The "particleDisplacement()"-Script

  1. Step 1: Starting the script
  2. Step 2: Particle System
  3. Step 3: Some hints

Step 1: Starting the script


To start the script, type the following string "source tornadoMaker.mel; tornadoMaker;" in your commandline. If you wanna make a button, just drag it on one of your shelves...

Afterwards you get an dialog that asks you for the X-resolution. Just enter 100 and the same in the next dialog. This means, that the scripts creates 100 x 100 particle in an grid. If you enter higher resolution creation can take a while...

The next dailog asks you if you wanna create "Ramp-Nodes". For the first test, just say yes. You can control the displacement effect with Ramps or Image Files. The last dialog asks you if you wanna have an file node in your RGB channel. This is quit usefull to get an color feedback when using image files. If you use custome expression to controll the rgbPP attribute, than just say now.

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Step 2: Particle System

The next set is customizing the effect. When using ramps, than you automatically get an pyramid style effect. To change that, open the attribute editor and right click on the displacementY channel. Use "Edit Ramp". Afterwards you should see something like the upper screenshot. Try changing the ramp type, different values (greater 1! to get an bigger effect) and so on.

Another usefull thing is animating all ramps. Try using the all of the attribute that the ramp has. For example it's no problem to stay in an 0 to 1 range and afterwards transform it into an bigger range...

Step 3: Some hints

Something I haven't mentioned by now is the pssiblity to use file nodes. Using for example animated height maps can produce interesting effects. The range goes from fast terrain animation to fur styled surfaces... just use the no button and every displacement channel gets an file node. You can access the file node the same way you access ramps. Just right click on the channel and choose edit ramp...
One thing you should have in mind is the high amount of data this script can produce...