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Scattering Objects along a Spline

6 REPLIES 6
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Message 1 of 7
Badsmile
4282 Views, 6 Replies

Scattering Objects along a Spline

Hi everbody,

i know topics like this have been here before and i spend googleing it for hours, but none of the answers really solved my problem:

I want a sphere being scattered on every Vertex along a spline. I also wanna be able to change the shape of the spline later, and the spheres should move with it. I tried to solve it through PFlow, Superspray+Path-Follow and the scatter-modifier, but none of those wants to work with splines or lets me position the spheres on the vertices

thanks for suggestions

Criss

6 REPLIES 6
Message 2 of 7
krueger_1
in reply to: Badsmile

It might be possible using another way, but you can do it with pflow:

1. On your spline under the Rendering rollout, enable in viewport and set it to rectangular.
2. Add an edit poly modifier to your spline and select one vertex of the poly where there is a vertex in your spline. Make sure the vertices of your spline are set to corner, or your interpolation step size is 0. Otherwise you'll get changing topology in the edit poly modifier and it'll mess up the selection.
3. Create a pflow that goes like this:
-Birth
-Position Object
-Shape (or shape instance if you want a custom object)
-Display (change to geometry if you want to)
4. Set birth start and stop to 0 and the amount to however vertices you have selected on your spline.
5. By default pflow only shows 50% of the particles in the viewport, so to see all of them click on the pf source header and change the viewport amount to 100%.
6. Change the shape to sphere, or add in your instance object
7. In the position object:
-check Lock on Emitter
-add your spline to the list
-check Animated Shape
-change the Location to Selected Vertices
-and you might have multiple particles birthing on the same vertex, so check Separation and increase the distance

Now your objects should lock on those vertices as they move.
3ds Max 2009 SP1, 2010 SP1
Maya 2012
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Dual Intel Xeon E5520, 6 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 OC
Message 3 of 7
krueger_1
in reply to: Badsmile

Or if you just need spheres, use the lattice modifier on your spline and increase the joint segments to make them round.
3ds Max 2009 SP1, 2010 SP1
Maya 2012
Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
Dual Intel Xeon E5520, 6 GB Ram
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 OC
Message 4 of 7
blakestone
in reply to: Badsmile

maxscript just for you... and for me, can use this for lots of things we have to do at work 😛
please do not laugh too hard at my noob code!

objectplacer_v10.zip

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Technical 3D Graphic Artist
Autodesk 3dsMax 2015 - Service Pack 4
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Message 5 of 7
blakestone
in reply to: Badsmile

In addition to your question about having them follow when the spline is adjusted... simply add a skin modifier to the SPLINE and then add all the OBJECTS which are sitting at the the SPLINE KNOTS and then you can move the OBJECTS and the SPLINE will move with it like in my screenshot.

I have attached the 3dsMax file (requires Autodesk 3dsMax 2010 or higher)

testscene_3.zip

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Technical 3D Graphic Artist
Autodesk 3dsMax 2015 - Service Pack 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message 6 of 7
Badsmile
in reply to: Badsmile

thank u very much everybody for your great replies. i will try em all out. especially your cool object-placer script. thx 4 the scene too!
Message 7 of 7
Hwagner
in reply to: Badsmile

you can also create a spline. then add a spline IK modifier, create the helpers, create the geometry you want to be placed along the line, make a bunch of instances of it, align them to the spline IK helpers, link the objects to the spline IK helpers. now when ever you manipulate the spline by moving the Spline IK helpers, then the objects will move with them as well.

this works for a fixed number of verts and objects,

if you want to dinamically add verts and objects and have it flex the quanitity of each, then i have not figured out a way to do it yet.

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