Hi all.
I have been playing with particle instancing to generate feathers and have found it difficult to align the feathers to the normal of the fighure that contains the particle system.
Any thoughts?
~Glenn
I assume you did the basics like apply scale/rotation to the objects involved? Also when clicking advanced in the hair particle panel you get a new panel called rotation that you can select normals from. This is old, but may help- it’s in 2.49 and 50min so watch at your own risk! http://vimeo.com/3841078 seems around 8:20 he gets to something that may be useful.
If I have the hair falling dynamically with ribbons instanced along each, chanhing the rotation to normal or anything else does nothing that I can see.
And I LOVE your artwork Jay! 
Any thoughts?
~Glenn