Dissolve Animation

Welcome back, everyone! Hope you've been enjoying the week! Last day of February! Can you believe that?! Time flies by so quickly. Everything's been hectic lately so, I never really looked at the date until today. Anywho, today I have brought forth a new Blender project *drum roll* DISSOLVING ANIMATION! Wooo, we're levelling up, guys!

Random Interview #10356738-8329130

Jim: Good Morning Everyone, this'll be a quick interview because I got a life to get back to at 10. And for today, we have with us, Ms.Jackie. . . Once again.

Jackie: Gosh, Jim! Such a Debbie-Downer today! Lighten up, things could be worse!

Jim: Oh, things are, Jackie! I recently came back from a special interviewer's competition, and well, someone who wasn't worthy enough won. You could tell it was completely rigged, especially because he won all the other awards! He had notes up his sleeve, he was monotonous, and he OBVIOUSLY scripted out his supposed "spontaneous" interview. Gosh, the judges never even followed the scoring criteria! Is this who we're sending to represent us at the Nationals?! Man, he's going to humiliate us by getting last place again. 

Jackie: I feel ya, Jim. Why don't you make an appeal? Don't you have buddies to back you up?

Jim: Course, I do! But I have to run it through my managers. *Coughs nervously* Alright, let's get back to this interview. So, could you please explain the following commands: Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text, Emission, Emission Number, Lifetime, Particles System, Dupli Object, Force Field, Turbulence, Short-cut key I.

Jackie: Sure, Jim!
Mesh from Curve/Meta/Surf/Text:  This basically changed the object's mesh to the text format, so we could manipulate the letters as text, and not 3D shapes.

Emission: I used this to make the light source stronger.

Emission Number: The Emission Number adds or subtracts the number of particles you want in your animation. 

Lifetime: Sets how long the particles will be present.

Particles System: This is the sparkly button! In Particles System, we could manipulate the fps, how many particles we want, where the particles went to, how long they stayed for, and many more! Everything about Particles, yay!

Dupli Object: When we selected this, the object wouldn't be rendered as a cube, but smoother.

Force Field: Force fields are external forces that give dynamic systems motion.

Turbulence: This makes the particles move smoother during the animation

Short-cut key I: This sets the key frames and a bunch of other important frames you want/need.

Jim: Next Q, why must you change the size of the particles to 0.001?

Jackie: That's towards the end. So, during the animation, the particles will look like they're slowly fading or dissolving away.

Jim: What's the importance of a timeline?

Jackie: The timeline holds all the key frames and organizes them. You can manipulate it so that certain things happen during a particular frame. If we didn't have a timeline, our animation would go berserk.

Jim: What's the difference between gravity and collision? Are there any similarities?

Jackie: Gravity controls how much the Global Gravity has an effect on the system. Collision prevents the particles from moving through the floor during the animation. They are somewhat similar, Jim. Both affect the outcome of the animation and how the particles will move.

Jim: And again, for our finale, how'd you feel about this project?

Jackie: Almost done, Jim!
Jim: Some people just want to see the world burn

Jim: It's finally over. . .
Jackie: Optimism is key, Jim

Jackie: Well, you need to be patient because the rendering is taking suuuuch a loooong time! I'm still rendering as we speak. Overall, this project was easier than both the Soccer Ball and the Cloth Napkin. Looking back, the Cloth Napkin was such a hassle! This project was fairly easy, I swear to you Jim. You just need to know where to set the key frames and like, you need to have a LOT of time on your hands!

Jim: Nice. I'll try this project out to get my mind off of everything. This better not frustrate me!

Jackie: It won't! . . . Probably.

See you later, everyone!