Particle per face, and Lock/Bond

#1

I’m trying to generate a particle for each face of an animated (deforming) editable poly object, which stick to the surface.
I can see no way to make 1 vertex for each face via the ‘Position Object’ operater, so I thought maybe a Birth Script is the way to go, and then use Lock/Bond to stick to the surface.
I’ve have some success with this, but it’s a bit flakey, epsecially when I try to work on a segment of animation and not the whole thing. Is a birth script the best way to go?

With a birth script how do I make sure I only produce all my particles once at the beginning of my animation?
Does pCont.getTimeStart() refer to the ticks from Emit Start in the Birth Script Dialogue?

Any help appreciated…

#2

Do you have the Particle Flow Toolbox#3 by any chance?

As they say: “There’s an App for that” :slight_smile:

#3

Vanilla pflow only I’m afraid…

#4

So here’s my birth script:


on ChannelsUsed pCont do
(
	 pCont.useTime = true
	 pCont.useAge = true
	 pCont.usePosition = true
	 pCont.useSpeed = true
)

on Init pCont do 
(
 
)

on Proceed pCont do 
(
	t1 = pCont.getTimeStart() as float
	t2 = pCont.getTimeEnd() as float

	if (t1 < 0) then (t1 = 0) 
	
	if (t2 ==0*160) do --if at frame zero...
	(
		for i =1 to (polyop.getnumfaces $cylinder01) do
		(
			pCont.AddParticle()
			pCont.particleIndex = pCont.NumParticles() 
			pCont.particleTime = 0
			pCont.particleAge = 0
			pCont.particlePosition = (polyop.getfacecenter $cylinder01 i)
			
		)
	)
)

on Release pCont do 
(
 
)

This works fine as long as I’m working from frame zero. I’m having difficulty working out the relationship of the Emit Start spinner in Birth Script and the pCont.getTimeStart() variable. If I try and calculate just certain frames, say 200-300, then do I need to set the Emit Start to 200? I don’t want to have to calculate from 0 everytime.

My experiments seem to end up with the Lock/Bond operator offsetting the particles if I try and compute from anything other than frame 0.

#5

You do not necessarily need to call particleTime if you do you should either set it to currentTime or your desired birth frame.


on Proceed pCont do 
(
	
	t1 = pCont.getTimeStart() as float
	
	if (t1 ==  200*ticksPerFrame) do
	(
		for i in 1 to (polyop.getnumfaces $Cylinder01) do
		(
			pCont.AddParticle()
			pCont.particleIndex = pCont.NumParticles() 
			--pCont.particleTime = currentTime
			pCont.particleAge = 0
			pCont.particlePosition = (polyop.getfacecenter $Cylinder01 i)
			
		)
	)
	
)
#6

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