Cinema 4D Thinking Particles Tutorials

[Chinaski 0]

I started a page for some TP tutorials.

 

The first two tutorials cover the basics - generators and groups.

 

I tried very hard to make sure I explained why you are doing each step, so it is not all "Do this. Do that. Do this. etc."

 

The generators tutorial covers PStorm, PBorn, PMatterWaves, and PFragment.

 

The groups tutorial covers the TP Settings window, Particle Groups, PPass, Pgroup, PDeflector, PWind, PSurfacePosition, and PAlignment.

 

These should be some really nice starting tutorials for people who have never worked with Thinking Particles. Hopefully, I'll get some more time soon, and add some advanced lessons.

 

Thinking Particles Tutorials

Edited January 2, 2008 by Chinaski

[a2visual 0]

Thanks, great stuff and looking forward to the more advanced stuff!

[Colin@movecraft 0]

cool stuff man. We owe you a collective beer.

[the_Monkey 8]

No, no, no Chinaski... you got it all wrong!

 

You're supposed to be kind and generous before Christmas and New Years, and then go back to being a dick the day after! Thanks for ruining it for everyone.

 

If you're taking requests... and it somehow aligns with your needs you should do a little diddy on sub-frame emission and control. I remember you and Tim discussing it here a while back but short of that thread there is little to no documentation about it.

 

-m

[TimC 0]

You need to either have the emitter moving or link it to something else moving. Then if you use PStorm as the generator in Xpresso you can link the object velocity to the emitter velocity.

 

Tim

[juicysauce 0]

"The aim of this tutorial is to explain not just what to do, but why you are doing it. The "why" is the critical part of learning this system."

 

And that's why I love what you've done so far, man. Great stuff. I'm stumbling through TP at the moment, and this is all very helpful.

[Chinaski 0]

No, no, no Chinaski... you got it all wrong!

 

You're supposed to be kind and generous before Christmas and New Years, and then go back to being a dick the day after! Thanks for ruining it for everyone.

 

If you're taking requests... and it somehow aligns with your needs you should do a little diddy on sub-frame emission and control. I remember you and Tim discussing it here a while back but short of that thread there is little to no documentation about it.

 

-m

 

Well, today is my birthday, so I'm in a good mood. I'll go back to being a dick tomorrow. Promise.

 

What Tim said about velocity is definitely a way around some problems, but it is not the same thing as subframe sampling. Shoot particles too fast at a deflector, and they will completely pass through them. (The particles are only sampled on whole frames, as far as I know) For that kind of thing you need true subframe sampling, which is currently not part of thinking particles for Cinema 4D. Cinema 4D, itself, does have subframe sampling, just not sure why it isn't implemented in TP... Maybe Srek can comment, or tell me I'm completely wrong, which would make me very happy.

 

There have been some workarounds mentioned before, such as slowing down your particle system and then speeding it up in post. The PChronometer node can be used for this, or you can change your scene's frame rate. For collisions, you can also use 2-sided deflectors and thicken the deflectors so they can hopefully catch particles that miss the first side.

Edited January 3, 2008 by Chinaski

[Srek 0]

Happy birthday Chinaski

Nice present you brought with you. Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

 

On the topic of subframe sampling, TP (like Xpresso) is only evaluated on a per frame basis. This does not have any impact on the collision detection though, a higher sampling wouldn't change the behaviour in by far the most cases. Thickening the colliders is most often the best way to succeed if you run into collision detection problems.

Apart from collisions you can compensate for by far the most effects caused by the sampling. In one case i modified an emitter that was fast moving in sweeping motions so the emitted particles took the rotating movement into account to be spread out evenly behind the emitter. It's a bit of work with vectors and matrices though.

 

Cheers

Björn

Edited January 3, 2008 by Srek

[the_Monkey 8]

The problem frequently run into is with emission.

In certain situations, I get dense numbers of particles that are emitted in equidistant "pancakes". I'm guessing this makes a lot of sense if XP in per frame.

 

Tim: I tried setting up a basic scene with linked object velocity/emitter velocity and it worked, but it wasn't very easy to control. Takes some tweaking, but better than pancakes. Thanks for the tip.

