More Particle Transformy Stuff I should really know..

In the unlikelihood that anyone but myself reads this "blog", all credit to Sathish Kumar from chennai, working in Nipuna Services. Tutorial found on Creative Crash, via CGTalk forums.Whew.

Step 1:

Create any Geometical object and Assign any Texture and then Convert it to File Texture.
Create a surface emitter from that object and turn on Need Parent UV.
Add rgbPP attribute to particleShape1.
Assign the Baked File Texture to the emitter1 color .
Turn on inherit color in emitter1.
Set the conserve attribute to zero in the particle.
Set the emitter rate attribute to 5000.

Step 2:

Create any Geometical object and Assign a different Texture and then Convert it to File Texture.
Create a surface emitter from that object and turn on Need Parent UV.
Add rgbPP attribute to particleShape2.
Assign the Baked File Texture to the emitter2 color .
Turn on inherit color in emitter2.
Set the conserve attribute to zero in the particle.
Set the emitter rate attribute to 5000.

Step 3:

Play the TimeSlider and after the objects getting filled with the particle's Stop the TimeSlider.
Step 4:

Set as Initial state for both the particles.Delete the emitters from the object so the particles be independent. Now open the particleShape1 attribute editor and add the runtime expression in the position attribute as follows

particleShape1.position=hermite(particleShape1.position,particleShape2.position,
<<0,0,0>>,<<0,0,0>>,smoothstep(rand(0,2),rand(3,3.5),time));

and add the runtime expression in the rgbPP attribute as follows
particleShape1.rgbPP=hermite(particleShape1.rgbPP,particleShape2.rgbPP,
<<0,0,0>>,<<0,0,0>>,smoothstep(1,rand(1.5,3),time));

Play the scene and Enjoy the Particle Morph.

Particle magick

Particles flowing along a curve (obvious stuff I should know)

• make particle & emitter
• make curve
• set curve as goal
• select particle, in attr. editor, add the goalU and goaloffset attrs.
• goalU+=0.1 or whatever
• goaloffset is so the particles are around the curve, not just ON it.
• Use something like sphrand (<<2,2,2>>) for that.
• Profit.

stretchy limbs redux

• seems as if it's important to have a master global scale in the baseCtrl.
• everything should be parented under the baseCtrl..
• 1/masterGlobalScale should be applied to the bendy chain joints.
• use of distance nodes to spread the chain joints is definitely the way to go in conjunction with translateX
• the root of the chain joint's immediate child should sit right on top of itself, for the bending to work
• use rotation of bendy joints to create bending
• IKctrl should be a shape of sorts, parented under baseCtrl. It should hold a locator for distance purposes and also the IK itself.