Old Particles

ICE Particles

Particle cloud

Point Cloud—see ICE Particles Are Points.

Particle operator

Simulate Particles node—see Creating ICE Particle Emissions.

Particle emission

Emit compounds. You can emit particles automatically when you choose ICE > Create > Emit Particles from Selection on the Simulate toolbar.

See Creating ICE Particle Emissions.

Particle type (ptype)

Not applicable. Points are included in a point cloud and you define their properties mostly with the Emit compound.

Particle shaders

There are special particle volume, density, fractal, and gradient shaders, as well as several particle shader compounds in the render tree. You can also use any type of shader on particles since they are seen as standard geometry to the mental ray renderer.

See ICE Particle Shading.

Max Life/Age limit

Set Particle Age Limit compound. If you don’t define an age limit (amd delete the particles at their age limit), particles live forever—see ICE Particle Lifespan

Forces

You can use the forces from the Get > Force menu on the Simulate toolbar, then bring it into the ICE tree and plug it the Add Forces compound. There are also many ICE forces that you can use in the ICE tree—they don’t create a control object in the scene.

See ICE Forces.

Collisions

Two different ways:

• Use the Simulate Rigid Bodies node to make particles into PhysX rigid bodies (like regular non-ICE rigid bodies). This allows for interparticle collisions, and collisions with other obstacles. See ICE Rigid Bodies.

or

• Use the different Surface Interaction compounds, such as Bounce Off Surface, Slide on Surface, and Stick to Surface to have the particles interact with other objects, but not as rigid bodies. See Motion Control and Surface Interaction Behavior for ICE Particles.

Goals

Goal compounds—see ICE Particle Goals.

Particle events

State compounds: Actions (state effects) like bounce, slide, stick, etc. happen when a Trigger (like every nth frame, particle age, collision, etc.) reaches its value. Plug State nodes into the State Machine compound, then define each State as you like.

See ICE Particle States.

Particle trails

Two types of trails: Spawning compounds emit new points, while Strand compounds leave trails behind the particle.

See Spawning ICE Particles and ICE Particle Strands.

Instances

Geometry Instancing compounds—see ICE Particle Instances (Objects as Particle Shapes).

Noise

Various Turbulize compounds—see Turbulizing Particle Values.

Random values

Various Randomize compounds—see Randomizing Particle Values.

Particle Orientation

Various Orientation compounds—see ICE Particle Orientation.

Static clouds

Create unsimulated point clouds.

See Working with Unsimulated Point Clouds.

Deforming particle systems

You can do it best with unsimulated point clouds, but you can deform simulated particles too by using the Post Simulation region of the construction history.

See Working with Unsimulated Point Clouds.

Explosions

Use the Spray from Controller and Emit Blast compounds for the right movement.

See ICE Particle Orientation and Creating ICE Particle Emissions.

Fluids

Use the Blob compound to blend particle blobs together—see ICE Particle Blobs.

Simulation time and playback

You can play back the particles as usual using the playback controls in the timeline.

Use the Simulation Time Control property editor to control how the particles are played, the same as is used for non-ICE rigid bodies.

See Playing an ICE Simulation.

Initial states

Choose ICE > Edit > Set Initial State on the Simulate toolbar.

See Creating an Initial State for ICE Simulations.

Caching/ptp files

No more .ptp files! Use the Tools > Plot > Write Cache and Load Cache File commands in Animate toolbar. You can then use the resulting cache file in animation mixer.

You can also use the Cache on File node to read and write cache files in the ICE tree.

You can also use the Simulation Time Control to cache files, the same way as rigid body caching, and use them in the mixer.

See ICE Caching.

Importing/exporting particle systems

Save all particle system elements (emitter, point cloud, forces, obstacles, etc.) in a model and then import or export it.

You can also save a particle effect (the point cloud’s ICE tree) within a compound and then export that to be used on any other particle system.