making a flare with pflow - how can I set an omni light as a particle?

[Morne]

Hi all

I need to make a flare and I have the whole thing done except for the massive glow. I was thinking of using an omni light and then in max post effects just add lens star effect to the light. This is al good and well but I cant figure out how to make the omni light follow my particle.

Please some advice!

Regards,
Morne

[instinct]

http://scriptspot.com/bobo/mxs5/pflo...ingObjects.htm

Regards,
Thorsten

[Morne]

I changed the script to be like this:

-----------------------------------------------
on ChannelsUsed pCont do

(

pCont.useTM = true


)



on Init pCont do

(

global My_Flare01 = $OmniFlare01

My_Flare01.pos = [0,0,-100000]

)



on Proceed pCont do

(

partcount = pCont.NumParticles()

count = amin #(partcount,My_Flare01.count)

for i in 1 to count do

(

pCont.particleIndex = i

My_Flare01[i].transform = pCont.ParticleTM


)

)



on Release pCont do ( )
---------------------------------------------

My onmi in my scene is called OmniFlare01
I have various particle systems in my scene. How do I know which particle system it will use?

I save the script as "myscript.ms" but then when I run it it says "--Type error: Call needs function or class, got true"

HELP Please anybody!

[instinct]

Hi there,

take a closer look at Bobo's tut. The script is supposed to be in a PFlow script operator (and hence it will of course use this event only)

I was automatically assuming you were using PFlow. If not things might get quite some more complicated.

Regards,
Thorsten

[Morne]

I noticed that I was not suppose to make a seperate ms file but rather just add a "script operator" into my pflow event. I've done that and I sort of got it working with the above script except that the light seems to be lagging behind the particle by 1 frame

Any hints?

[instinct]

are you sure it is not only displayed wrong ? (PFLow Sources sample less for viewports plus show different particle counts)

Regards,
Thorsten

[Morne]

Yes I'm 100% sure. Both in my render and my vieport I can clearly see that the light is behind by 1 frame. Anybody have a clue? I really don't want to manually position the light over 1200 frames.

[jacksc02]

you can cheat and move the pivot of the light to be behind the omni slightly that should compensate for the 1 frame offset

[Morne]

you can cheat and move the pivot of the light to be behind the omni slightly that should compensate for the 1 frame offset

thanks for the tip, but the problem is the movement is not linear. The flare shoots out sideways from aircraft, then falls to the ground in an arc.

[jrandom]

Just FYI The line:

global My_Flare01 = $OmniFlare01

Should read:

global My_Flare01 = $OmniFlare01*

So it will select ALL objects of the given name

Or could be better written if you are using more than 1 light/object:

global My_Flare01 = $OmniFlare*

To select any and use any object with the name of "OmniFlare" as written it will only look for objects with the name of "OmniFlare01"

As for the 1 frame lag between you particle and your light create your particle at frame -1 and end on frame -1.

Best regards
John