Scripting help - particle flow

[Neilg]

Ive used particle flow to build objects up in the past, by breaking them into different pieces and assigning a particle to each one, then breaking them apart/reversing the rendered clip with the usual pflow thing.

I dont know how to get fine control over my particles though - I usually just end up pushing them around/spinning them off and playing the whole thing backwards to get the desired effect. I know it can be done properly, when played forwards, but I dont know how...

Does anyone know of a good resource to learn this kind of scripting? From my efforts so far i'm having serious difficulty finding a good resourse for it which goes into specifics instead of general programming excersizes.
I want to be doing things like pushing them out from the normals of the original mesh, general control over the motion by use of a correctly alligned gizmo based on the original mesh.

I assumed this would just be done with a script operator after i've set everything up, but I cant find any resource telling me what I can actually put in there. Ive gathered a list of general commands but theres still something missing.


I'd love to learn general maxscript properly sometime too, so as a second question, are there any good bibles/resources available?

[instinct]

Bobo's Page is always good to look at. Regarding PFlow Scripting there's a HUGE PFlow thread on cgtalk that has a LOT of info and is the best place to ask about that kinda stuff as all the major players like Allan Mckay Bobo and alike are checking there from time to time.

A link to bobo's page
http://www.scriptspot.com/bobo/mxs5/pflow/

And you might want to take a look at orbaz Particle Flow Tools. There's one that allows "visual" programming of custom operators in a nodebased fashion:


http://orbaz.com/



Regards,
Thorsten

[Neilg]

Bobo's scripts are the ones ive been gutting out trying to learn from, I think pretty much everything ive learnt so far has came from him

I'd love to use the box tools - they look incredible and seem to do exactly what I want straight out - but with me being the only one that would use it every once in a while, I cant swing a purchase round.

I'll have a dig on cgtalk though, cheers.

[instinct]

Here's the thread i meant. Beware...it's nearly 300 pages lol

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthre...f=206&t=114324

But it's also a good place to ask for help. You might find some nice ppl there to even do a test scene for you...i had that happen already

Regards,
Thorsten

[Neilg]

haha, looks like Ive got 4 years worth of reading to do...

[instinct]

it's a good read tho :P