9

Particle Age Map 1675
Regular, the Levels spinner is inac t ive (because
Regular is not a fractal function).
•
Fr actal —Generates noise using a fractal
algorithm. The Levels option sets the number
of iterations for the fractal noise.
•
Tu rbulence —Generates fract al noise with an
absolute value function applied to it to make
fault lines.
Regular, Fractal, Turbulence
Size—Sets the scale of the noise function, in
3ds Max units. Default=25.0.
Noise Thr eshold—When the noise value is above
the Low threshold and b elow t he High threshold,
the dynamic range is stretched to fi ll 0 to 1. This
creates a sma l ler discontinuity (technically, 1st
order instead of 0 order) at the threshold transition
andproduceslesspotentialaliasing (page 3–907).
•
High—Sets the hig h t hreshold. D efault=1.0.
•
Low—Sets the low threshold. Default=0.0.
Leve ls —Determines how much fractal energy
is used for t he Fractal and Turbulence noise
func tions. You can set the exact a mount of
turbulence you want, and a lso animate the number
of f r ac ta l levels. Default=3.0.
Phase—Controls the speed of the animation of the
noise function. Use this option to a nimate the
noise function. Default=0.0.
Swap—S witches the position of the two colors or
maps.
Co lor # 1 and Color # 2—Display the Color Selector
(page 1–161) soyoucanchooseoneortheotherof
the two principal noise colors. Intermediate color
values are generated from the two colors you select.
Maps—Select the bitmaps or procedural maps to
appearinoneortheothernoisecolor.
Turnonthecheckboxestomakethemapsactive.
Pa rti cle A ge M a p
Material Editor > Maps rollout > C lick a Map button. >
Material/M ap Browser > Particle Age
Particleagechangestheappearanceofparticlesovertime.
TheParticleAgemapisforusewithparticle
systems (page 3–990). Typically you assign t he
Particle Age map as a Diffuse map (page 2–1498),
or in Particle Flow with the Material Dynamic
operator (page 2–191). It alters the color (or
map) of a particle based on the particle’s life.
The par ticles in a system begin as one color.
At a specified age, they begin changing (by
interpolation) to a second color, and then they
change again to a third color before they die out.
Tip: This map works well with the Particle MBlur
map (page 2–1676). For example, you could assign
Particle Age as a diffuse map (page 2–1498) and
Particle MBlur as an Opacity m ap (page 2–1503).
AnotherwaytouseParticleAgeisinthemask
channel of a Blend (page 2–1588) material. In this
case, you could set up two of the colors to white,
and one to black, w h ich would make the par ticles
change materials over their age. In addition, you
could set up one of the two materials with an effects