3ds Max 2012 Bible - Kelly L. Murdock [451]
7. In the Particle View window, drag the Collision event from the depot to the bottom of the Event 01 node. In the rollout, below the Deflectors list, click the Add button and select the SOmniFlect01 object surrounding the spaceship.
8. Drag a Spawn event from the depot to the event display, and then connect the Collision event by dragging from its output to the input of the new Spawn event. Then click the color for the new event particles, and change it to orange. Select the Spawn 01 event, enable the Delete Parent option, and set the Offspring to 200 and the Variation % to 20. Then set the Inherited % to 50 with a Variation of 30.
9. Drag the Delete event to the bottom of the Event 02 node, select the By Particle Age option, and set the Life Span to 20 and the Variation to 30. Drag a Shape event to the Event 02 node, and set the Shape to Sphere and the Size to 0.5.
10. Finally, click the Play button to see the resulting animation.
Figure 41.22 shows the final Particle View flow, and Figure 41.23 shows a frame of the animation in the viewport. You can still do several things to improve this animation, such as adding a Glow Render Effect to the laser blasts and using the Particle Age material with some transparency to improve the explosion's look.
FIGURE 41.22
The Particle View window shows the flow of the particles in the animation.
FIGURE 41.23
The spaceship is trying to outrun the laser blasts.
Summary
This chapter presented particle systems and showed how you can use them. The chapter also took a close look at each system, including Spray, Snow, Super Spray, Blizzard, PArray, PCloud, and Particle Flow. This chapter covered these topics:
• Learning about the various particle systems
• Creating a particle system for producing rain and snow
• Using the Super Spray particle system
• Working with MetaParticles
• Specifying an object to use as a particle and an object to use as an emitter
• Using the PArray and PCloud particle systems
• Using the Particle Age and Particle MBlur maps on particles
• Controlling and programming the flow of particles with the Particle Flow window
The next chapter explains working with Space Warps to add forces to a scene. These forces can be used to control the motion of objects in the scene.
Chapter 42: Using Space Warps
IN THIS CHAPTER
Creating and binding Space Warps to objects
Understanding the various Space Warp types
Working with Space Warps and particle systems
Space Warps sound like a special effect from a science fiction movie, but actually they are nonrenderable objects that let you affect another object in many unique ways to create special effects.
You can think of Space Warps as the unseen forces that control the movement of objects in the scene such as gravity, wind, and waves. Several Space Warps, such as Push and Motor, deal with dynamic simulations and can define forces in real-world units. Some Space Warps can deform an object's surface; others provide the same functionality as certain modifiers.
Space Warps are particularly useful when combined with particle systems. This chapter includes some examples of Space Warps that have been combined with particle systems.
Creating and Binding Space Warps
Space Warps are a way to add forces to the scene that can act on an object. Space Warps are not renderable and must be bound to an object to have an effect. A single Space Warp can be bound to several objects, and a single object can be bound to several Space Warps.
In many ways, Space Warps are similar to modifiers, but modifiers typically apply to individual objects, whereas Space Warps can be applied to many objects at the same time and are applied using World Space Coordinates. This ability to work with multiple objects makes Space Warps the preferred way