How to "goal" particle on animated surface?

#1

Hi
How can I achieve that particles are following a goal, and as soon as they hit the goal object, they stick on its surface. The goal object itself got a noise modifier, meaning it’s shape is animating over time. I can’t get the particle to stick on it. :frowning:

Any help/tips/hints?

cheers,
Daniel

#2

Lock/Bond operator from Box#1 would do it.

Thanks,
Oleg B.

#3

…which I don’t have. :argh:

Any other solutions? Maybe scripting based?

Daniel

#4

I’m certainly no expert at particle flow, but isn’t this exactly what the ‘find target’ operator is for?

You make your particles follow the ‘goal’ object with the ‘find target’ operator and when they hit it you send them to a ‘speed by surface’ operator with 0 speed, ‘position object’ operator or something to make them stick?

I recall watching a tutorial where I was shown how to make particles stick to a deforming mesh so that is certainly possible. If the ‘find target’ operator does what I think it does, then it should work.

In my mind it sounds logical. :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ll see if I can test it tomorrow(today?), well after I’ve gotten some sleep atleast. :slight_smile:

#5

Position Object operator does not allow you to stick a particle to the current location; it generates a random location on the surface of the reference object and places a particle there. Hence there is an undesirable visual “jump” in particle position when switching from an Event with Find Target operator to the Event with the Position Object operator.

That is one of the reason why Lock/Bond operator was implemented - it finds the current particle position, and re-factors this position into local surface coordinates of the reference object, and glues a particle there. As a result - no visual jump whatsoever.

I’m sure it’s possible to repeat the functionality of Lock/Bond operator with a Script Operator but it will be a long exercise in scriping if we are talking about deforming animated surface of the reference object. If the surface of the reference mesh is not animated, then it should be easy - just calculate local coords of a particle in relation to the reference object, and then re-apply these local coordinates on every frame.

Thanks,
Oleg B.

#6

Ahh, great reply, thanks. That surely helped us both. :slight_smile:

Saved me the time of testing out my theory atleast. :stuck_out_tongue:

#7

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