I fixed the oversight. I made the tail cycle at 720 /Y axis but I left the body at 0.

jahnocli, good eye. I'll fix it.

I posted another clip with a particle layer. I tweaked the explosion from the SCRIPTS menu. It is still tough to understand but I'll keep learning about it. (It runs a tad long)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Law2aL7k3bw

slowtiger, I never heard of layer transfer modes. I'll look for them.
jonbo, you proved my point. Particle layers are complicated.
These are great insights.

(I know that the missile looks like a 'crayon' but that's an easier fix than an explosion).

I examined the explosion in SCRIPTS/PARTICLES and it still puzzles me. The render shows bright yellow to red flames but the vector layers only show 'flesh toned' colors. I see the opacity and soft edge effects but not color changes. What am I missing? sbtamu, did you make that explosion from an avi....

sbtamu, I'd like to know how that was done. I don't have a clear understanding of what an alpha channel is. I haven't joined facebook yet but I may do so in the near future.

Jonbo, I saw your demo. The particle layer is the most complicated layer IMO. I put it off for as long as I could. I could not tell what was going on in the "explosion" object in the library. I knew I needed help. What you said about vector shapes and clones is very helpful. I will start w...

My attempt to make a missle explode in space just doesn't work. I'd like to make a large rolling flame explosion but I don't understand how the sample in the ASP library works. Some of the particles change color, some of them blur and so on. Can someone recommend a good tutorial? If you take a look ...

Hayasidist, the planet is clear evidence of what I've learned from you! :D I studied funksmaname to understand shape stacking since I put all the shapes on one layer and his technique for bending joints is now my preferred method. My list of influences is pretty long. I will ask permission to includ...

Thanks hayasidist. "Irene" was huge. The thought of losing all my work was awful. I prayed for my whole family as well as all the people I've become familiar with here in this forum. I hope everybody else on the east coast of the USA is OK also.
I'm going to to get an outside backup service.

Why not upload the file? I'm sure some of us would be willing to do some tests.

Just a question: Could it be corrected by changing the blending mode?

I'm posting now ahead of hurricane "Irene" just in case... The video is a rough look at what I'm trying to do. The biggest thing I've learned in this clip is that stacking and connecting shapes in one layer eliminates the problem of getting everything to move together. (thanks selgin, than...

Thanks for replying Gilles. Yes. I wanted to delete a shape within an action.
For some reason I assumed I couldn't move to frame zero while working on an action. Sometimes I'm a little slow.

I thought if I made a mistake while creating a morph target that I could move the offending vector to the side of the working area and delete it when I clicked back to frame zero. It appears that I can copy and paste but not delete. How can I fix this?