Rocket particles test

[ahiles]

Hi there,

Ok i got a bit of a problem, Im trying to do particles to a rocket, but the particles keep coming upto the head of the rocket, I want to keep them at the tail, also I want to the smoke trail to be thicker in appearance but be thinner, any suggestions.

thx

[Tamerygo]

Hi

I think it will help you http://en.9jcg.com/comm_pages/blog_content-art-105.htm

[danlefeb]

Hello. I'd suggest you keep your emitter behind the rocket with something like a group. Then open up your nParticleShape node and change the Radius under Particle Size to make your trail thinner. You can use the Radius Scale to make the trail thinner at the beginning and getting thicker as it goes, etc. I've attached a real quick scene I threw together to give you an idea of what I mean. Hope it helps!

By the way, nice wallpaper. I'm a fan of Andrew Jones' work! :)

[ahiles]

Hey Dan,

thx for the help, thats exactly what i needed. I wasnt using naprticles though, i was just using the normal dynamics emitters. Is it now better to use nparticles?.

Yeah the wallpower is nice, got a few others as well.:).

[danlefeb]

For that effect, you can do it fine with a normal dynamics emitter. I just personally have been preferring nDynamics (such as nParticles, nCloth, etc.) since switching to Maya 2009/2010. If for no other reason, but it seems to be what Autodesk is pushing so any future releases will most likely support nDynamics systems over their regular dynamics system. Besides, you know its cool when it has a lowercase letter in front of a capital letter. That tells you its cool - like iPod or eMachines. :D

[ahiles]

Dan was wounderinf u could help me with something else, im just going through the napraticles video and gone through the exploding debris videos. But I want it to look like as if the explosion is coming of the ground, none of the particles collide with the gorund, they just seem to be going of in all directions, I also want to instance like a rock to the source particles, also I want to make the smoke thinner at the ends.

here is an image.

[danlefeb]

The simplest way to get your particles to collide with the ground is to enable the Use Plane checkbox under Ground Plane in the nucleus node. The downside to that is that its a plane (i.e., flat - which ground seldom is perfectly flat). The direction your particles go are initially set in your emitter node. You can play with the gravity and wind settings to get your particles to go the direction you'd like once they've been emitted. Instancing is done by selecting the object you wish to instance, then SHFT+Select your particles and go to nParticles > Instancer (Replacement).

I've attached a real rough example file I threw together of some instanced polys emerging from the ground for you to play with that will hopefully get you going in the right direction. Good luck!

[ahiles]

Hey dan thx for the help.

One thing though. When creating the explosion with clouds instead of balls and even with the balls, they dont collide with the ground. when i create the source particles and then select them and emit from object to make smoke particles, I cant get anything to collide with the ground, all the particles just seem to end up going through the plane. I dont really want to use that plane option in the nucleus node.

Im using the same file u gave, I just added emit particles from object like in the nparticles explosion video to give the smoke trail.

[danlefeb]

Unfortunately I can't access the video at work, so I don't remember exactly what the instructor does there.

But there are two things you have to do to initiate the collide. First is to set the geometry you want to collide as a passive collider. In this case, its the ground, so select your ground and go to nMesh > Create Passive Collider. Once that's done, go into your nParticleShape node and make sure that under Collisions your Collide box is checked. The details of how it collides are then all under that Collisions area of the nParticleShape node, but for basic functionality you have to make sure your Collide box is checked first.

Using the sample file I gave, which objects are you emitting new particles from? I've gotta head off to a meeting, I'll check this thread when I get back.

[ahiles]

Finally, got it working, thank you for the help:). No more using normal dynamics now lol.

[danlefeb]

Sweet deal!