Tutorial 6.3

Using pre-made particle effects

Introduction

This tutorial shows how you can use the included scripting commands to make use of pre-made particle effects like smoke or explosions.

Start With a Sample File

For this tutorial, we'll start with a project file that's almost finished. It's named "Tutorial 6.3" and it's located in the "Tutorials/6 - Effects" subfolder within the main Moho folder. Open this file in Moho, expand the "Rocket Group" layer in the Layers window, and you should see something like this:

Starting point for this tutorial.

Try playing back the animation to see what we're starting with - it's just a simple animation of a rocket flying around the screen for a little while. When you've seen enough, rewind the animation back to frame 0.

Add the Smoke Effect

Now we'll add a smoke trail behind the rocket. Select the Scripts->Particle Effects->Smoke... menu command. A dialog will appear asking you to customize the smoke effect. Use the settings shown below for the smoke and click OK:

Smoke settings.

The smoke script will then generate a bunch of layers that make up the smoke effect. The combined layers will end up grouped together in a group layer called "Smoke". Move this new Smoke layer into the "Rocket Group" layer, just below the "Rocket" layer. The Smoke layer should end up positioned like this:

Smoke layer added to group.

Translate Layer

The final step is to move the smoke into place. Activate the Translate Layer tool and move the Smoke layer so that it sits just behind the rocket. The smoke itself won't immediately move until the animation is updated, so watch the origin of the Smoke layer and line it up behind the rocket. Feel free to zoom in close to get a better view:

Smoke layer moved into position.

That's it! You can now export the animation as a movie file to see the fully rendered result. Some of the particle effects in the script menu, including smoke, can take a long time to render. In the next tutorial, we'll show you a way to speed up complex particle effects.

The final result.

Another Effect - Sparkles

Here's an example of another particle effect - the Sparkles script. A great use of this effect is for magic wands. The fully finished file can be opened in Moho if you wish. It's called "Tutorial 6.3_2". Here's what the rendered result looks like:

The Sparkles effect.