ParticleFlow UVW Mapping

[jonnybefree]

Hi there.
does anybody know a good way to simply planar map dozens of particles?
i want to create a face out of dozens particles, but he want map it like i do....

this is what i reached yet.



there are allready 20.000 particles, but the face is still not realy visible.
the problem is that the particles have be offsettet in z-axys. so you can fly through a "fog" inside the face.

for the moment i've emitted from a b/w image and gave them mapping object.

anybody knows a way?

[joconnell]

Hmm - you might need to use the black and white values of the particles to drive the size or even have the particles use the gray values of the face to give you some more definition. Do you mean that you just can't see the face clearly enough?

[jonnybefree]

ja the face is not clear enough. if the particles stood on same axis its working fine, but when moving along a axis and looking on it from the front its getting ambiguous.
i've set the cam lens to 150mm wich is working better, but even not clear enough. with max standard particles its working better btw..

[joconnell]

I wonder if you did something like used a falloff material in the diffuse of the particles set to towards away and distance so you could get some more control over the look of the particles at different depths - you might be able to play with some sort of shading to make the contours easier to see?

[simmsimaging]

I've been working on some stuff very similar to this lately. For your mapping - do you have it doing a point sample by any chance? That may account for the vague image. In the mapping object operator, I set it to type: "once on event entry", and made sure "uniform particle color per particle" was off.

You probably already have it set that way, but worth a shot.
b

[jonnybefree]

I wonder if you did something like used a falloff material in the diffuse of the particles set to towards away and distance so you could get some more control over the look of the particles at different depths - you might be able to play with some sort of shading to make the contours easier to see?

ja good idea, but i wonder if its not possible to simply assing a planar uvw map aligned to camera. i've try'd it with a standard particle system, tooked a snapshot and assigned a uvw. worked pretty nice! so isn't there a way to give a pf system a certain uvw map at a certain time?

@Brett: thanks for your tip. ja its allready that way, but what do you mean with point sample?

[simmsimaging]

The uniform color per particle is what I meant, that gives you a single sample to color a whole particle.

For the uv mapping: did you try using a camera map modifier on the mapping object? That will give you more or less a planar mapping aligned to camera wouldn't it?

[jonnybefree]

hi brett, ja i try'd it but didn't helped. i'am thinking of taking a snapshot of the pf system now, and map it. not the smartest way, but maybe enough.
thanks again for your help!!!