relax / avoid particles

Is there a way to make particles "avoid" eachother? i'm trying to spawn like 50 company logo's, make them wiggle a bit with some turbulence, without them overlapping. In houdini there is an option called "point relax", which does that exact thing. I understand i'm working with bitmaps, with transparency, so that would be a bit harder to detect for any kind of software i guess..

If I remember right, pFlock can cause particles to repel one another

ah, looks like that's doing something, little hard to find the settings that work for me, but thanks!

Another option is to use a pCustom instead of a pTurbulence. You can then use an animated FastNoise as an image input to offset the x & y positions. Advantage is that you can then ensure it will never overlap (by restricting the offset). I'm not behind my Fusion computer right now, but can put a quick example together later if you want.

You always say pCustom!

I was thinking the exact same thing.

I think it's time to admit I've got a problem!

An example of that would be sweet. Does a turbulence field work in X,Y,Z? Would you use the same image for Z or plug in a second noise?

I think it's time to admit I've got a problem!

As long as you solve other people's problems with your problem I don't think it's a problem.

I think it's time to admit I've got a problem!

As long as you solve other people's problems with your problem I don't think it's a problem.

hmm, interesting. gonna give that pcustom method a try soon. for now (a bit of time pressure) i decided to approach it the old fashion way in 2d, i copy-pasted dve's with a shake modifier on rotation, position, etc, to all the logo files. A bit of a different style but it did the trick

I think it's time to admit I've got a problem!

This is the point where I should probably confess that I'm considering writing a Vertex Animation Textures macro built on CustomVertex3D.

Quick example....just working on x and y (but z could be added too):

