Non-Event-Driven Particle Systems

Autodesk 3ds Max Tutorials > Special Effects > Particle Animation Tutorials >

Particle systems are a useful tool for animating large amounts of objects procedurally. They can mimic natural effects such as rain, smoke, and snow, as well as less natural effects such as laser blasts. The non-event-driven particle systems covered in these tutorials are particularly useful for applications in which the particles' properties don't change fundamentally over the course of the animation. They also serve as a simple introduction to procedural animation.

Procedural animation is different than ordinary keyframe animation. In keyframe animation, an object is moved from keyframe to keyframe. In procedural animation, the animation of objects is controlled by a set of parameters. These parameters can be keyframed over time, but for the most part, you don't animate individual objects or particles in the system.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

Create particle systems.
Use space warps.
Create materials to make smoke.
Emit particles from geometry.
Use Noise controllers.
Use motion blur to create the illusion of water.
Use PArray and PCloud systems.
Use parameter wiring.
Add fog and volume lighting.

Skill level: Intermediate

Time to complete: 2+ hours

Tutorial Files

All the files necessary for this tutorial are provided on the program disc in the \tutorials\simple_particle_effects directory. Before starting the tutorials, copy the \tutorials folder from the disc to your local program installation.

NoteFor each tutorial, in addition to the standard tutorial files, we provide a sample scene file with " _completed" in its name. This shows the tutorial file with all changes made. The completed scenes were used to render the sample AVI animations.

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