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Using Advanced Particles to Create Fireworks in Maya

by Stephen Sayer

In this series of tutorials, we will go beyond the usual basics of emitting bursts or trails of particles and create full-blown fireworks.

What you'll learn

In this series of tutorials, we will go beyond the usual basics of emitting bursts or trails of particles and create full-blown fireworks. We will start by using the 'emit' command to give us extra control over how particles are emitted. We will see how it is possible to use both ramps and expressions to achieve certain effects, like sparkling or flashing particles. We will make extensive use of particle expressions, including some basic vector math and the 'rot()' function, to achieve complex behaviors such as ring-shaped emission and tightly-spiralling motion. By the end of this course, you will have everything you need to create complex, exciting, and dynamic fireworks.

About the author

Stephen Sayer is a visual effects artist from Toronto, Canada. He works in the dynamics department at Soho VFX, a studio specializing in photo-realistic visual effects for film and television. Before joining the team at Soho, he worked on contract for various other studios in the city, and for his own CG animation and illustration company. Though he originally studied Classical Animation at Sheridan College, Steve always knew his future was in 3D. He learned Maya independently while working as a... more

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