steps to install 1.13

1. unzip behaviours.zip into your vjo root folder - this will make a new folder behaviours

2. unzip bin.zip into the bin folder of your your vjo root folder

3. unzip plugins.zip into the plugins folder of your vjo root folder

4. unzip particlestorm.zip into the gallery folder of your vjo root folder - this is where you can find the demos for particle storm

4. unzip behavioursdemo.zip into the gallery folder of your vjo root folder - this is where you can find the demos for behaviours

5. You might need to add the behaviours and particle storm demos to your vjo gallery if it doesn't appear. just add existing folder when you right click on the vjo gallery system.



you can find particle storm in greenhippo/particles
you can find behaviours in hysteria development

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behaviours:
these are primitve movements, there are about 60 behaviours shipped for you.
basically select a behaviour, and through the vjo variable mess with the playhead - instant movement
the demos use sound parameters, so make sure you have something funky...


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particle storm:
what is particle storm?
currently it is a complete 3d shape designer.
the shape designer allow you to modify basic shapes with bends and twists.
each vertex (a 3d point in space) can have different draw modes (lines, sprites, etc).
you have live manipulation of the shape: position, scale, rotation, etc through the variables

what partile storm is not?
Particle storm does NOT emit any type of particle, this will appear later, but don't think that you are limited by this.

Particle storm is unfinished - you will not find any library, force or path load/save functions.

There is no help, but there are a whole load of demos for you to investigate.

These demos cover different areas, vertex animation, particle animation, shape maipulation, etc.

Use them as a starting point for your own ideas.


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tutorials:
start with a new fxc
add particle storm
the inputs should be: test pattern, paint bucket, paint bucket
you should now see a wireframe orb

save it as blob: this is your first particle storm (lets call it blob!).


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using blob we'll have a brief look at things you can do:
open the variables, you'll see there re lots, but they are grouped into three sections:
camera - this controls your camera in 3d, it initially looks at point 0,0,0 - the center of your world
vertex - this controls how your 3d shape is drawn to the screen
emitter - this is your 3d shape, you have controls over its position, rotation in your 3d world, also other controls to affect the actual 3d points of the shape (vertexes)
debug - turn this on so you can get visual help with things

first turn on the debug and play with both the camera and emitter variables, using these you will get a feel for how everything moves in 3d


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ok, reload blob
lets look at the draw modes
open the variables and select 'vertex draw method 1' and play. you will notices blob does odd things.
the draw modes are:
-1: don't draw
0: point
1: line
2: particle square
3: above with saturation
4: particle circle
5: above with saturation
6: 3d
7: above with saturation
8: particle sprite
9: above with saturation
10: particle brush sprite (uses the alpha channel and the input node colour)
11: above with saturation
12: line trailed from previous position
13: particle colour sprite (makes the input mono, then colours it with full alpha)
14: above with saturation

the sprite draw methods take the input from the last node
so drop a texture generator (with alpha), or flowerpower2 onto this node and try again
like particle soup, the input size is fixed at 256x256

you have two draw modes, so you can mix them together for more fun...

the particle modes all have a size that you can set through the variable (vertex particle size) and also the input nodes.


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ok, so now we know how to move the emitter and camera and pick vertex draw modes, lets look at some advanced emitter stuff

reload blob
in the emitter section are two sections: disperse and explode (x,y,z)
disperse take a vertex point and moves it to a random position - have a play, use camera yaw and pitch to get a feel for how it works
explode is very similar to disperse, except it is MUCH MUCH bigger and generally 'explodes' the vertex out from the center.

you will see that virtually every parameter has an x/y/z, this gives you great flexability. y=up/down x=left/right z=closer/away


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lets look at colour
reload bob
particle storm take its colour information from either node1 or node2, instead of the test pattern, drop a flowerpower or fire node (you will have to wait while the fire develops)

MAJOR TIP:
when using the input nodes it is best to use lower resolutions to speed tings up considerably - to do this drop a greenhippo/misc/smooth as the final node
open the smooth and select: scale 1:4 and turn OFF interpolation

you should see blob changing colour - try it with different draw modes...


ALL particle storm 3d shapes are based on a grid (even the spheres), the input nodes are automatically mapped onto this grid

you should now have a basic feeling for how particle storm operates - if you answer yes, then continue, if you are still in the dark, then reread the above and play some more wih the variables...


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getting down and dirty with storm

reload blob
doublelcick the particle storm to open the config dialog - BIIIG isnt it?

so we now have two main section, on the left a tabbed area with library, emitter, particles, forces and the right with a nice 3d display of our orb
the right display also has lots of icons these are:
top right: 4 view modes: 3d, top, left, front
turn on/off the grid
turn on/off the lines
3 camera controls - these are live click in the 3d display and move the view will move
camera rotate
camera roll
camera zoom
camera reset - to get you back to the start

bottom left: 2 resets
reset all - this will reset ALL your modifiers
reset - reset the current x,y,z modifer

bottom row: these are you 3d shape modifiers, you can use these to completely mangle a helpless 3d shape into submission

the order the modifiers appear is the order they are applied:
left to right-
move vertex, rotate vertex, scale vertex
disperse
scale, scale, shrink, shear, shear, bend, twist
move object, rotate object, scale object

lets mangle the sphere
press the third button (scale), you will see thee axis arms appear on the shape, these each end in a blob. red=x, green=y, yellow=z, there is also a grey centre blob that may or may not control multiple axis

using your mouse, hover over the green blob, press the mouse button and move - you are now squashing (scalling) the object in the y axis - simple isn't it?

got confused, got lost, then press reset or reset all to start again

you should now have a squashed sphere? if not, reset all, select scale and squash it NOW!

select the twist icon (forth from last on the bottom), and twist the red blob - who's mangled my sphere?

click ok

NOW do you see the power of storm? play again with your draw modes, maybey link camera yaw to a sine or better still a saw waveform?


