CGTalk - Logo animation with particle flow.

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bretleon

01-21-2008, 05:48 PM

Hello all.

I am relative new to particle flow and today I am trying to achieve a very common effect.

I want a logo (a mesh object named logo1) to dissolve into particles (cubes) and fly around a little and then form another mesh object called logo2.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2008/2210058372_e80a10231d.jpg?v=0

My problems so far are..

“Position Object” are set to surface and I need to use around 50.000 particles to cover the mesh, which means that it looks like the logo is made up from small dust particles (pic 1) and if I make the cubes bigger they wont “fit” nicely on to the logo shape but get jagged edges.. ( pic2)

I want to use something around 200-300 bits from the original mesh itself, is that possible?

Sort of similar to the PArray where you can set “mesh” as source, but with more control over how the particle would look like.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2084/2210058424_c6f47e10f0.jpg?v=0

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2377/2210058458_5b55df555d.jpg?v=0

When I use “Find Target” the particles travel from logo1 to logo2 as they should, but they won’t stuck on to the surface on logo2, instead they just slow down and drift off…

I have also tried “Lock/Bond” without any luck, so I guess I am doing it wrong.

I also need to fade the color from blue to purple when the particles are between the two logos, how do I do that ?

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2071/2209265027_730d560730.jpg?v=0

I downloaded the trial versions of Box1 & Box3 but I can’t figure out how to use the presets?

Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Bret_L

drdubosc

01-21-2008, 08:06 PM

This isn't my area, but check out Allan McKay's tutorial

http://www.allanmckay.com/tut/tut_ObjAB.avi

on exactly this subject.

PsychoSilence

01-22-2008, 07:42 AM

depending on the amount of your particles this can be done without any toolboes and/or scripting...

find target(your second logo)
|
|
speed=0,rotation=0

pixel9

01-22-2008, 09:03 AM

I did a very rough test with these settings...

http://www.tobyatwork.de/3d-worxx/VFX/help/particle_transform.gif

http://www.tobyatwork.de/3d-worxx/VFX/help/particle_transform_mov.gif (http://www.tobyatwork.de/3d-worxx/VFX/help/particle_logo1-to-logo2.mov)

As Anselm said, no Toolboxes were needed for this.

bretleon

01-22-2008, 09:54 AM

Thanks all. Really helpful, especially the video tutorial.

However one question remains, is there any way to use geometry from the original mesh from logo1 and then morph them over time into mesh bits from logo2 ?

Because I don’t want my particles to be tiny “bits”, but instead visible “chunks” from the original logo1 turning into logo2.

pixel9

01-22-2008, 11:26 AM

...added a "Material Static" and a "Mapping" operator, to fade the color of the particles from blueish to some sort of green.

http://www.tobyatwork.de/3d-worxx/VFX/help/particle_transform_takenfurther.gif

Note, that the "Mapping" operator is animated. Its u-vector is animated along the timeline from 0 to 100, increasing the value from 0.1 -> 1.0.
Hint: The u-vector of the "Mapping" operator equals to the v-vector in the coordinates rollout of the "Gradient Ramp" map, I used, to define the colors.

http://www.tobyatwork.de/3d-worxx/VFX/help/particle_transform_mov_takenfurther.gif (http://www.tobyatwork.de/3d-worxx/VFX/help/particle_logo1-to-logo2_takenfurther.mov)

Maybe, there's a way to fracture your current logo1 and extract the chunks. Now you need to deform the chunks right, to build the new logo2 (morphing). Use PFlow then to control the flight of each chunk. This would be an awfull bunch of work, to do it by hand. This is just a suggestion, but there can be quite a better way of doing this which I don't know. :D

bretleon

01-25-2008, 08:43 AM

thanks for all the replays! really helpfull.
However, I am still struggeling to cover my logo with as few particles as possible..
Now i have to use 50.000 particles pr letter to get it fully coverd.
I use position object set to surface..
Is there another way to reduce particles and still be able to cover the mesh smoooth ?
Thx
Bret.

rudinie

01-26-2008, 07:47 PM

check out bobo's scripts, there are some that can really help you out:
http://www.scriptspot.com/bobo/mxs5/pflow/pflow__Chunks_Basics.htm

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