nxFollowGeo
nxFollowGeo allows particles to follow the surface of scene objects.
Object Properties
Section titled “Object Properties”
nxFollowGeo, Object tab menu settings.
Animation to show nxFollowGeo, with an Offset of 1cm and a Friction of 1%.
Objects
Section titled “Objects”A list of objects dragged and dropped from the Objects Manager.
When an object is dropped in and pressed, a list of options will show below.
Set as Surface, by default, this dropdown menu allows a choice of movement between Surface and Edge.
Mode dropdown options.
Surface mode
Section titled “Surface mode”Connection settings
Section titled “Connection settings”Pull, Variation
Section titled “Pull, Variation”A force to pull the particle into the surface of the object from a distance to the offset.
nxFollowGeo, pull Variation set at 100%.
Push, Variation
Section titled “Push, Variation”A force to push the particle away from the surface of the object to the offset.
nxFollowGeo, Push set at 300%, with a Variation of 100%
Offset, Variation
Section titled “Offset, Variation”The offset from the surface which the particle aims to move towards.
nxFollowGeo, Offset set at 10cm, with 100cm of Variation.
Distance
Section titled “Distance”The distance that the particle will start to be impacted by the ‘pull’ force.
nxFollowGeo, Distance set to 100cm.
Friction
Section titled “Friction”A slowing down force, applied over the surface.
nxFollowGeo, Friction at 3%.
The particle view for finding a polygon.
nxFollowGeo, FOV 90°.
nxFollowGeo, FOV 360°.
Release tab: Surface mode
Section titled “Release tab: Surface mode”
Surface mode Release tab.
Particles following a surface can be released under a set of conditions, selected via the Release Mode dropdown.
Release Mode
Section titled “Release Mode”Set as None, by default.
The other options are: Texture, Selection, Falloff and Time.
Particles remain on the surface indefinitely.
Texture
Section titled “Texture”Particles are released when the surface texture at the particle’s position meets a set threshold.
Texture Source
Section titled “Texture Source”Choose either Shader or Texture Tag as the texture source.
Shader / Texture Tag
Section titled “Shader / Texture Tag”Link to the shader or texture tag to sample.
Channel
Section titled “Channel”The channel of the texture to evaluate.
Tolerance
Section titled “Tolerance”The threshold below which particles are released.
Selection
Section titled “Selection”Particles are released when their surface position enters a polygon, point, or edge selection, or crosses a vertex map threshold.
Selection Tag / Vertex Map
Section titled “Selection Tag / Vertex Map”Link to the selection tag or vertex map to use.
Falloff
Section titled “Falloff”Particles are released when they enter an nxFalloff zone.
Supports built-in shapes (Box, Linear, Sphere, Noise) and linked nxFalloff objects.
Add Falloff
Section titled “Add Falloff”Adds a falloff zone that triggers release.
Particles are released after a set time, with variation.
The duration after which particles are released.
Variation
Section titled “Variation”Adds a random variation to the release time per particle.
Time Mode
Section titled “Time Mode”Set as Particle, by default.
The alternative is Frame.
- Particle: time is measured from the particle’s birth
- Frame: time is measured in scene frames
Edge mode
Section titled “Edge mode”This setting makes the particle have a tighter/closer path to the edge.
Smoothing
Section titled “Smoothing”Uses an additional tangential vector for the edge force calculation.
In this animation of nxFollowGeo, there is a Friction value of 1%, with Edge and Smoothing both set at 100%.
In this image, the settings are identical to the animation, above.
Groups Affected tab
Section titled “Groups Affected tab”Groups
Section titled “Groups”To specify the group, drag and drop the desired Group object into this field.
This setting is useful if you want to ensure that the spawned particles are, or are not, affected by nxFollowGeo.
Mapping tab
Section titled “Mapping tab”The modifier’s settings can be mapped to particle data.
Use the dedicated manual page, below, for instructions on how this works.
Fields tab
Section titled “Fields tab”You can use the Fields options to control where nxFollowGeo operates.
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