Can I make particles settle on geometry using PF?

Hi there.

I want to generate a burst of particles which travel for a short time through 
free space in the same general direction, before coming to rest on a 
number of specific points to form a text.
I've just been trying unsuccessfully to achieve this effect in Particle Flow, 
but I'm finding it completely counter-intuitive.

- I have a mesh built where each vertex represents a point where a particle 
should land.
- I don't mind creating the animation in reverse, but right now I'm having 
great difficulty even getting 200 particles to sit properly on a mesh 
containing 200 vertices, using the Position Object operator. 
 
PF looks very powerful; I'm hoping I can make it do this without resorting to 
scripting - which is beyond my abilities.
If anyone can outline the basic process I need to use, or confirm that it 
CAN'T be done easily in PF, I'd be very grateful.
Many thanks in advance!

Ah.
I've just been told "forget it: PF is not up to this - try Digimation's 
Sandblaster plugin instead."

The problem with the position object is that it doesn't seem to put the 
verticies one after the other, so more than one particle could be on one vertex,

while none could be on the others.  So, the position object plus freebie 
by Orbaz is great for this; from there you should be able to reverse 
animate

http://www.orbaz.com/download/

"I've just been told "forget it: PF is not up to this - try
Digimation's 
Sandblaster plugin instead."

===========

I'd take that with a grain of salt. PF is *much* more versatile than 
Sandblaster. Take a look at www.orbaz.com for some more info if you
can't find relevant material in this forum. Or wait for the Area to open
on Monday, I suspect Oleg will be able to give you several ways to do
what you wish.

-jeff


-- 

use position object +
there are lots of my "text fx" examples on orbaz.com


On 8/16/2006 8:35:30 AM, Mark Platten* wrote:
>Hi there.
>
>I want to generate a burst of
>particles which travel for a
>short time through free space
>in the same general direction,
>before coming to rest on a
>number of specific points to
>form a text.
>I've just been trying
>unsuccessfully to achieve this
>effect in Particle Flow, but
>I'm finding it completely
>counter-intuitive.
>
>- I have a mesh built where
>each vertex represents a point
>where a particle should land.
>- I don't mind creating the
>animation in reverse, but
>right now I'm having great
>difficulty even getting 200
>particles to sit properly on a
>mesh containing 200 vertices,
>using the Position Object
>operator.
> 
>PF looks very powerful; I'm
>hoping I can make it do this
>without resorting to scripting
>- which is beyond my
>abilities.
>If anyone can outline the
>basic process I need to use,
>or confirm that it CAN'T be
>done easily in PF, I'd be very
>grateful.
>Many thanks in advance!