Loop

A Loop object can be used to create ping-pong style animation effects.

They can also be used to loop actions on particle neighbors.

Loop Type

There are two options: Time Cycle and For Each.

Each Loop option has its own settings, which are explained within their own sections below.

Time Cycle type

This option loops the animation of particle data over time.

As the loop starts, the particle’s data is stored.

On each loop, the chosen particle data type is restored back to its start value.

This creates a ping-pong animation effect.

There is no Loop object active in this simulation. The particles are born and fire away from the emitter. They scale up over time due to the Add to Radius action.

The same scene, but this time with a Time Cycle loop active. The Position and Radius of the particles is set to loop from frame 0 (zero) to frame 60 and the loop Count is set to 3. The result is the particle animation loops 3 times before it continues as normal.

Start Time

The scene-time at which the loop should begin.

Duration

How long the loop should last.

Count

How many loops will occur

Time From

The time used to start/cycle the loop of the Particle or Document.

Particle enables the looping to be per particle.

Position

Activate the looping of particle position

Velocity

Activate the looping of particle velocity

Radius

Activate the looping of particle radius

Color

Activate the looping of particle color

Mass

Activate the looping of particle mass

Rotation

Activate the looping of particle rotation

For Each type

Loops any child actions over all neighbors of a particle, within a specified distance.

All particles have their color set to green by the first Set Color action. However, next comes a looping action. This causes every particle to search within a radius of 1.5cm. Any neighbors within this distance will be set to pink. Therefore, when the particles are more tightly clumped together at the beginning of their lives, they are pink. As they spread out, they no longer have any neighbors within the set distance and they are set to green.

Name

You can choose to name the Loop object.

This enables the name to be used in a Script or a Math Variable for decisions within the loop.

For Each

Currently, the only option is Neighbor.

As explained above*,* this loops over all particle neighbors within the distance specified below.

Within Distance

The distance within which neighbor particles must be to be included in the loop.