Random particle birth

#1

Hi All,

I am trying to achieve a “puff” effect using PFlow. I want to spawn particles in batches ie.

Frame 0-3 birth rate = 60, frame 4-5 birth = 0, frame 6-8 birth = 75

I have currently keyframed this and it works, but I guess a script may be more flexible but I have zero experience with max script and limited experience with PFlow.

If I could specify 2 values

TimePeriod=2 to 4 (frames)
BirthRate=60 to 80
Otherwise birth=0

Then it could use a combination of these to randomly spawn batches

Just trying to find something that I could easily modify and seems like a script may be the best bet rather than changing all the keys.

If anyone has a better suggestion or if there’s a simpler way of doing this, please let me know :slight_smile:

Cheers

#2

I search and searched, and now suddenly 3 posts below mine is a possible answer :slight_smile:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=206&t=911742

The question was different but I think the solution may work using a waveform float controller.

Will give this a try and see how it goes.

#3

It wouldn’t be too hard to script this in a script controller. With 'if’s and the time that you can easily access in maxscript.

#4

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