ParticleIllusion--and using an NTSC Monitor
 

I'm sure it's something easy I'm overlooking, but how do I get my NTSC broadcast monitor to work with ParticleIllusion. Where's the button that I'm overlooking?

what button??
from my understanding of ths program (ie thorough as i am a distributor) it doesnt have an external preview option.
The closest you may get would be to run your output from ur video cards svideo or dvi on you second head and u might get an accurate picture, however the gamma will be vastly different to what you wil eventually end up with, and this will only work if ur gfx card supports multiple heads for open GL.. unless u go sw which will be as slow as a stoned snail..

Woe! Let's hope PI changes that fact in the next version. No preview monitor option is kind of minor league of Wondertouch--considering the competition all has this option.

Thanks for the quick reply.

the difference is that many users use the PI engine within their existing compositing tools, such as combustion. If PI were to take a wondows based code to allow for firewire or WYSIWYG type of output, then the cost of the application would skyrocket.

In addition to this, at the moment, i would say that PI for After Effects would be higher on the agenda of releases than would be a release of an updated version in full. In turn, allowing PI to run as an AE plugin WOULD give you realtime preview output, especially if your running a Matrox RTx type card. Now the RTx cards WONT give you acceleration, but it WILL act as interface... it already does this with the RTx10, through to the new RTx2
In addition to this, Mac user can readily use PI emitters within Motion, again, giving the option to use the host aplication as a previeew interface.

I agree, it is a shame that it cant preview out on its own, however, considering the price of the base LE program, as well as the price of full app, its a small sacrifice to make for something which can definately do ALOT for almost any project. Hell i een use it for weddings and get a nice static shot of the church and steeple, put ona blocker, then throw on some water refraction evvects in the sky.. always great for that wow factor.. lol ;)

Oh and then theres the bullets out of bananas trick.. that always goes down well..

another app u might want to consider would be AlamDV (now called FXPro) however, i do not know if this offers external preview..