Step 6:
If we want the shape instances to have different materials in a certain manner we should add a Material static node. If you don´t add this node all particles will have the material assigned to the shape picked in the shape instance.
In my case I only wanted every fourth chair to have the same material so I picked a Multi/Sub Material with four submaterials in the material static node. I checked Assign Material ID and Show in Viewport to have visual response in the viewport. Because I wanted to the materials to cycle I selected cycle and entered 4 in the sub-materials type in.
You should position the node UNDER the shape instance node other wise an applied material to the shape instance master will override your material static!
Step 7:
Just in case you want the particles to look into a certain direction you should add a find target node under the birth script. In my case I modeled a proxy all partilces have to look at.
Use the settings I used. The very low speed is important here! Because we don´t want the particles to move around. I checked Mesh Object and picked my proxy then.
Now every particle want´s to fly to the proxy but is to damn slow :)
Step 8:
Drag a rotation node under the find target and set it to Speed Space Follow. That makes our LookAt workaround happen! Because the particles have a dramatic low speed they ONLY turn into the proxy’s direction without moving.
NOTE:
The particle shape instances will only turn towards the find target from frame 1 on because they need to be “triggered”. In frame 0 they will all look into the initial direction.
Final Trick: If you´re happy with the result move the particle flow icon to 0,0,0 to the grid center (that would´t have any effect on your particles!). Now use a Mesher Compound Object (as well located at 0,0,0 grid center) and pick your particle system. That converts the particles into editable polygons which can be modified just like other mesh objects. WARNING! Maybe that step might kill your max if you haven´t enough RAM and will take some time to calculate!!!
Now you can collapse the Mesher Compound Object into an editable poly and work with it as usual.
This tutorial first exclusively published in the CGArena Magazine October Issue.
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Author Website: www.3delicious.de
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