Adjusting Emitters

Before we go on for this section, please keep in mind that all the particles must be generated by emitters. Therefore, modifying the settings for the emitters, such as the direction or the volume etc., crucially effects particles.

Please scroll up to the top of the Modify tab. You will see the Effect tag.

Emitter

Attach to

  • The Attach to drop down list contains everything that can be taken as the linked target. Once you select an emitter, this list will be updated to the linked target accordingly.

  • Press the button and you will be prompted the Link to Sub-Node panel in which the node hierarchy of the linked target shows.

  • You may link your emitter RELATIVELY to any node by simply click to one of them.

Import
Emitter

  • Press the button to locate the emitter files. When the capacity of your custom folder is too small and you must move away your customized emitter files to another directory, this feature is quite useful to import them back.

 

If you totally understand how the emitter links to its parent, please read the following section for further adjustments to the emitter itself.

 

Emitter Setting

Emit On/Off

You may define when the emitter starts to emit and when to stop by clicking the On/Off buttons in the Emitter Setting section. Once you click any one of the two buttons, you set an Emit key on the timeline. Therefore, one emitter is able to send particles intermittently.

Quota
&
Emit Rate

  • Quota - This defines how many particles are provided when the project plays back. Once the amount of the particle alive hits the number of Quota, the emitter pauses to send off particles.

  • Emit Rate - This enforces the emitter to eject specified number of particles per second.

 

Emit Volume
&
Position

Please keep in mind first that there is an invisible cube container in which emitters distribute averagely.

  • Emit Volume - There are three parameters which modify the dimension of the container. Since the emitters spread averagely within this container, they can create an illusion that the volume of the particles is increased.

  • Position - These X-Y-Z parameters move the cube of emitters to a specific position in your project.

(100, 100, 100)

(0, 100, 100)

(100, 0, 100)

(100, 100, 0)

 

Direction

With the idea of longitude and latitude system, the emitter obtains the direction for sending off the particles. Please notice that the effect can be observed when the Velocity parameter increases.

  • Longitude - This value decides the degree of the angle on the floor. 0 degree sets the direction along the positive X-axis. The range is from -180 to 180 degrees.

  • Latitude - This value lifts up/push down the direction to the north/south pole. The range is from -90 to 90 degrees in which 90 degrees set the direction to up.

(0, 0)

(90, 0)

(-135, 0)

(0, 90)

(0, -45)

 

Spread
&

Diagonal

To understand these two parameters, you must think of a pyramid in your mind first. The top of the pyramid is the position for the emitter and it ejects particles straight to the bottom of the pyramid.

  • Spread - This value decides the angle of the two opposite sides (the red and green lines in the illustration as Diagonal equals to 0) of the pyramid. The range is from 0 to 180.

  • Diagonal - This value specifies the rotation angle of the diagonal line (the blue line in the illustration) of the pyramid bottom. The range is also from 0 to 180. Please notice that the area will be maximized when the Diagonal is set to 45 and 135 degrees.

Diagonal = 0 degree

Diagonal = 45 degrees

Diagonal = 90 degrees

 "Diagonal value changes from 0 to 90 degrees"

 

Velocity
&

Direction Randomness

  • Velocity - This value assigns the speed to each particle for moving. The range is from 0 to 99999.

 

  • Direction Randomness - Initially, each particle moves along a path of a fixed straight line. This attribute distorts this line so the particles move individually along different distorted lines. The range is from 0 to 359. Each particle slightly changes its direction randomly in accordance with the angle from x, y and z axis. It is useful when you want the particles to imitate the motion of the snow or falling leaves.

Direction Randomness = 0

Direction Randomness = 30

Moving, rotating emitters

Adjusting Particles

Back to Particle menu