<     > 

ICE Particles Flowing Along a Curve

You can make particles flow along a curve using the appropriately-named Flow Along Curve compound. This compound modifies the velocity vector so that the particles follow along a curve’s tangent. This is useful for when you need particles to follow a path or direction, such as a school of fish swimming and turning suddenly, blood cells flowing through arteries, or lava oozing in streams down a mountain.

To make particles flow along a curve

1. Create a particle simulation—see Creating ICE Particle Emissions.

2. In the ICE view, click the Task tab on preset manager on the left and select Particles.

3. Drag the Flow Along Curve compound from the Motion Control group into the ICE view.

4. Plug this compound’s Execute output into a Port on the ICETree node.

5. Create a curve and drag its name into the ICE view to create a node for it.

6. Plug the curve’s Value output into the Curve port of the Flow Along Curve compound.

You can animate the curve’s transformations and deformations as you like and the particles will continue to follow it.

7. In the Flow Along Curve property editor, you can change the way the particles flow along the curve by setting the amount that the particles are attracted to the curve, the maximum distance in which the particle will flow along the curve, the particle speed, alignment of the particles along the curve’s direction, and more.

For more information on the parameters, click the ? icon in the property editor or see Flow Along Curve.

Autodesk Softimage v.7.5     <     >