Date:         Thu, 29 Jan 1998 15:52:45 -0400
From: Scott Sutherland <ssutherl@GAMMAMETRICS.COM>
Subject:      [IML] AMIGA:  Particle Object Attributes.

I am posting this here instead of direct email because it may be of
general interest:


Lars Fresk <1-fresk@ALGONET.SE> wrote:

>I picked a subgroup on an object to particalize.
>I'm using the particles command in the Detail Editor.
>In the Type option I clicked the filename, assigning an
>another object to each face of my selected subgroup.
>
>When I do a render, the attributes of the object assigned to the
>faces of the subgroup, doesn't show. I only get the color
>from the object I started with.
>Is there a way to do this, NOT getting the orginal
>object attributes to show ?

This is the way Imagine does things.  As you found out, the particle
objects take on the attributes of the parent object.

A work around that may help:

You can assign attributes to a subgroup.  Let's say that you have a
black cat and you want to emulate it being shot by a bullet and having
red droplets of blood appear at the wound (okay, so it is a SICK
example, but bear with me).  Make the region of the cat object where
the bullet will impact a subgroup.  Make either 2 objects or 2 states.
In one version, the subgroup has the attributes of the cat (black).
In the other, the subgroup is red and glossy (for wet blood drops).
Now, during the animation, you animate a bullet moving in space.  When
it intersects the cat, simply do a 1 frame morph (e.g. quick exchange)
of the second state for the first and make the subgroup as particles
with, say, spheres.  Now your spheres will be red and shiny.  You could
do this with any textures for the subgroup.  Just make sure that you
scale your textures to be compatible with the subgroup object size.

I did something like this (scaling the texture) to make a swarm of
bees with stripes.  I used the wood texture with NO noise and scaled
the size down so that it created ~ 4 stripes on each of my bee objects.
It was somewhat trial and error.  Also, all of the bees looked the same.

Hey, this method is not perfect, but it may get you the desired result.



OPTION 2: (suggested to me for another project):

Use the shredder effect.  Make the cat one subgroup and the "wound" several
smaller
subgroups.  You get different kinds of control with shredder than with
particles.


>Maybe it's me, who missed something along the way,
>but it would be nice if it could be done.
>
>BTW I'm using IFA 4.0
>
>Bye for now.
>Lars


Hope this helps.

Scott Sutherland