SnapShot Operator thinkingParticles 6 - How to create one particle mesh from thousands of particles
10SnapShot Operator Explained. Great tools that allows you, the FX artist, to merge thousands of particles into One particle - powerful feature that helps in creating amazing effects.
Reference from the cebas Living Manual:
The SnapShot operator is used to create a mesh snapshot out of a group of particles. Out of many particles (source) one particle is created that represents the mesh at that time along with all the masses added up. It is best to control the snap shot through the ON input.
Operator Inputs
ON - (Bool) This input data stream determines whether the operator is considered 'on' or 'off'. You can connect other operators to this input channel such as a Bool Helper to activate/deactivate the whole operator.
Time - (Time) This input data stream is used to define the local time for the operator when the user wants to override the default system time.
Particle A - Individual particles may also be input for Snapshot along with Particle B; a combination of particle pairs is possible.
Particle B- Individual particles may also be input for Snapshot along with Particle B; a combination of particle pairs is possible.
Operator Outputs
Born Particle - (Particle) This output data stream sends particle data for newly created particles to other operators. Every particle birth will activate all rules connected to this particle data stream. As a result , this can be used to directly assign a value to the particle.
Rollout Menu:
Source - select the source particle group that will be used to snap shot the mesh data from. Subgroups will be ignored.
Target - selects the target particle group where the one mesh particle lands.
Kill Source Particles - checked by default, this option removes by default the snap shot particles. To keep the original particles and mesh uncheck this option. Be careful! When this option is turned off many continuous snapshots can be created.
Used in procedural particle modelling - in this video, Edwin Braun shows you step-by-step how to create a particle 'object' mesh from frame 1 to 28 and then something is activated such as in Frame 28, we pull in SnapShot to automatically create a Soft Body i.e. from the thousands of already growth particles into one large particle. Then the artist only needs to manipulate and deal with one mesh in one particle (from frame 28 onward for this scene). And out of this object, we do a gravity-pull simulation on the now soft body. This way it becomes so much easier and less denser to manipulate complex multi objects effects!
For more information and to get your own thinkingParticles on instant download, see www.cebas.com/thinkingParticles. Remember to also check out cebas biasHybridTM finalRender. And join the facebook.com/groups/thinkingParticles for serious learners and users. Enquiries: info@cebas.com
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