Cineversity

So far the last one you sent seems to be the most efficient and possibly easiest one! I’m trying to break it down, I understand everything, but my mospline for some reason is not working. I will figure it out though .

I only have two questions for you. Over the weekend I found a way to make the pmatterwaves use a luminance material to show the particles. Then I have a plane above it that I would like an individual particle stick to each face. That plane would trace on to the edges of the newest particles built from the luminance. I will attach file.

So the questions I have are if I go this route, what kind of shape would be best on the particles to look like hair and the second question is there a way to attach on particle to another with a tracer line?

Hi Kotten_3,

I can’t really see a use of the PMatter Waves here to be honest. The surface motion is not recognized either! To connect Thinking Particles, you drag the Group from the TP Settings into the Tracer. They get connected in the sequence they were “born”. Which means you get for the “fabric pattern” mostly the perpendicular direction of the progress.

What you might have in mind that would be created is a “Delaunay"kind of pattern. A simple suggestion can be found here. The way to do those things should be via Python.
Another way would be to use the XPool> System Presets> General Presets> Memory List. With it one could go one line back and set new particles again there, to get a weave pattern.

Perhaps the “Hair Render Tag” might help here with the PMatter Waves. Click on the tag: Attribute Manager> Tag> Mode: [Select option]
See here for particle use
https://help.maxon.net/#THAIRRENDER-ID_TAGPROPERTIES
Which would require some kind of position change (e.g., velocity PPass>SetData)

All in all, Im wouldn’t go with the PMatter Wave here, You can use any mesh as inforamtion base and transfer it to Particles, or Splines. You can even use a TP-Generator [e.g., Storm] and place them on those spots to have a short trail, etc.

All the best

I understand. I am just trying ways to make this work while learning new TP information while I’m at it. Before I try the last sketch you mentioned. by building it up with the mospline. How would I go about…

“You can use any mesh as information base and transfer it to Particles, or Splines. You can even use a TP-Generator [e.g., Storm] and place them on those spots to have a short trail, etc.”

The Storm generator way. That is the way i wanted to try it from the beginning, but with my limited knowledge that’s growing of thinking particles how would i get this to connect to a surface or spline?

Well, go back to the first file that I have shared. Please go through all the files, and follow the information. Rebuild the scenes from memory. It is often that the idea of having understood a scene file that misleads us. To create all the files from memory will show you that you really “own” it, if you really got it. The Iteration is an huge and essential node to understand.
Screen shot
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/KEOcpl9y0aMHnYxNWmZ6EEWvtMGU77ZZeqFD9mCGTOR?_encoding=UTF8&mgh=1&ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

In the XPresso: The Spline and the Iteration gives you all you need to start. IF you have a question about this set up, let me know.

All the best

that makes sense! will do and much appreciated for all your help!

Please, Kotten_3, share any scene file and ask. I really want you to get the Iteration working for you, It is such a great option!

Enjoy!

Just an update… I am still working through this one, but learning all of the things you taught with thinking particles has really helped me push this idea… I will continue to push to. One question for you. is there a way to use each point of the spline where they all connect to make a knot of some sort? any ideas on that?

Hi Kotten_3,

I’m not certain I follow here: “is there a way to use each point of the spline where they all connect to make a knot of some sort? any ideas on that?”

Each point and all connect.

Let me try, any area where at least three or four parts are connect to each other. Is this close to your question?

Perhaps a “cascaded” Iteration that goes on level one and two through all splines [1] and their points [2], with level three and four through all others spline [3] and points [4] while checking if it is not the same point between [2] and [4]. Since there easily a very huge number of combinations, this might be an intensive calculation. Each time the distance is zero and not the same point, a particle is created.

So, the total amounts of points of all Splines times itself. That is the question here. It can be reduced by the formula Amount of calculations (A*A/2)-A [A stands for the amount of all points.]

If it is an exact pos = pos check, it might be fast, but if you have a certain “distance” in mind, that can be prohibitive. I think we went over this shortly before (?)
https://www.cineversity.com/forums/viewthread/2207/

The PPass AB sounds perhaps like this, but it compares only two particles and then the next pair.

However, sometimes it might be more clever to set things up and build up on the information already given, so one can determine where the knots are.

Perhaps I got it wrong. Please provide a simplified scene for your question then.

All the best

man as I read that I see how that was misleading. Sorry about that. What I was trying to do is take any spline point that intersects with another one and have a knot there to show how they connect. I was trying the cloner last night and must have been doing something wrong. This morning I took a voronoi fracture on a cube to make a spline for me. I then took a helix spline and put it in a cloner set to vertex and it is now working. Sorry about that. I will show scene to see if this is best way to approach this.

Hi Kotten_3,

This resembles how I understood your idea, but with the discussion before in mind. Based on that the Spline might have a lot of points more than when it just hits another spline, all splines so far discussed where Tracer based splines. With that one has way more points than in your example. The example has a multi segment spline as well, I “exploded” it to show its content:
Scene file
https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/JGERkjtzs25ezVUNHhtB7fLglVLpmyB9YSsavRcDszd?ref_=cd_ph_share_link_copy

Hence my suggestion to create the scene in a way that the future knots have a position before the fabric/mesh is created, i.e., the fabric creation is based on it.. So the information is available.

All the best