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Particle Types group
These options specify one of four categories of particle type. Depending on
which option you choose, different controls become available in the lower
portion of the Particle Type rollout.
Standard Particles Uses one of several standard particle types, such as triangle,
cube, tetra, and so on.
MetaParticles Uses Metaball particles. These are particle systems in which the
individual particles blend together in blobs or streams.
Object Fragments Creates particles out of fragments of an object.
Object Fragments is available only with Particle Array. Choose it when you
want to fracture the particle emitter object and use the pieces as particles. This
option is useful for animating explosions and shattering collisions.
The fragments are created at the Emit Start frame. The Use Rate, Use Total,
Emit Stop, and Particle Size parameters are unavailable.
Instanced Geometry Generates particles that are instances of either an object,
a linked hierarchy of objects, or a group. The object is selected in the Instancing
Parameters group on the Particle Type rollout.
Choose Instanced Geometry when you want particles to be identical instances
of another object in your scene. Instanced geometry particles are extremely
effective for creating crowds, flocks, or flows of very detailed objects. Here are
a few examples:
■ Instance a red blood cell and use Super Spray to animate blood flowing in
an artery.
■ Instance a bird and use Particle Cloud to animate a flock of birds flying.
■ Instance a rock and use Particle Cloud to animate an asteroid field.
NOTE Only one type of particle can be used for the particle system. However,
you can have more than one particle array bound to a single object, and each
particle array can emit a different type of particle.
TIP Image motion blur, described in Object Properties on page 305 > Motion
Blur group, is known not to work properly with instanced particles. Use object
motion blur with instanced particles, or use image motion blur with standard
particles.
3056 | Chapter 14 Space Warps and Particle Systems