Path Follow Space Warp

[RichardBlank]

I don't think that path folow works with PF. Very sad :sad:

[Intrinsia]

If you're looking to get your particles to flow along a path just use the 'speed by icon' operator in pflow. Name may be a little deceiving but it works the same as the path follow space warp.

hope this helps :)

[thrischan]

Thank you Intrinsia (http://www.cgtalk.com/member.php?u=44426).


I tried the speed by icon operator and it seems that the particles doesnt want to follow the speed icon acurately, i will attach a preview so you can see what im talking about.

I have tried adjusting all the parameters, accel limit, in the reference says that you should use a speed operator before the speed by icon, but none of that worked. it seems the particles are working but with an offset.

Can anyone help me with that?
Thank you very much.

[galagast]

hmm... seems like uploading zip files in cgtalk still corrupts everything...

anyway... after applying a path constraint to your "Speed by Iicon" icon/helper, try to place your emitter (probably your "Pflow Icon") on the same position as your "Speed by Icon" icon using tools such as the Align Tool... i think that would fix the offset problem...

[SamSed]

hmm... seems like uploading zip files in cgtalk still corrupts everything...

Had the same problem, but with firefox instead of IE everything works fine

[thrischan]

Hi Galagast, i tried alingning the speed icon to the pflow emmiter but the offset is still there, i have adjusted all the pobsibles parameters since yesterday. it seems that the offset happens when I set the sync by icon animation to particle age or event duration.

I will really appreciate your help.
If anyone else can help me will appreciate your help too.

[thrischan]

Hi everybody in cgtalk forums.

I have a really important annoucemment to do.

After 2 day of been tryig to fix it i found the reason. Maybe this is a bug in particle flow.

The reason why my particles were offset was:

1- My particles were born at frame -105.
2- I set the speed by icon, sync by animation icon to particle age.
3- Particle flow set the begin of the "age" of the speed icon by default to 0. So if the speed icon has an "age" of 100 frames but my particles will be already 205 frames, so they will move 105 frames before the icon starts moving.

If you want to try it do the following:

1- Create a PF Sounce and delete the speed operator.
2- Add an speed by icon operator and animate it .
3- If you have a high accel limit the particles will be accurately following the icon with no problem.
4- Now set the birth of the particles to -250. Adn you will see how the particles anticipates the movement of the icon 250 frames. And that is not good at all.


My question is : Is there anyway to fix this?

[galagast]

i think u shud set the speed by icon's out of range animation to something like a relative repeat.. coz at those negative frames ,(i think) your speed icon doesnt have any animation so particles initially goes somewhere (maybe the icon direction), then when a frame with an animaiton comes in, they all try to compensate with the animation, so only the new born particles get to follow it correctly, and old particles will just try thier best to follow suit. My suggestion is to try and animate it ate those negative frames... i hope this helps...

[OlegB]

Galagast is right in the analysis of the problem. The animation of the SpeedByIcon operator starts at frame -105, and the emitter is located at this point. When a particle is born, it has age 0, and when the sync is done by particle age, the animation of the SpeedByIcon icon is taken from the frame 0, hence the async in the particle path.

If the animation of the SpeedByIcon icon is used for a sync with particle age, the animation should start at frame zero. BTW, if you are going to use particles that are born on a compact interval (close at the moment of the animation start), you can just change the Sync By parameter to Absolute Time, and the particles will more or less follow the spline.

For analysis of possible PFlow bugs you can drop scene files with the problem description at the Orbaz forum. But this scene doesn't show any PFlow bugs; everything is as expected.

Thanks,
Oleg B.

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