Thinking Particle's 3.0 Tutorials

#101

basically i used [ lifespan-age/lifespan ] as an expresion to get this going, but the bias…my oh my :smiley:
thx a lot.

I am still having though a little hard time to understand this so follow me through. and please correct me if I am wrong.

1.normalize the size (value to a 0-1 range)
2.output the normalized value to the value to time.

3.the value to time looks up through all the time range supplied for values betweens val1 and val2. this is a bit confusing for me. so if instead of 100 I supply a 50 value, this will happen sooner ? then what about the animated float that goes still from 0 to 100 ?..as I follow in the track view, the range is still 0 - 100, so what is the relation between the animated float and the value to time…hmmm…i really don;t get this value to time op.

also…another one.
a basically have some particles with bring to going for the textures white values on an object. how can I make ALL the particles go there. I use a position surface that assigns a per particle random position. But for the particles already assigned a black zone what can I do ? how can I make all particles go to the white zone ?

  1. I tried getting them to follow the position of the already “go white” particles, but it’s a fake and looks like it.
    2.I did not find anything that will help me “read” the specified RGB zone. Basically I get the particles assigned with surface position, and only after I test for the color. If white, bring to, if black, another group. But the ones that are in the group ?
    I attached the file.

PS>almost forgot a quick one. Is there a common issue with more than one bring to operators in the same master dynamic ? I can get any one to work, but no more than one…the help wasn’t relevant to this one.

#102

Dont normalize the size. Normalize the age

Value to time is a mindbender but it is really powerful. Basically, it maps a value to a time.

So if you say

Value1 = 0
Time1=0
Value 2 =1
Value 2=100

then it takes the value from 0-1 and stretches the value to 0-100.

Then you output that value to a Time input. For example like the float. The float is animated from time 0 to 100.

So say your float is animated from 0 to 5. over 100 frames. The value to time sends the time value to look up the animation of the float. So in our case, with the normalized age. The particle has a value of 0 at the beginning of its life and 1 at the end. So when its at 0 and going into the Value to Time node. It will look up time 0 on the animated float.
when our particle is at value 1 it looks up time 100, and what value the float is at at time 100.

I hope this helps. Remember the float that has the time input is ANIMATED. thats the key.

As for your second question. That is quite a difficult effect to achieve but it is possible. You need to use reference nodes and memory operators. In order to sample color data from an object you have to scatter particles all around it. Then comunicate that data through ppassAB or refrence nodes.

I will attach a scene when I’m done my deadline. maybe this weekend.

-Andrew

#103

I finnaly got the value to time thingie.
I was saying to myself, but if what you just said is true, then why do I need value to time and not only the animated float ?? And I cut the connections. The thing I didn’t got by then was that the animated float value is mapped to the particle’s life by the use of the normalized sent to value to time. SO when I had only the float, whatevar the value was at 80, any particle had it, the same value. As in the oposite where the particle born at 80 had the floats value that was equivalent to frame 0 , and so on etc. Thanks a lot.

The second question. I figured that much. But how many particles do i spread ? Lets say I have a 2k image. I basically need a particle per pixel minimum. And EACH particle aligned in a grid. Now how do I do that. I needed articles in a grid, as in with separation and ordered, no duplicates and 0 velocity, for other things too…but just couldn;t get them there. Any ideas ? When I had smth like that I went to pflow to arrange them, convert to editable poly, object to particle in TP and fragment the elements. But come on, what if I need to change the pic. I do this all over again ?..I;ll be waiting for that file if I don;t come up with smth better.

U missed my last question regarding the bring to op. More than one in a dynamic system looks like a no-no so far. Any clues, ideas ?.. bug ? feature ? :stuck_out_tongue:

#104

I finnaly got the value to time thingie.
I was saying to myself, but if what you just said is true, then why do I need value to time and not only the animated float ?? And I cut the connections. The thing I didn’t got by then was that the animated float value is mapped to the particle’s life by the use of the normalized sent to value to time. SO when I had only the float, whatevar the value was at 80, any particle had it, the same value. As in the oposite where the particle born at 80 had the floats value that was equivalent to frame 0 , and so on etc. Thanks a lot.

No problem :slight_smile:

The second question. I figured that much. But how many particles do i spread ? Lets say I have a 2k image. I basically need a particle per pixel minimum. And EACH particle aligned in a grid. Now how do I do that. I needed articles in a grid, as in with separation and ordered, no duplicates and 0 velocity, for other things too…but just couldn;t get them there. Any ideas ? When I had smth like that I went to pflow to arrange them, convert to editable poly, object to particle in TP and fragment the elements. But come on, what if I need to change the pic. I do this all over again ?..I;ll be waiting for that file if I don;t come up with smth better.

