brandons particles are awesome

[SuperMax]

*cough**cough*Links*cough* :wavey:

[coCoKNIght]

Originally posted by SuperMax
*cough**cough*Links*cough* :wavey:

please? :)

[SuperMax]

Please with Cream suger and a cherry ontop, spinkled with 100s and 1000s with a thin layer of hot chocolate
:applause:

[madhatfx]

could u gys please post ur mail addresses

[jadedchron]

send it to me.. cpgenius@hotmail.com

[Leo73]

I would like a copy of the tutorial as well. LeoMitchell@comcast.net

[jadedchron]

get it here (http://www.fragcentral.com/~super/nc/mesherparticletrails.max)

[SuperMax]

Thanks jadedchron and madhatfx


Where can we see the "Brandon tutorial" for this?

looks very cool

:thumbsup:

[3dfArtist]

Yeah...cool particle....
Is it about sharing the tutorial........or just .......;-)

Please post the tutes:-)

[Aaron Moore]

err can you just post the link perhaps?

[Troub]

what is this...mysterious tut sharing?

post the link to that tut plz :wavey:

[jadedchron]

i think the tutorial is from a book.

[BrandonD]

Hehe, this is funny guys. That tip was originally posted some time last year in the Tips & Tricks section of the official webboard. At some point 3D World listed it in one of their issues along with one or two from Alan McKay and Pete Draper.

You might also search this board as I'm pretty sure I posted it in response to someone.

Anyway, I accidentally came up with the technique while working on an exploding freighter sequence for "Coronado." I've used the default particles exclusively for the last couple years. Even when I was at Blur, I rarely used any particle plugins (by the way, I haven't been at Blur since Oct 2001).

The problem was that I needed to create dozens fragments flying through the air, trailing smoke and fire. Unfortunately with the default particles you don't get a whole lot of control when it comes to emitting particles from particles. Particles can use geometry as their emitters, so I needed a way to convert a particle system to geometry.

Peter Watje's Mesher compound object can do this. In fact, it's now part of MAX 4(or 5). So what I'd do is create my particle system and fragments moving through the scene properly with drag and gravity. The I'd use Mesher to create a procedural instance of these fragments, hiding the original particles. So what you're given is an instance of the particle geometry - it look like and moves exactly the same as the hidden particle system it's referencing. But one of the cool things is that it exists in its own space, so you can global transform it - ie move it somewhere, rotate it, scale it, etc.

And now because it's considered geometry by MAX, I could add two more PArrays - one for flames trailing from the debris and one for smoke. The flames had a really short life and the smoke inherited very little motion, but were affected by wind/turbulence.

So now everything was looking really cool and the director was happy, except that some of the fragments weren't going exactly where he wanted them to go and one or two were going through objects. I thought I was screwed, but stumbled across a pleasant surprise. Because the Mesher is geometry, you can modify it. So I added an Edit Mesh and started selecting fragments and deleting them. And it worked! On top of that, I found that I could select all the faces on a fragment and move it, and it properly adjusted/compensated its motion.

This was basically the perParticle control I was looking for for years. It works, but it's far from perfect. It's just a huge but simple hack.

[Aaron Moore]

ahh i remember... the old discreet boards under t&t... :)

[LFShade]

That's really cool, Brandon! I can't imagine how I've missed this before. I suppose you could also conceivably use dynamics on the mesher geometry? Deflectors on the PS? There are some interesting possibilities there :buttrock:

[MayaV]

hi madhatfx

could you plz. mail me the tutorial, my mail id is vmansata@rediffmail.com

Brandon u Rock:airguitar

thanx n regards

Vivek

[qu2k]

its not that hard to figure out whats going on by looking at the scene file

[Ed Lee]

Originally posted by BrandonD
by the way, I haven't been at Blur since Oct 2001).



Oh Mon! Yeah, I haven't been at Blur either...what coeincidence... :thumbsup: Along with Neil and few others several months after.

Good going Sarge on the Coronado job.

Ed--

[madhatfx]

hi guys,
im just so so sorry about the screw up guys actually there isnt any tutorial about it, just that there was this thread by brandon where he kinda explained how he did it. The file attatched more or less explains itself if u guys have problems u can post them here and ill try and help u guys.

jadedchron: thank u so much for hostin the file

well brandon u really rock, just started this thread to thank u cause ive been usin this tip of urs frequently and it ROCKS. wpuld be even glad if u could share more of ur tips with us what say , for the good of all the 3dmax community. really lookin forward to it. the coronado sequence is really awesome but how much of it was thinking particles?

thank u guys for all the patience with my mistake, was a saturday night and i was leavin for home.

peAce

[madhatfx]

a very very small sample

[sireel]

I read about this in 3d world, hmmmm I didn't know this was your brandon. Thanks for coming up with this :)

[BrandonD]

Originally posted by madhatfx
lookin forward to it. the coronado sequence is really awesome but how much of it was thinking particles?


Thanks. Actually NONE of the stuff I do is with Thinking Particles. All of the "Coronado" work was done with MAX out of the box + Afterburn. It's all default particles. In fact, for the last couple years I've been using default particles exclusively.

[DFGFX]

Wow... this is so cool Brandon. Explosion here without afterburn...

I worship you now...:bounce: :thumbsup:

[MayaV]

hi Brandon

i tried the mesher thing but did't worked out, if you can sqeeze some time from your busy schedule and write a tut on it. nothing like that. that will really rock :airguitar

thanx n regards

Vivek

[sireel]

brandon, since you've worked with max particles so much is there maybe some tips you can share for creating different effects? Particles ave always been kind of hit or mis with me.... more often miss :(

[BrandonD]

Hey guys, you might want to do a search on this board for a post I made a few months ago. I wrote a pretty detailed list of tips and tricks with default particles - including how to use simple Maxscript commands to control them.

[DFGFX]

Thanks brandon!

PS. Um brandon or anyone... could u give me the link to the previous thread since i cant find it V_V

[BrandonD]

When I get a chance, I'll try and rewrite it and post it on www.particlefx.com

[DFGFX]

Thanks a lot m8!! You are super helpful

[PeteDraper]

Originally posted by BrandonD
Hehe, this is funny guys. That tip was originally posted some time last year in the Tips & Tricks section of the official webboard. At some point 3D World listed it in one of their issues along with one or two from Alan McKay and Pete Draper.


naah.. didn't get asked to contribute to the particle one :( ... did a bit on the modelling tips one they did a couple of issues later tho (again with allan contributing also).

really gonna have to start attending this board more frequently!! :D

p

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