Before I get to the subject, allow me to clarify what I am doing and why I need a 3D particle emitter of some kind.

Goal/Project/Dream

Creating an inspirational (not religious) short film/music video in which I will be using NASA World Wind and Celestia** as part of the main narrative thread techniques -- planetary fly-throughs and images of the Earth.  Interspersed with that will be still and footage of real people, places, events. 

** (If you don't know what those two programs are, think Google Earth without copyright restrictions since they are freeware and public domain.  Both are based on NASA's extensive "Blue Marble" Earth imagery.)

Being a musician/composer with a Korg Trinity workstation and a now upgraded Steinberg Cubase SX3, I'll be writing and creating all the music for this too.  So I got my work cut out - lol.

Signature Effect, Upgraded

Since I was in art school over two decades ago I used airbrush to make glows, sparkles, and the like, and it became a form of specialty or signature.  Then I progressed into digital photography/art and naturally that signature style came along with me.

Now I'm getting deeper into video using an NLE program.  No, no fancy and expensive Maya, AE, etc.  I have Vegas 6, which ain't trash, but it was the only decent NLE I could afford.  (I have a very old version of AE (3.1) but never got into it very much for it was hard to use.  And now, it's basically obsolete.) 

Yah, the above screenshot is from a particular sequence from a draft mock-up and all effects are done "by hand" the old fashioned way (using stills, 3D Alpha track motion, etc.) 

But I need easier and more tweakable ways to pull of what I envision.  What you see above wasn't done with Bezier curves or circular motions.  I could find workarounds, but it would take way, way too long.

Enter particle emitters. 

And since I do things "by hand," it hints at the fact that I'm not a studio or company.  Which brings me to the...

Overall Situation, Inner and Outer

I have been living on a limited disability income for the last 14 years and recently sank most of my non-emergency savings into building a new Pentium D system, upgrading and purchasing software.  

My disability is a form of anxiety condition and so I cannot overdo trying to do or learn too many things, i.e. programs of which I would only use one limited part.

I've looked into what software could do what I would like, and most of the ones listed here at Renderosity are industry standards, and therefore either too expensive, or plugins for progs I don't have.

I don't need nor could I brain-wise handle having to deal with a full blown 3D program.  I just need some way to make really nice subtle and awesome glowing mists, stars, etc.  that will be entering scenes and flying around people and places, etc. in my film.

So far, WonderTouch's ParticleIllusion 3 SE is the only thing I might be able to afford ($99).

Being the "SE" version, it has limitations, one being only one layer on which one can work.  (The regular ParticleIllusion is 4 times more expensive, but no layer limits and obviously full of other features the SE doesn't have.)

I'm considering the SE since it seems so far the only thing out there in my price range with plenty enough of libraries to custom created some nice stuff, but what bugs me is that I have found next to nil reviews on it.

That bothers me because I always do almost compulsively overboard research on things before I consider buying them.  No or slim, reviews, I tend to walk the other way.  (Better be wise, than sorry :)

One long-winded post, but at least now you know what goals and my situation are, thus avoiding suggestions out of my financial and what-I-can-handle or actually need range.  So the obvious question is...

Q:  What other affordable options do I have other than Particle Illusion 3 SE?

Thanks.

~ Soniclight/a.k.a. Philip

I'm new here as far as posting (the above is my first one.  I contacted nemirc (this forum's moderator), but he's probably out of town or busy, so maybe someone else could answer help out here:

--- I found typos and a couple of things I'd like to change a while after I did my final publish.   Even though the forum states "You are a site member. You can post and reply to threads. You can edit and delete your posts," I see no such option (be IE or Firefox). 

I'm not new at BBS boards, I'm even a moderator at one and am used to phpBB.  The only options I see here at this point are:

Back to Top [quote] [print] [save]  and [top] [reply] [unsubscribe] [print] [save]

The delete/edit only seems to be up for a short while right after a post is put up, then disappears.  What am I missing here?

Attached Link: Wax 2.0

I've attached a link to a particle video editor/partical generator called Wax, since its free, it might be worth a look if nothing else, right? I've used Wax as a video editor, and liked it, its not quite AfterEffects, but it gets the job done all the same. I've never gotten into the particles element of it, but from a glance over it looks fairly solid. Might get the job done for ya. I hope this can be of some help to ya.

If you do get to using it, and have any questions I'd be willing to help you as best I can. [I'm by no means an expert with the program but I do have a bit of exprience with it].

Thanks for reply on both topics.  I already have Wax (I had gotten it for other features) since it plugs into Sony Vegas.  I need something far more intuitive and subtle to powerful in terms of particles.  I keep Googling around for older or cheaper newer particle emitters and feel I'm going nowhere. 

Except towards ParticleIllusion SE.  Seems like it's my only affordable option.

Ah, yeah, I forgot Wax plugs in to Vegas. I hadn't realized there was such a thing as partical speacilist programs, I'm use to particles in 3d apps. I wish you the best of luck in your search.

Not being much of an expert on Particle Emitters myself...tho I play around a bit and find Particle Illusion SE sufficient for my basic needs,layers would be nice but the work around to that is to render to a lossless codec and then rerender over that.

So have you tried the demo ?

Wondertouch  also has a bunch of tutorials and a forum I might suggest you check them out but anyway for $99 there is quite alot you can do with it.

Thanks for replies.  As stated, looks like it's my best bet for my needs.  I have played around with the demo a bit, added all the online free emitter libraries, but would need to dig into it a bit more to get a better sense of it.

My background has been mainly in 2D, but I tend to think in 3D.  I just need to master the light- luminescence and particles stuff.   I'll leave the heavy duty and often awesome 3D modeling, etc. to others.