 

Chinaski: I have never used PChronometer... I've been waiting for a client to ask for a matrix effect and surprisingly it hasn't happened.

 

-m

[Neue Method® 0]

Excellent tut Chinaski!

[mcteapot 0]

Great rundown on Thinking Particles! :H

 

Is there any relation to TP in C4D and cebas TP...

[Chinaski 0]

Great rundown on Thinking Particles! :H

 

Is there any relation to TP in C4D and cebas TP...

 

TP in Cinema is licensed from Cebas. Not 100% the same as the Max versions, but very similar.

[brianfb 0]

agree with many here this is a great tutorial and awesome gift! thanks.

 

being new to TP it explains very well the 'why' .

 

i made it through the first one and got a lot out of it, started through the second part and got stuck on trying to 'wire' PGroup-Init to PSurfacePosition-Particle... it just wouldn't 'wire', kept giving me a gray line.

this part from the tut: http://www.adamswaab.com/tutorials/thinkin...es/groups17.gif

 

i'll back-track a bit and check my setup, anyone else who's tried it out run into this.. ? (C4D latest version on Mac)

 

cheers, brian

[Chinaski 0]

agree with many here this is a great tutorial and awesome gift! thanks.

 

being new to TP it explains very well the 'why' .

 

i made it through the first one and got a lot out of it, started through the second part and got stuck on trying to 'wire' PGroup-Init to PSurfacePosition-Particle... it just wouldn't 'wire', kept giving me a gray line.

this part from the tut: http://www.adamswaab.com/tutorials/thinkin...es/groups17.gif

 

i'll back-track a bit and check my setup, anyone else who's tried it out run into this.. ? (C4D latest version on Mac)

 

cheers, brian

 

PGroup-Init goes to Pborn, not PSurfacePosition. The Xpresso diagram lines intersect... makes it a little tough to see what's connected where. Hope that helps

Edited April 29, 2008 by Chinaski

[brianfb 0]

def helps, also some sleep on my part would probably help.

 

can't wait to dive back into your stuff later on.

 

ps.

do you know of other tutorials detailed like yours regarding TP?

 

cheers, brian

 

PGroup-Init goes to Pborn, not PSurfacePosition. The Xpresso diagram lines intersect... makes it a little tough to see what's connected where. Hope that helps

[Chinaski 0]

def helps, also some sleep on my part would probably help.

 

can't wait to dive back into your stuff later on.

 

ps.

do you know of other tutorials detailed like yours regarding TP?

 

cheers, brian

 

 

Not a lot of stuff out there that I've come across. You should take a look at bonkers.de, which has lots of useful setups and explanations. I think hypa.tv has some stuff up there, as well.

[Mark Spencer 0]

Great stuff, very well explained - I love that you spend the time to explain Why and not just How.

[Rob M 0]

Yeah thanks for this, really well explained..

Not sure I would be able to recreate any of that without your step by step guide though

[teyega 0]

thank you for the tuts :-) great entry!

Edited July 23, 2008 by teyega

[coldyn8w 0]

Without a doubt the best intro to Expresso/TP I have come across! more please!

[Guest dumbo]

has completed the generators tut. really good. TP are really powerful. wish i got into it earlier... just need to figure out how realflow TP's work now...

[tommieh- 0]

oh, nice thanks

[Chinaski 0]

I'm planning on adding another chapter in November. Any requests?

 

Right now I'm thinking about a couple examples of using Mograph + TP, for example, using Mograph to assign color inheritance to particles, and created spawned particles from mograph clones.

[triplej96 0]

Thank you for the tutorials. I would love to see a TP tutorial on emitting particles on collision!

[Srek 0]

Thats to simple for a tutorial

Use the TP Group Change preset to change particles from one group to another on collision with an object.

Then use the new group as "from group" in the spawning emitter preset. Olay with the spawning emitters settings to get the result you want.

Keep in mind that you will need three particle groups over all.

1. Particles initialy emitted

2. Particles after collision

3. Spawned particles

 

Cheers

Björn