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Working with Individual Particles

Particles are actually points associated with a particle cloud. As a result, you can tag (in Point mode), delete (as you do points), or create clusters of them. Tagging allows you to manipulate the particles as points, which is especially useful if you want to deform a particle cloud.

If you create particle clusters, you can constrain objects to them (see Attaching Objects to Particles) and you can use cluster-based deformations to modify them, such as envelopes or shape animation (see Deforming Particle Simulations). Or to animate them individually, constrain them to an animated object, such as a null.

Although particles are points, there are some issues about using them for modelling. This is because with a simulation, particles vary in time. Particles are assigned into clusters based on their index in the particle cloud. An index (not its ID) is usually only recycled when a particle dies and new particles are only appended at the end.

The best way to use clusters for modelling is to make an initial state of them (see Creating an Initial State for Particles). This way, the number of particles in the cloud is constant from their birth.

For example, you can set an initial state on your cloud, remove the particle emitter, and make the particles live forever so that they don’t disappear. For such clouds, clusters stay coherent throughout the simulation.

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