You can make particles orbit around an object like a satellite using the Orbit Around Controller compound. This compound is useful for doing effects such as birds or airplanes circling in the sky, moths circling a flame, or satellites orbiting earth.
To make particles orbit around a controller object
2. In the ICE view, click the Task tab on preset manager on the left and select Particles.
3. Drag the Orbit Around Controller 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 an object to be a controller (any type) and drag its name from an explorer into the ICE view to create a node for it.
6. Plug the object’s Output Name output into the Controller Object Name port of the Orbit Around Controller compound.
You can animate the controller’s transformations or deformations as you like and the particles will follow it and continue to orbit around it.
7. In the Orbit Around Controller property editor, you can change the way the particles orbit around the controller object by changing the global axis around which they’re orbiting, their altitude (distance around the controller), and their velocity (based on their current velocity or the number of orbits per second).
8. If you want the particles to point in the direction they’re travelling, get an Align on Velocity compound from the Orientation group in the preset manager and plug it into a port on the ICETree node.
Tips
Particles go into orbit from the initial emission position, so if the emitter is small and a long way from the orbit center, the particles go into a long stream-like orbit as expected. If you want the particles more evenly distributed, try any of these options:
• Add a Turbulize or Randomize compound to the Orbit Altitude or Input Orbit Axis ports to make the orbit less perfectly circular.
• Select the Use Current Velocity option.
• Change the Input Orbit Axis to 1, 0, 0 to get the particles in orbit using the only X axis, and select the Set Orbit Altitude option.
