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The
Animation Menu - just Create it!
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Assuming you now have the image loaded in the Main image buffer and one
or more alpha selection masks stored and ready, let's now create an
animation.
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Simly select the menu item:
Animation
> Create...
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PD Pro 4 lets you choose how many frames you want, and shows you how
much memory will be needed vs. how much is available. That's in terms
of physical memory (RAM) but you may actually have more memory
available on your system in form of virtual memory (swapspace based on
the size of the swapfile, either static or dynamically managed by
Windows).
Make sure that the Initialize option is set to copy the current frame
(into each newly created frame).
Then click OK.
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The
Timeline Editor - Filters Galore
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Launch the Timeline editor also from the Animation menu
In the Timeline editor, you'll find a list of filters along the left
edge below the preview thumbnail image.
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They are organized by groups, similar to the filters from the Filter
menu (which apply to just the single, current image in the Main image
buffer).
Scroll down to the bottom of the filters list. Find the group named
'Animated', which contains several animated filters, including the
Snowfall filter.
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Select the Snowfall filter
from the Animated group
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We will first focus
on the type of snow flakes that are falling far away. We should have
the mask selected which enabled the background sky far away. The nearby
hills and house and trees should be protected from these snowflakes.
The snowfall will appear to be made of small flakes. It also will not
be very bightly lit, dimming into the atmospheric blur or greyish fog
tint.
 First
off , there will be lots of these snow flakes. Increase the Snowfall
value to the max.
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 The Velocity affects the vertical
drop of their motion. If it's too fast it'll look like rain or heavy,
wet snow. Plus, if it's meant to be for flakes far away, they should go
slow.
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 The Wind speed blows the particles
sideways, left or right (o is in the middle). For a blizzard effect,
make it a high value. It combines with the Velocity. If that one is
small, the particles will go almost sideways.
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 There's a turbulence factor, great
for underwater bubbles or a few slow and nearby snow flurries. Keep it
minimal here.
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 The Size now: far way snowflakes?
those are small. Try a few, like 1 or 2, perhaps a few more at 3. You
can 'Render' a test and 'Undo' as needed.
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 Finally, the brightness. For the
storm far away, we might want to blend it into a bit of a grey. If too
bright it looks too close. (unless the sun is breaking and shining on
it)
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Voila - you're ready to let it snow, let it snow, and let it snow again
and again.
Click the 'Render' button in the lower-left corner on the Timeline.
Do it more than once if it's not dense enough.
Use Undo if it's too much snow, adjust the parameters and try again.
Make sure that the "Save undo" checkbox is checked if you wish to
retain the priviledge of undoing. If you don't, then Dogwaffle don't
temporarily save the prior frames while it's rendering. You then
couldn't undo. Of course, the only reason to do that might be speed: it
is a little faster if there's no saving to disk in PD Pro's temp cache
folder. Use this carefully though, and only if you're sure you know the
efefct is coming out the way you want it.
Regardless of whether you can undo: there is only one level of
animation that's saved for undoing. So, save often. (menu:
Animation>Save... or Save Sequence...)
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You should se a
progress bar during the rendering. You can cancel it too during that.
If you do be sure to click 'Undo' thereafter to restore the frames
which have already been changed.
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You can then scrub manually through the frames on the timeline, or
click the Play triangle button.
Dito on the normal animation toolbar of course.
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next: adding more snow in the middle and
foreground
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