Trying to get a particle emitter to emit flickering particles

[Mark]

Hi Dr Sassi,

I have followed this tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ySJGioTsis&t=1s)
showing how to get an object to flicker using fracture, and a Plain effector driven by a random animated noise. I have this working, but I am trying to use the fracture object as a particle in the C4D particle system via the RedShift tag. Currently, in the attached project, all the particles turn on and off together. Is there a way to have them go on and off independently of one another to get a flickering effect?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UhmBPr9-JQav2mQ7HVaX_h1y8Z-1eQW-/view?usp=sharing

Thank you

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the Project file.

I would suggest using the Shader Effector and a Cloner here.

I have set the Clones to Instances, so they are fast even in large numbers.

The Scale of the clones is set in the Cloner> Transform to five. For the demo, set it back to 1 or what feels right.

The Shader Effector has a Noise as driving Force, set to Global, and with a higher contrast.

The Animation Speed is crucial, but also the Noise Scale. Both contribute to how the Noise is changing in spaces, and how that allows for the change in color.

Smaller Scale equals faster change, since the Noise is smaller.
The animation speed will drive the Algorithm to "revolve" the Noise in itself. (There is also a Movement, but chances are that it moves as fast as the particles, or in the opposite direction, each time leaving a "blurry idea of flickering.)

The black and while of the Noise can be animate as well
1st black and 2nd white: visible and color
both white invisible
both Black, all particles white

Example:
CV4_2025_drs_25_PAcf_01.c4d

Cheers

[Mark]

Thanks,
What you sent worked!

The only issue now is that we are rendering this out with an alpha channel, so I believe the issue is that C4D does not recognize the alpha because it is generated at the level of the material. So we are seeing all the particles when rendering with an alpha channel, dark particles mixed with the bright ones. We can work around this by using the Extract plugin in After Effects, but I am wondering if there is a way to get the alpha to respect the particles that are not being hidden by the noise in the material.

[Dr. Sassi]

Hi Mark,

This might sound weird, and I apologize for asking, but have you enabled Alpha, or Straight Alpha, and are you using a format that supports it?

I have no problems here.

Example with all parts for one image with Ae file.
https://projectfiles.maxon.net/Cineversity_Forum_Support/2025_PROJECTS_DRS/20250818_CV4_2025_drs_25_PAcf_11.zip
I use straight Alpha here.

Cheers