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The pRender node
pRender Node Introduction
The pRender node converts the particle system to either an image or geometry. The default is a 3D particle system, which must be connected to a Renderer 3D to produce an image. This allows the particles to be integrated with other elements in a 3D scene before they are rendered.
Inputs
The pRender node has one orange input, a green camera input, and a blue effects mask input. Like most particle nodes, this orange input accepts only other particle nodes. A green bitmap or mesh input appears on the node when you set the Region menu in the Region tab to either Bitmap or Mesh.
— Input: The orange input takes the output of other particle nodes.
— Camera Input: The optional green camera input accepts a camera node directly or a 3D scene with a camera connected that is used to frame the particles during rendering.
— Effect Mask: The optional blue input expects a mask shape created by polylines, basic primitive shapes, paint strokes, or bitmaps from other tools. Connecting a mask to this input for 2D particles crops the output of the particles so they are seen only within the mask.
Basic Node Setup
The pRender node is always placed at the end of a particle branch. If the pRender is set to 2D, then the output connects to other 2D nodes like a Merge node. If the pRender is set to 3D, the output connects to a 3D node like a Merge 3D.
All particle branches end with a pRender node.
Inspector
The pRender controls
While the pRender defaults to 3D output, it can be made to render a 2D image instead. This is done with the 3D and 2D buttons on the Output Mode control. If the pRender is not connected to a 3D-only or 2D-only node, you can also switch it by selecting View > 2D Viewer from the viewer’s pop-up menu.
In 3D mode, the only controls in the pRender node that have any effect at all are Restart, Pre-Roll and Automatic Pre-Roll, Sub-Frame Calculation Accuracy, and Pre-Generate frames. The remaining controls affect 2D particle renders only. The pRender node also has a Camera input on the node tree that allows the connection of a Camera 3D node. This can be used in both 2D and 3D modes to allow control of the viewpoint used to render an output image.
When the pRender node is selected in a node tree, all the onscreen controls from Particle nodes connected to it are presented in the viewers. This provides a fast, easy-to-modify overview of the forces applied to the particle system as a whole.
Particle nodes generally need to know the position of each particle on the last frame before they can calculate the effect of the forces applied to them on the current frame. This makes changing current time manually by anything but single frame intervals likely to produce an inaccurate image.