Beginning Level tutorial - courtesy of Charley Carlat [url=http://www.orbaz.com/tutorials/tutorial3.html]Particle Displacement[/url]

Beginning Level tutorial - courtesy of Charley Carlat [url=http://www.orbaz.com/tutorials/tutorial2A.html]Speed In Direction (Part 1)[/url] [url=http://www.orbaz.com/tutorials/tutorial2B.html]Speed In Direction (Part 2)[/url]

(Beginning Level) In this tutorial we explore some ways to control particle size to avoid particle overlapping. The tutorial uses deep particle data control of Box#3. If you don't have Box#3, you can download demo version at [url=http://www.orbaz.com/download/]http://www.orbaz.com/download/[/url] Suppose you want to place particles on all vertices of a reference object. Of course, you can use the [i]Position Object[/i]+ PFlow operator (see the relevant topic [url=http://www.orbaz.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=43]here[/url]) However, with Box#3 you have a more procedural way of doing that. [b]Note[/b]: For the [i]Position Object[/i]+ operator to work properly, you need to have the same amount of particles as the number of vertices on the reference object. If you change the topology of the reference object, you will have to find the new number of vertices in the mesh and adjust Birth operator to match this count. Well, although that’s not much of a hassle, we cannot call it truly procedural.

Here will be a mini tutorial how to align particles to surface. For now it's just the max file to check out how to organize data flow. Here's the file: [url=http://www.orbaz.com/forumData/scenes/20060630/AlignToSurfaceAndLookAtObject.zip]AlignToSurfaceAndLookAtObject.zip[/url] Teapots (particles) are placed on a wavy surface, with alignment of their Z axis to the surface normal. Teapot's axis X is oriented towards a reference object - the cone. When the cone moves, particles keep looking at the cone while staying aligned to the surface. [img]http://www.orbaz.com/forumData/images/20060630/AlignToSurface.jpg[/img]

By Mark Pigott: "I know it is easier to do this scene with standard objects, but i knew it was possible (or thought it was possible) with PFlow Tools Box #1, and this proves it is... The PFlow is huge, but basically the logic is like this: Start out with a box mapped 27 box rubiks; This becomes the 27 objects for the birth script; Create passes starting from left to right, front to back, and bottom to top you end up with x1, y1, z1, x2, y2, z2, x3, y3, z3; This is all clearly annotated in the Particle View window. And the wireframe frame will show all...." The scene file for 3dsmax6/7 can be downloaded [url=http://www.orbaz.com/forumData/scenes/20050130/RubikMax.zip]here[/url] (70KB). In order to work with the scene you need PFlowTools:Box#1 v.1.03 and PFTools:Freebies v.1.06 that you can get from the [url=http://www.orbaz.com/download/index.html]Download page[/url] of the Orbaz [url=http://www.orbaz.com]web site[/url]. Here is a screenshot split of the viewport and render: [img]http://www.orbaz.com/forumData/images/20050130/RubikImage.png[/img] You can download the animation [url=http://www.orbaz.com/forumData/animations/20050130/RubikAvi.zip]here[/url] (1,021KB). It's a split of the viewport and render. And here is the Particle View schematics: [img]http://www.orbaz.com/forumData/images/20050130/RubikPView.png[/img] Thanks for sharing, Oleg B.