Use Matterwaves, use the density spinners under emitter close to the bottom. Crank them to what you need.

As for the bringto op i have never encountered that, sorry…

take care…

#105

hey
i have some problems with “bringto”
i want to animate weapon sleigh
i dont know the correct word for “waffenschlitten”
http://www.co2air.de/wbb2/attachment.php?attachmentid=47245
ok

the sleigh should go back and forth when a particle (bullet) is born

it work but only one time i have tested some stuff but it don´t realy works like i want it

#106

That shouldn’t be done with a bringto. Try something with a paramblock operator and an iterator maybe?

#107

hmm don´t see how paramblock can help me
the problem with an not animted weapon i could change the position with an offset or something like that x + 25 or so and than x - 25 but when the weapon is rotating this don´t work anymore
it could work with some matheexpressions or so but i´m not a mathepro :slight_smile:

#108

I recommend going to cgfluids and the cebas forum and have a look into some threads. I bet after some readng you’ll be able to do such things and many more in minutes.
I’m just saying that, because this thread starts to be like the pflow one, where all the information is stored in one big pot, and it helps exactly at the time when it’s been asked for. but later for somebody who has the same or a similar problem, this info won’t be easy to find. It’d be nice to have a TP section and for each problem or kind of problem a separate thread.

for your problem: this (meinSchlitten.x + 25) would work, but keep in mind that you have to reset it everytime you go back to frame 0, or your Schlitten will go out of the screen :wink:

#109

I am not sure if this is the case, the help wasn’t relevant also…
basically, can I use more than one bringto OP in a scene ? and if so, how ?
I atached a scene bellow with my problem.

from time a to b, a bringto is active, from time c to d, c>b, the second one comes in.
not true ?..

#110

I will give this a shot asap

#111

i got it to work somehow.

i put the time condition to turn on the node, the surface pos op, AND the bring to and it seems to do the trick.
although it only worked when I did this from the first shot. For the fun of it I tried connecting the bool value to the other nodes in the above file, and however I spinned it around, to no avail.

PS.i was careful with the op order, and did everything just like in the working file. Still. From 0 up it works, repairing fails…

#112

Just started to get my feet wet in TP, amazing piece of software…

VERY generous of ya to make all those videos and share your knowledge

Much Appreciated

Cheers

#113

I just needed to find an old sample scene and I haven’t used the sample scenes in Vista before but look at how ridiculously placed they are!

C:\Users\Public\Documents\cebas\Sample Scenes Shared\ThinkingParticles 3

you can’t find that shit in any conventional Vista based way. No buttons to get to this. It doesnt come out of your own documents folder or linked there from within or anything. Its a jsut a total waste of a location. Anyway I thought that was funny and to make sure this thread doesn’t expire.

New location?
c:\TP Samples\

#114

folder sturcutres are making me nuts anyways. not only the max ones. in bigger projects you have to go trough 10 folders to save a file. that’s why this tool kicks ass!! :slight_smile:

http://www.rpmanager.com/FolderGit/foldergit.htm

#115

yeah folder structures can be a pain in the ass
Folder Express was something we used at digital dimension a lot and was pretty useful, essentially can create a bunch of folder locations in your right click menu - so I could right click and go to the renders folder, composites folder, scenes, dailies etc. made navigating a lot easier
haven’t really seen a vista supported version though :\

#116

Grant for the win again! I’ve been using a similar app, Folder Guides but it doesn’t work in Max which has a nonstandard open/save, or Fusion for that matter. Thanks guys.

how did I not see this before? I’ve been using RPMan for years. I guess I need to go to the site once in awhile.

#117

I have such question:
Particles are instances of animated objects (or group of objects). Point in the scene is a collision object, linked with particles in order to change speed of animated instances. How to link distance of point and speed of particle instances animation ?
Is it possible with TP ?

#118

Hi Andrew,
Just wondering if you site is gonna be back any time soon? It appears to be suspended.

Cheers

#119

Hi,

Andrew, wassup with your website ? It’s been really usefull.

Does anybody have a links for tesla tutorials from Andrew website? I remember they were mirrored on rapidshare.

Thanks!

#120

Ah sorry guys, site went down and I have been sooo busy, I’ll mirror them asap.

preparat - im not sure what you mean man, want to post a file or a video?