"better" line particle renderer?

Hello, I’m trying to get something like “curving” line particles in my project.

http://www.pasteall.org/blend/25649

I understand line particles are just that, “lines”, which can’t have curvature. I’m hoping there is some other way, maybe with a plugin, to do this.

This might be possible to accomplish with nodes, but the problem is I need to access the data as 3d geometry and export to another tool.

bumping this

Curving lines like…hairs?

Don’t bump without giving more information about what you’re trying to accomplish. If no one has answered you it’s because you haven’t told us enough for anyone to come up with an answer.

That, or there is no solution. Or nobody who has seen the thread knows the answer.

Curving lines like I drew in that image. Yeah, like hairs. Can I use hair particles like emitter type particles (animate them) though?

That’s funny.

I don’t think there is a visual effect in the universe that can’t be convincingly created with blender.

Listen to what K. horseman is saying: You are vague and ambiguous with your request. What is it you want to animate? The shape of the main curve, can be done with hooks. Maybe the “curves” are supposed to fly off, could be done with dupli objects emission. Maybe the “curves” themselves are supposed to wiggle like worms. Who knows?

Sure. Make it a Hair particle system. That’ll be just like hairs. That’s kind of the point.

Animate them how? You can animate hair. Just tick the box marked Dynamic. Do you want something other than animated hair? Show us what you want. Your couple of scribbled lines are not an animation. Don’t make us guess what’s in your head. Show us an example video of the effect you’re trying to replicate.

Can you have hair flying around like the line particles in the blend file I posted, in my first post here?

Animate them how?

Like the line particles I posted as a blend file in my very first post.

Do you want something other than animated hair? Show us what you want.

I have, first post, blend file link.

Without nodes (which I’ve explained I can’t use) and scripting? I doubt that, even though I hope this effect isn’t one of them.

What is it you want to animate?

Animate? Read further, I hope you’ll understand what I need now.

Your couple of scribbled lines are not an animation.

Of course its not. Look in the image, I’ll try to explain again:
You see the red circle in the image? The lines inside it are how line particle looks in Blender, the red curvy lines is what I want them to look like, when “making turns” like that.

Here’s another blend file explaining what I want: http://www.pasteall.org/blend/25676
Hit “Ctr+A” to see the animation.

Show us an example video of the effect you’re trying to replicate.

If I could find an example video, I wouldn’t waste my time creating a Blender project and uploading it. :confused:

Have you tried playing with the Line Trail parameters?

Attachments


I just tried that, but I didn’t find out how to make the tail point of the leading particle be in the same location as the head point of the trailing particle. How are you doing that, Atom?

Here is the Blend file. But basically when you increase trail count above 1 additional options become un-greyed so you can set the length and random. Set the Tail much shorter to give the new copies room.

Attachments

269_curves_particle_lines.blend (312 KB)


Thanks Atom.

I can’t seem to get the position of the tail of the leading particle be the same as the position of the head of the trailing particle. I guess this is because the line particle’s “pivot point” is their center, if you know what I mean. Any ideas how to change that?

I just got this idea:

If we could convert the movement of each particle to a curve, we could then iterate through them in Python and apply them as curve modifier to segmented lines. Then hide the original particle system and use that.

Is there any way already to get particle motion as curves?