The man and the fly

I created a fly to use in a similar sequence to what I'd planned. I started with a cube, used sub surf, and made it a longer wider shape. I tweaked some of the colour settings, making it a dark grey colour that didn't reflect the light. Next I made holes for the eyes and added a UV sphere and subdivided to make it look like fly's eyes. I used a mirror modifier to make sure they were evenly between the mesh. I used an orange colour and enabled emit to make it brighter. Finally I created wings using a plane and made them transparent with the alpha and ray transparent button. I also changed the man to be purple.

I had forgotten that something with a particle effect is not shown in the camera by default, this is why you can't see the fly moving around and the movie just displays a sudden orange particle effect. I spent a long time getting a cube to move at the right point from the top (out of view) to where the man punched and then display a particle effect. There was no need for this because the cube is not seen because of the particle effect. I would have to put particles on separate objects as I needed the fly to be displayed.

To get the particles I had to set a number of values:

• its life - how long it displays the particles
• start and end frames
• give it random and even settings
• change the normal and random values
• I also needed to make the object orange to make the particles that colour, I first did it white and you couldn't see the effect.

It was quite a rough example but it displays the techniques well.
Next I'll add more and more flies and continue using particle effects to make it look like the man is fighting his way through trouble.