2009

page 5889 or the Particle MBlur map on page 5891. Alternatively, you can use
different sub-materials from a compound material such as Multi/Sub-Object.
NOTE When using Object Motion Blur, if an event contains a Material Dynamic
operator that uses a material with a Particle Age/MBlur/Bitmap map, the event
should not also contain a Delete operator, or a Spawn or Collision Spawn test.
Also, the event should not contain any tests that are wired to another event. The
only exception to this is the Age Test operator when set to Absolute Time without
any variation; that is, all particles leave the event at the same time. This applies to
the use of Object Motion Blur only; there are no restrictions with Image Motion
Blur.
See also:
■
Materials and Mapping in Particle View on page 2918
■ Material Static Operator on page 2920
■ Material Frequency Operator on page 2923
Procedures
Example: To assign animation frames to particles based on age:
1 Prepare a file to be used as the animated bitmap. This can be a
multiple-frame format such as AVI, or an image file list (IFL file) that
points to a sequence of still images. With the latter, you can use images
in a format such as Targa that contain predefined alpha channels to
specify particle opacity selectively.
2
Open the Material Editor, and assign a Bitmap map as the Diffuse
map.
3 Use the Select Bitmap Image File dialog to assign the file from step 1 as
the bitmap. This dialog appears automatically when you first assign a
Bitmap map; alternatively, click the Bitmap button on the map's Bitmap
Parameters rollout.
4 On the map's Time rollout, turn on Sync Frames To Particle Age.
5 If you want to use the image background or alpha channel to define
transparency, on the Maps rollout, copy this map to the Opacity slot,
and set the parameters accordingly.
2926 | Chapter 14 Space Warps and Particle Systems