Code: Select all

{
   Tools = ordered() {
      FastNoise2 = FastNoise {
         Inputs = {
            Width = Input { Value = 2560, },
            Height = Input { Value = 1440, },
            ["Gamut.SLogVersion"] = Input { Value = FuID { "SLog2" }, },
            Contrast = Input { Value = 3.16, },
            Brightness = Input { Value = -0.3, },
            XScale = Input { Value = 16.22, },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 134.667, 57.0606 } },
      },
      Text1 = TextPlus {
         Inputs = {
            Width = Input { Value = 256, },
            Height = Input { Value = 144, },
            ["Gamut.SLogVersion"] = Input { Value = FuID { "SLog2" }, },
            LayoutRotation = Input { Value = 1, },
            Red = Input { Value = 0.512, },
            Alpha = Input { Value = 1, },
            TransformRotation = Input { Value = 1, },
            Softness1 = Input { Value = 1, },
            StyledText = Input { Value = "PLACEHOLDER", },
            Font = Input { Value = "Open Sans", },
            Style = Input { Value = "Bold", },
            VerticalJustificationNew = Input { Value = 3, },
            HorizontalJustificationNew = Input { Value = 3, },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 270, 28.5758 } },
      },
      Background1 = Background {
         Inputs = {
            Width = Input { Value = 1920, },
            Height = Input { Value = 1080, },
            ["Gamut.SLogVersion"] = Input { Value = FuID { "SLog2" }, },
            TopLeftRed = Input { Value = 1, },
            TopLeftGreen = Input { Value = 1, },
            TopLeftBlue = Input { Value = 1, },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 134.667, 161.576 } },
      },
      pImageEmitter1 = pImageEmitter {
         ID = 1,
         Inputs = {
            XDensity = Input { Value = 0.005, },
            YDensity = Input { Value = 0.005, },
            AlphaThreshold = Input { Value = 0.173, },
            Lifespan = Input { Value = 1000, },
            Input = Input {
               SourceOp = "Background1",
               Source = "Output",
            },
            Style = Input { Value = FuID { "ParticleStyleBitmap" }, },
            ["ParticleStyleBitmap.Animate"] = Input { Value = 2, },
            ["ParticleStyleBitmap.DropToolsHere"] = Input {
               SourceOp = "Text1",
               Source = "Output",
            },
            ["ParticleStyle.SizeControls"] = Input { Value = 1, },
            ["ParticleStyle.Size"] = Input { Value = 0.063, },
            ["ParticleStyle.SizeOverLife"] = Input {
               SourceOp = "pImageEmitter1SizeOverLife",
               Source = "Value",
            },
            ["ParticleStyle.BlurOverLife"] = Input {
               SourceOp = "pImageEmitter1BlurOverLife2D",
               Source = "Value",
            },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 270.667, 163.121 } },
      },
      pImageEmitter1SizeOverLife = LUTBezier {
         KeyColorSplines = {
            [0] = {
               [0] = { 0.5, RH = { 0.3, 0.5 }, Flags = { Linear = true } },
               [1] = { 0.5, LH = { 0.7, 0.5 }, Flags = { Linear = true } }
            }
         },
         SplineColor = { Red = 192, Green = 128, Blue = 64 },
         CtrlWZoom = false,
      },
      pImageEmitter1BlurOverLife2D = LUTBezier {
         KeyColorSplines = {
            [0] = {
               [0] = { 0.5, RH = { 0.3, 0.5 }, Flags = { Linear = true } },
               [1] = { 0.5, LH = { 0.7, 0.5 }, Flags = { Linear = true } }
            }
         },
         SplineColor = { Red = 192, Green = 128, Blue = 64 },
         CtrlWZoom = false,
      },
      pCustom1 = pCustom {
         ID = 4,
         CtrlWZoom = false,
         Inputs = {
            NumberIn1 = Input { Value = 0.08, },
            Intermediate1 = Input { Value = "getr1w(pxi1+0.5,pyi1+0.5)", },
            Intermediate2 = Input { Value = "getr1w(pxi1,pyi1)", },
            PositionXExpression = Input { Value = "if(age==0,px,mass+(i1*n1))", },
            PositionYExpression = Input { Value = "if(age==0,py,user+(i2*n1))", },
            RedExpression = Input { Value = "1", },
            GreenExpression = Input { Value = "1", },
            BlueExpression = Input { Value = "1", },
            AlphaExpression = Input { Value = "1", },
            MassExpression = Input { Value = "if(age==0,px,mass)", },
            UserExpression = Input { Value = "if(age==0,py,user)", },
            Input = Input {
               SourceOp = "pImageEmitter1",
               Source = "Output",
            },
            Image1 = Input {
               SourceOp = "FastNoise1",
               Source = "Output",
            },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 380.667, 163.121 } },
      },
      pRender1 = pRender {
         Inputs = {
            _MotionBlurWarning = Input { Disabled = true, },
            Width = Input { Value = 2560, },
            Height = Input { Value = 1440, },
            ["Gamut.SLogVersion"] = Input { Value = FuID { "SLog2" }, },
            ["MaterialID.MaterialID"] = Input { Value = 1, },
            ["ObjectID.ObjectID"] = Input { Value = 1, },
            Input = Input {
               SourceOp = "pCustom1",
               Source = "Output",
            },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 490.667, 163.121 } },
      },
      FastNoise1 = FastNoise {
         Inputs = {
            Width = Input { Value = 2560, },
            Height = Input { Value = 1440, },
            ["Gamut.SLogVersion"] = Input { Value = FuID { "SLog2" }, },
            Contrast = Input { Value = 0.59, },
            XScale = Input { Value = 11.34, },
            SeetheRate = Input { Value = 0.087, },
         },
         ViewInfo = OperatorInfo { Pos = { 487.333, 94.6364 } },
      }
   }
}

Few things happening in here:

- PimageEmitter creates the initial particle positions (like a grid)
- pCustom saves the initial position ("if(age==0, ") for x (in Mass) and y (in User).
- pCustom reads the Fastnoise in i1 and i2 (same image, just offsetting it to get a different value for x and y)
- Px and Py are at their base values at age=0 and then governed by Mass and User plus the offset (i1 and i2 respectively).

Hope it sorta makes sense!

I think it's time to admit I've got a problem!

This is the point where I should probably confess that I'm considering writing a Vertex Animation Textures macro built on CustomVertex3D.

Oh, that sounds very interesting!! Please do so!

hmm, interesting. gonna give that pcustom method a try soon. for now (a bit of time pressure) i decided to approach it the old fashion way in 2d, i copy-pasted dve's with a shake modifier on rotation, position, etc, to all the logo files. A bit of a different style but it did the trick

Hey..if it works it works! To be honest, I often resort to 2D as well if I can get away with it

An example of that would be sweet. Does a turbulence field work in X,Y,Z? Would you use the same image for Z or plug in a second noise?

the pTurbulence can indeed affect all 3 and you could mimic the same in the pCustom. You could get away with 1 FastNoise and just read the x,y and z at different offsets. Better would be indeed to use different FastNoises, one for each axis.