:

Voila!

If you see an empty screen, you have probably mistyped the Linkage ID you set before. You can check the Linkage ID by opening the Flash Library (Window > Library) and then finding your movie clip from the list (My Custom Particle):

Right-click on the movie clip My Custom Particle and then select Linkage.... You will see a dialog box with the Linkage ID you set, and you should ensure there are no spaces in the name, and that the two check boxes are selected:

If you continue to have problems, try posting on the discussion board or contact us and we will try to help you.