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sod the sphere, I want a grid!

reload blob
click the emitter tab - ooooooo, lots to play with, none of it makes any sense....

3d emitters come in 5 types:
point - this is a single vertex point
grid patch, this is a flat grid
sphere patch, this is a sphere object or part of a sphere
loft path - this is a user defined path stretched in one axis
sweep path, this is a user defined path rotated around the centre point (bottles, glasses, balls, tubes, torus, etc)

ok, just select each of the 5 emitter types and watch the variables below, you can see that each type has different (but in some ways related) variables?

select grid patch
in the two secions play with both the width sliders (use ctrl for fine control)
the amount parameters will add more vertex points to the shape!
BEWARE, the more vertexes you have, the more processing and memory you will require (storm will not stop you from HUGE vertex counts, just warn you)
use the following settings:
vertical amount=2, width=73
horizontal amount=40, width=40

you should now have a nice ribbon?
play with the bend and twist modifiers - look mom: a snake!

press reset all
press ok and save blob as ribbon


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more than one shape?

reload ribbon, open storm, emitter tab

at the bottom you will find the duplicate section, this allows you to duplicate the shape so that there are more than one
select copies=1
and play with the depth
select copies=3, depth=0 - it look like nothing has happened, play with the rotate below to see something interesting

tip: select depth=0, y axis, horizontal sections centre=off to rotate grids around the center


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sphere patches

sphere patches are based on a sphere. you decide how much of the sphere to use.
click sphere patch
vertical amount=21, start=39, end=91
horizontal amount=10, angle=53

the angle is how far the patch is rotated round the sphere

in the vertical section:
start has NO function when center sections is ON
start is where abouts the patch starts from the top, 0=top, 90=center, 180=bottom
end is how far from the start the end is.

set center sections to off
end=50
start=0
play with the start
end=90
play with the start

set center sections to on
the start is now automatically calculated, the end being the total height
play with the end

you now know how to make sphere patches and how they fit together

tip:
use duplicates for more fun
copies=2
depth=0
rotate=120
yaxis

this will do 3 copies nicely rotated for you
-depths will scale down +depths will scale up!

using the duplicate controls you can now have complex 3d shapes with virtually no 3d experience. just simple fun!


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lofts and sweeps
I'm not going to go into the actual loft and sweep parameters as they follow both the grid and sphere patches closely.
what I will do is look at the actual path mechanisms.

by default, the path is a sort of basic glass shape

load blob, emitter, loft path
now press 'edit path'

the main 3d window has now become a 2d path edit window
here are the buttons:
top left:
front, side top view buttons

select - click and draw a box, every vertex in the box is selected
pen - add vertex to the end of the current path - move, click to add point
divide selected line (goes red) in two (add point)
remove points - draw selection box, when over selected point they turn green. either delete, or click to delete

zoom display
move selected points
x,y scale selected points
x scale selected points
y scale selected points

delete path

snapping on+ 4 snapping modes. this allows you to snap to 4 grid sizes

You shouldn't need much more details about how to use this as it is relatively simple?


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Particle tab...

althought Storm doesn't currently emit particles, it does use them on it's vertexes, and there are a number of ways to alter this.

lets look at the four sections:
1. Vertex controls
the colour that storm uses to colour the particles/lines, etc usually comes from the RGB channel of node 1.
but you can also decide to use node 2 RGB instead?

this then goes further:
you can directly control the individual vertex particle size from the input RGBA channel of your choosing...

also you can decide if a vertex point is active (active vertexes are drawn, inactive ones aren't)
you also have a global control to decide the cutoff where the node becomes active!

using these controls, extreamly comples effects can be gained with very little overhead or trouble...

the second node will ONLY become active if it is being used!


2. Vertex Displacement
like the emitter displacement (used in the variables), you can use one of the ARGB channels to control vertex displacement.
you have both input nodes and ARGB of each to map.

the second node will ONLY become active if it is being used!


3. Particle input node
when you use the particle input, the node is sampled and frozen (unless you are using it as a live input).
when a node is frozen, Storm can make a copy of this node and rotate it 90 degrees (partial) or 90 degrees and flip it (full), giving 4 or 8 extra variations. this is usefull of you are using a smoke particle for added random look

alternatively, you can choose to rotate the frozen input by a set amount


4. input node texture mapping
by default the 3d shapes are mapped to a grid, when you use duplicate, the duplicate use this grid.
if you are using dupblicate you might want the input texture to be mapped as one grid acroos all the duplicates.
you have three options:
normal - each duplicate has the same mapping
horizontal - the texture is mapped across all the duplicates x axis as one texture
vertical - the texture is mapped across all the duplicates y axis as one texture






















