Using the Particle Operation - Particle Paths

In this tutorial we will describe how to use the Particle operation to have particles follow an animation path.

This tutorial assumes familiarity with 3D Canvas and that the 3D Canvas Basics and Using the Particle Operation - Particle Emission tutorials has been completed.

bulletDrag and drop a cube onto the scene.

 

 
bullet Create an animated path for the cube as shown.

 
bulletWhile still in animation mode, select the cube and right-click the Particle operation. This will open the Particle operation's options window.

Click the Default button.

Enter a Style of Animation Path.

Enter a Generation Frequency of 1. This means that 1 particle should be generated per key frame. A default 3D Canvas scene has 10 key-frames per second, so that means 10 particles per second.

Enter a Generation Duration of 100, meaning that particles should be generated for a period of 100 key-frames.

Enter a Life Span of 100 to 100. This means that a particles generated will have a life span of 100 key-frames (minimum of 100, maximum of 100).

Enter values of -90/-90 in the Initial section's Scale X, Scale Y and Scale Z. This will scale the particle to 1/10th (-90%) of its original size as it is created.

Click OK.

 

 
bulletWhile still in animation mode, select the cube and click the Particle operation. Be sure that you are at animation key-frame 0 by clicking before applying the Particle operation.

The "Initial" amount is applied immediately to the source particle.

 

 
bulletClick the animation Play button to play the animation.

Particles are generated every 10th of a second and travel along the animation path.

 
bulletBe sure that you are at animation key-frame 0 by clicking . Select the particle and click the Operation Layer Panel's Update button.

Enter Translate X, Translate Y and Translate Z amounts of -.01 to .01.

Click OK.

 
bulletClick the animation Play button to play the animation.

The particles no longer simply follow the animation path, but also have their own velocities as well.
 
bulletSelect the particle and click the Operation Layer Panel's Update button.

Enter Ranges of 5 to 10 for the Color Red, Color Green and Color Blue velocities. This will scale the Red, Green and Blue colors of the particle. This will produce particles that change color over time, eventually being white.

Change the initial scale amounts to -99 to -99 so that we get smaller particles.

Click OK.

 
bulletOur completed effect.

The particles have their own velocity, but they also are affected by the animation path.