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■ Tetra These tetrahedron-shaped particles have a four triangular sides.

Having only four polygons, the tetra is the simplest of the rendering particle

shapes.

■ Cube These box-shaped particles have six square sides, all the same size.

■ Sphere Creates spherical particles. The sphere has the most polygons of

the rendering particle shapes, and its orientation isn't obvious.

Size Sets the overall size of the particles in system units. Default=10.0

Setting Size=0 makes the particles invisible.

Scale Turn on to set the size of the particles as a percentage of the Size value.

Use the numeric field to set the Scale percentage value. Default=100.

Scale is animatable, while Size is not. Also, turning on Scale creates the scale

data that any Scale operators further on in the flow can work with.

Shape Facing Operator

Particle View on page 2811 > Click Shape Facing in an event or add a Shape

Facing operator to the particle system and then select it.

The Shape Facing operator creates each particle as a rectangle that always faces

a particular object, camera, or direction. For effects like smoke, fire, water,

bubbles, or snowflakes, use Shape Facing with a material containing appropriate

opacity and diffuse maps.

By default, the particles' top and bottom sides are parallel to the horizontal

plane. The Orientation setting lets you change this default alignment.

NOTE For the Shape Facing operator to be able to calculate the particle orientation,

it must know the current particle position. For this reason, always place the Shape

Facing operator below a Position operator in an event.