Tutorial: Page (3) of 4 - 09/23/05

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12.  Create a New Layer by pressing Command+Y on the Mac or Control+Y on the PC.  Name this layer Green Particles.

13.  With the Red Particles layer selected, press the E key on your keyboard to display the effects for the layer in the Timeline.  Select the CC Particle World effect and press Command+C on the Mac or Control+C on the PC to copy the effect.

14.  Select the Green Particles layer in the Timeline, then press Command+V on the Mac or Control+V on the PC to paste the particle effect to this layer.

15.  Double click the CC Particle World effect for the Green Particles layer to open the Effect Controls Panel.  Lower the Birthrate to 3.0 and the Longevity to .4.  Under the Producer property, change the X radius to .4.  Finally, under the Particle property change the Birth and Death colors to green.

In this exercise the green particles will serve as the entry point for light passing through heat ripple, while the red particles will serve as the exit point for light entering the ?world? behind ripple.

16.  The particles are a little too sharp to make a convincing effect.  Create an Adjustment Layer in the Timeline (Layer>New>Adjustment Layer).  Any effect applied to an adjustment layer will affect all layers beneath it.

17.  With the Adjustment Layer selected in the Timeline, select Effect>Blur & Sharpen> Fast Blur.  In the Effect Controls Panel increase the Blurriness to 5 pixels.  This softens the particles.

18.  In order to use these multiple layers they need to be combined.  This can be done with a nested composition.  Select the Adjustment, Green Particles, and Red Particles layer and press Command+Shift+C on the Mac or Control+Shift+C on the PC to Pre-Compose the layers.  Name the New Composition Heat Wave, and make sure the Move All Attributes to New Composition is checked, then click OK.

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