Creating particles that flow along a curve

The animation is done by using the jptCurveInfo plugin to calculate the world position on the curve given a length along the curve, then writing a per particle expression to set the particle position and radius. The size of the particle along the curve is controlled by an anim curve.

By changing the expression slightly, it is possible to change the behavior so the particles are evenly distributed along the curve.

Get the Maya ASCII file to see how this is done.

To do your own scene:
Get and install jptCurveInfo.so
Create a NURBS path curve
Create a particle object with some particles
Add 'spacing' and 'offset' float attributes to the particle shape
Assign the expression in the above Maya file to the particle shape
Play with the 'spacing' and 'offset' attributes to get the look you want

The NURBS path curve

Particles flowing along the path curve

Particles placed evenly along the path curve

Send questions/comments to jliao@aw.sgi.com
Updated 8/11/98