Ultra newbie question - can Phoenix do particle vortex's ?

[JezUK]

I want to create a vortex whereby objects (say toy car models) are spinning around a vortex (or tornado etc).

I don't want the toy cars to be randomly rotated around the vortex but for their local pivots to be let's say perpendicular to their line of travel swirling in the vortex.

Is Phoenix the right tool for this or would it be cracking a nut with a sledgehammer ?

I looked at Particle Flow, but I couldn't see anywhere where I could control the direction of the particles along their path of travel.

Many thanks for any advice.

[joconnell]

Rotation op set to speed space follow! You'll have to use the rotation x y z values to set it's initial alignment.

[JezUK]

Thanks for that - I did play with that, but the x, y, z values seems to have a bit of a mind of their own Even when I tried using a simple plane as the particle object.

Also, is there a way of using different particles within single event - say I have a selection of toy cars (there are 5) - I can't seem to see a Birth Operator that'd allow for multiple items (I don't just want 5 cars around the vortex in fact I'm looking for thousands but there are 5 different cars).

Finally, how do I get them to avoid colliding into one another ?

Many thanks for any help you can provide (I've done Google searches but yet again Chaosgroup forums seem to be the best place to ask ).