I’ve been using Blender for the past 6 months or so (moved over from Maya after 9 years!)
So far Blender has been amazing and I’ve run into no serious problems. But I think I’ve finally found some limitations in Blenders particles system.
Firstly, my immediate problem. I have a rigged fish that I’ve linked into a new scene. I would now like to pour water all over it using a particle system. I’ve done a bit of flopping animation and got my particles set up (seriously, using metaballs with particles is just the bomb!)
Now I want those particles to collide with my fish mesh. But I can’t select the mesh. Making a proxy of the armature works perfectly, but if I try and make a proxy out of the mesh it just creates a new fish mesh that isn’t attached to the armature. And there’s no way to select the rigged fish mesh to apply a rigid body to.
How would you recommend I proceed?
On a side note moving forward, I’m also interested to see if there’s been any development on Blenders particles system. I’ve read a lot of old posts outlining some of the limitations, but they’re old, and for all I know may have been solved by now.
Specifically, is there any way to turn a particle system on, off, then on again? For example, squirting a water pistol multiple times?
I’ve heard there’s some limitations in terms of having particles change over time. So fade out over time. Shrink or grow over time, like smoke should do. Has anyone solve these issues yet?
either:
Link the armature object and use ctrl+alt+p
Then link the fish object and press L and select Object
or:
Simple add a collision modifier to the fish mesh object in the blend file that actual holds the model and armature that you are linking/referencing.
Sorry, could you give me a complete step by step? I’m either not following your instructions correctly or it’s doesn’t work.
I’ve linked the rigged fish. I then Alt+Ctl+P and make a proxy of the Armature. That part works fine.
But if I then make a proxy of the fish mesh, the mesh proxy is no longer connected to the armature, and although I can apply the rigid body, I can no longer animate it.
Also just to double check, the ‘L’ command brings up the ‘Make Local’ options yes? I have a very different set of keyboard shortcuts.
I think the alternative of adding the rigid body to the original link file would work, but it’s extremely inefficient. I only want this one shot to have the fish collide with particles. This method would mean I’d be carrying around an unnecessary rigid body in every other shot.
Sounds like you’re using Ctrl+Alt+P on the linked fish object when I told you to press ‘L’ and select ‘Object’ to make the object local.
So the basic steps are:
[MENU] File > Link [BlendFile] Object > Armature (or what every you’ve named it)
With the armature selected hit Ctrl+Alt+P to make the armature a proxy
[MENU] File > Link [BlendFile] Object > Fish (or what every you’ve named your skinned mesh)
With the fish selected hit L and select ‘object’ to make only the object local.
In the modifier panel of the fish object you should still see the armature modifier and if you try and pose the armature the fish mesh will be deformed.
You’ll probably also want to re-parent the fish object to the armature with Ctrl+P > Object.
Yes, that worked perfectly. I had thought that bringing in the Fish mesh as a separate object to the armature would break the connections, but it connected fine. I didn’t even need to re-parent by Ctrl+P. It was still rigged.